Sheep, Goats are Economical Grazers, Browsers

During a time when Mother Nature wreaks havoc on the climate, it can be challenging to provide adequate forages to cattle. However, regardless of if you are in dry climate where resources are dwindling or if you are in an area of excess rain, sheep and goats often compliment the grazing system.

It is important to point out that these small ruminants will often eat different parts of the plants than cattle and are more efficient at converting their forages to gain. Sheep and goats vary from cattle in the types of forages they prefer. They will eat the shorter forbs or shrub-like plants before they eat the taller grasses. They typically will go for the most nutritious parts of the plants first, the leaves and anything that is soft before they eat the stems or even grass. It is best to have a variety of plant species and turn your sheep and goats out when those plants are in the vegetative stage instead of a more mature stage to receive optimum nutrients from the forages. It is essential to have forages that are high in digestible fiber and at high enough levels of crude protein to keep their rumens functioning properly.

Especially in a drought situation like many producers are currently facing, sheep and goats would make more economical sense to raise. They will still help with pasture management while providing protein and a source of income with a relatively good ROI, depending on your overall investment in the livestock and fencing materials.

Anytime you or your customers are grazing small ruminants like sheep or goats, don’t forget they still need mineral. During the drought, especially, the Amaferm® in the DuraFerm® line, will help stretch your feedstuffs to get the most nutritional value out of your forage. Amaferm is a research-proven precision prebiotic designed to enhance digestibility by amplifying the nutrient supply for maximum performance. It is designed to increase the energy available to the animal resulting in more milk production as well as the ability to initiate and maintain pregnancy and fertility.

During the summer heat, your sheep customers will want to use DuraFerm Sheep Concept•Aid® HEAT®, specifically designed with the HEAT package to help mitigate heat stress anytime temperatures reach hotter that 70 degrees. The combination of HEAT and Amaferm help maintain that core body temperature, keeping the sheep cooler and helping reduce heat stress, which in turn helps get ewes bred and keeps them bred if breeding in the summer and early fall.

Goats are referred to more as browsers than grazers, because although they do graze like sheep do with their heads down, they also like to climb up a structures and trees to get leaves and greens that are up high, too. If you or a customer has goats, be sure to provide them with a DuraFerm Goat Concept•Aid Protein Tub. This convenient tub offers 20% protein, especially important during a drought when protein might not be so readily available. The other ingredients in Concept•Aid are key to reproductive success of the herd.

Smaller animals take up less space. They also will eat some of the less popular forages that cattle will leave standing. Sheep and goats make economical sense from a grazing standpoint, especially during a drought. Contact your local extension personnel if you have questions about grazing sheep and goats or even comingling them with cattle. However you graze your pastures, don’t forget the Amaferm advantage in DuraFerm.

Letters From Lisa – August 2021

Diversification is a key component of a long-lived, healthy business. Diversification is the process of a business enlarging or varying its range of products or field of operation. Personally, I don’t think of diversification as a process, I think of it as a conscious decision to prosper. Diversification is a proactive growth strategy. Adding new products and services to your business can gain you entry to an attractive new industry full of new customers and high sales potential. It can also kick-start growth again with your current customers.

At BioZyme®, sales diversification is one of our five corporate goals. As a high growth, innovative company not diversifying is not really an option for us. Of course, the tricky part is determining where and how to diversify. Adding the small ruminant brand wasn’t all that tricky, but it has been a pretty easy way to accomplish diversification.

It all started with end-users asking why their sheep and goats could not get the Concept•Aid® line like cattle people could. Being taught by Dr. Francis Fluharty that sheep and goats are not the same and that they are way different than a cow, I wanted us to create products for each of these small ruminants instead of a one-line-fits-all approach. While the population numbers make you think you would put them together, my educator taught me to realize that would not be best for the animal. As an animal lover, having both sheep and goat products in the DuraFerm line became the only way to go for me.

The population of sheep and goats in the U.S. has been stable over the last few years at around 8M head. This is just about the same number as the population of dairy cows and horses. In all cases, we should be focused on a targeted sales approach with salespeople that have time to focus on the diversification, a specific marketing strategy for the diversification effort and a thorough follow-up effort on both to keep the pipeline funnel moving correctly.

At the risk of being long winded, I can’t pass up the opportunity to expand on how diversification brings up the importance of knowing your customers’ demands. To deliver value to your customers, you must have a clear understanding of their needs. This doesn’t change if they are a sheep, goat, dog or horse customer. However, it is probably more important to acknowledge it as a business owner when one is trying to diversify.

A customer need is a problem that a person is trying to solve, which motivates them to seek a product or service to do so. Another way to understand customer needs is to think of them as jobs to be done. The jobs to be done (JTBD) theory was first introduced by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen. In the online course Disruptive Strategy, Christensen asserts that customers don’t really buy products; they “hire” them to get a “job” done. In Disruptive Strategy, a JTBD is defined as “a circumstances-based description of understanding your customers’ desires, competitive set, anxieties, habits and timeline of purchase.”

Based on this definition, customers hire a product or service based on how well it fits their job description. If you understand the jobs your customers are hiring your product or service for, you can create a winning value proposition and drive innovation within your organization.

By aligning your company with JTBD, you can tailor your offerings to deliver value to your customers, achieve differentiation in the market, and avoid disruption. There are a number of ways to learn about your customers’ jobs to be done. Here are three ways to develop an understanding of your customers’ needs to better serve them with your products and services.

  1. Reflect on Your Experiences
    The first method for identifying jobs to be done is to reflect on your own behaviors and experiences, identifying patterns in your decision-making process. You yourself are a customer and, in the absence of other data sources, self-reflection can be a helpful starting point.
    • What motivated me to make the purchase?
    • What other options were available to me?
    • Why did I choose this product over the other options available?
    • What goal did the product help me achieve?
  2. Observe Behaviors Around You
    In addition to reflecting on your own experiences, you should observe the behaviors of those around you. If possible, look for opportunities to observe people at each stage of the buying process—from the time the job to be done arises to the final decision. Observe how people use the product or service to understand what goals it helps them achieve or challenges it helps them avoid. Look out for compensating behaviors or actions people take when a product or service doesn’t exist to fulfill their needs. Understanding the JTBD at the core of inconvenient alternatives can help you identify an underserved need in the market and inspire ideas to satisfy it.
  3. Order some DuraFerm
    Force yourself to diversify and figure out how to get the job done!

August 2021 Changes

We have lots of changes happening this month. Be sure to check them out below.

PRODUCT UPDATES

  • Temporary Tub Packaging Update: Over the course of the next 4-6 weeks, Consumers will potentially be updating their top plastic slips on all tubs from clear plastic to white plastic due to supply issues. No other changes are being made to the tub products. This change will be temporary lasting between 4-6 weeks.
  • We have increased the mold inhibitor in our pelleted Sure Champ products to the manufacturer recommended level for 1 year of shelf-life. This will help our products stay fresh smelling and mold-free while maintaining the quality of nutrients in the product.
  • On July 1, the Vitalize® Alimend® and Vitalize® Alimend® K9 labels were updated to comply with NASC standards. Though the presentation of the labels look different, the formula and ingredients remained the same. The feeding directions were changed to mL (instead of ounces), but the feeding rate did not change.
  • Vita Charge® Gel and Vita Charge® Climate Control Gel are now being produced and shipped in 60 mL tubes. This change was made in June due to supply issues with the 80 mL tubes. The case quantities, product numbers and SKUs of these two products did not change.

SHIPPING UPDATES

  • EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Due to consistent service delays, high damage rates and a change to their freight claim reimbursement policy, BioZyme, Inc is no longer shipping products with Holland Transfer Company. Customers and Area Sales Managers [ASM] can still choose to use Holland Transfer Company for shipping LTL orders. However, both the Customer and the ASM must sign a Release of Liability for each order for which Holland Transfer Company will be used.

PRICING UPDATES

  • At BioZyme, we are experiencing price hikes due to shortages in both ingredients and materials like packaging. As we always do, we are trying to do everything we can to keep pricing under control.

ORDERING UPDATES

Dealer Spotlight: Kenneth Regnier

Kenneth Regnier Builds Business on Trust and Reputable Product

For long-time BioZyme® dealer Kenneth Regnier, having a quality product to help his customers is a top priority. The product combined with a strong relationship built on trust and loyalty is what has kept him selling BioZyme products for more than 20 years.

“I like people and I like to talk to them. I’m going to keep going as long as the good Lord will let me,” said Kenneth, who turns 74 in August. Kenneth, who runs his own cow-calf herd near Kinsley, Kansas, started as a BioZyme dealer in 2,000 because he had heard that VitaFerm® carried a superior product, and he was unhappy with the nutrition company’s product that he had previously sold when they made a corporate switch. He started selling the VitaFerm, took his existing customers with him and has never looked back.

He said the quality of the VitaFerm products that he sells speak for themselves, and he has had numerous customers share their reviews with him. If he has a potential customer approach him about the products, he suggests they try the VitaFerm products on just one set of their cows and keep using their current mineral and compare where they are in six months. That will usually get them hooked.

“One customer on the HEAT mineral told me he can see that the HEAT is working. His cows are out grazing, and he drove by two groups of his neighbor’s cows and they are grouped up and not out grazing. That is all it takes to know the product is working,” Kenneth said.

Helping others is important to Kenneth, and the loyalty he’s given his customers has been returned to him. He said he is now selling products to the second generation of producers. His customers’ kids who used to help him unload feed are now his customers.

Service and trust are important traits to Kenneth. He still delivers most all of his product to his customers with his one-ton Ford pick-up and a flat-bed trailer. Often times he doesn’t even see his customers, but they know he will use their skid steer loader and have their VitaFerm in place when they get in from the field or pasture.

An annual producer meeting each spring allows Kenneth to share new product information with his customers, gather customer orders for the next few months and provide fellowship among area producers. It’s something he and his wife and business partner Jacque have been hosting for years.

“Our producer meeting is a way to show we care. We give them a steak meal, and everyone can get around the table and talk. It’s the fellowship of doing business. It’s a good time for them to order their summer mineral,” he said.

And with typically dry summers in Southwest Kansas, the HEAT products are very popular; however, with a wetter than normal spring, flies are heavy. Kenneth is glad to have a product with ClariFly® to offer his customers this year. His own cows have been eating the HEAT with ClarFly and he notices that there are no flies on them.

A love of people and a love of good nutritional products for cattle and horses is what drives Kenneth Regnier to keep selling the BioZyme products. He said the business has been a good outlet for him to “slow down” since he quit farming and also since a bad ATV accident in April 2020 that required physical therapy. As long as he can keep helping people help their animals, he’s going to keep on keeping on. We’re certainly glad to have you in our Dealer Network, Kenneth!

Use the Marketing Tools that BioZyme Offers to Help You Sell

Regardless of your dealership size or status, BioZyme® offers a variety of tools to help you share about the products, promote the products and help educate your customers about your business and the goods that you offer.

Ty McGuire, Area Sales Manager in Michigan, Western Ohio and Kentucky, encourages all dealers to learn about and use the tools that are offered to them. He said that starts with product knowledge so you can talk about products and costs at the drop of hat when the subject comes up in conversation.

“Knowledge is power. Wherever you are, you should know the products and be able to talk about them,” he said.

One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with the products is through the Master Dealer Training Program. This online training tool gives a brief overview of all the products. As an incentive to complete it, dealers are offered a special designation on the Online Dealer Locator, in store signage and a Master Dealer Jacket.

For new products, Facebook trainings have taken place on the BioZyme Dealer Facebook Page, another resource that offers timely information, tools and company news.

Another great tool that McGuire recommends his dealers use regularly is the Online Dealer Center. The Online Dealer Center allows dealers to gather product information and trainings as well as monitor their own sales activities.

Promoboxx and social media are two more marketing tools that McGuire said have been game-changers during the past few years. As people have technology and information at their fingertips, it is important to have a presence on social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are becoming increasingly popular for businesses to publicize featured products and in-store promotions.

The BioZyme Marketing Team creates regular posts through Promoboxx that align with current advertising campaigns. Dealers can sign up for Promoboxx and use these posts or elements of them across all brands to help create awareness on their business Facebook pages.

Perhaps one of the most important tools a dealer can create is a customer mailing list. Mailing lists “fill the pipeline with contacts,” according to McGuire, and those contacts are essential when it comes time for BioZyme to send quarterly mailers.

For someone who hasn’t started a mailing list yet, McGuire suggests starting with a simple Excel spreadsheet and start adding names, mailing addresses, city, state and zip codes. You might also want to add a space for phone number or email and even the types of animals or products they use for future reference. If you are not sure how to get all these addresses, start with getting information from the check or envelopes that the remittance comes in from bill payments.

Marketing tools exist and so do people who are willing to help. Don’t forget to reach out to your ASM or the Outreach Support Center. The tools and people that BioZyme offers are available to help you succeed.

Opportunities to Address Challenges Lead to Sales

For some on the BioZyme sales team, they take the relationship approach to getting products in front of customers. It is more about being problem solvers or helping the potential customer reach their production goals with a nutrition program, than it is “selling” a product.

Brett Tostenson, ASM who represents South Dakota and Eastern North Dakota, said he does extensive homework about a potential customer’s production goals, both commercial and seedstock, before he ever makes contact or sets foot on his or her ranch. With the use of the Internet and state-wide ag publications, there is typically a plethora of information about the larger cow-calf producers he calls on.

“I’m a huge proponent of connection-based selling to help them meet their needs. I look at the birthdates and sire groups in their sale catalogs, see if they have a ranch website or Facebook page, and Google to see if there is information about them, where they market their cattle. This helps me have a plan before I ever meet them,” Tostenson said.

He adds that is it is imperative to be genuine in the conversation, and with knowing background about their operation or having a mutual contact, it shows that you have an interest, and you are not just another cold call salesperson.

Once he knows about their operation, he will set up a time to stop by to look at their cattle, which he enjoys doing. Then, after he’s seen their cattle and had a good conversation, he’ll listen to any needs the producer might have like poor breed-backs, retained placentas or low conception rates. That is when he tells them about the reproductive mineral he uses on his own herd, VitaFerm® Concept•Aid®. His closing statement is strong:

“I don’t try to sell something I would not use on my own cattle.”

Once that trust is established and the producer decides to try the product, Tostenson will put him or her in touch with a dealer. He does follow up to make sure the dealer and the product is meeting expectations. And, he said it is important to be visible at their sale, but just to say hello, and not to talk shop on their big pay day.

The Consultant
Similar to Tostenson, Ty McGuire, who represents Michigan, Western Ohio and Kentucky, said he too likes to help potential and current customers meet their operation goals. He likes to consider himself as more of a consultant rather than a salesperson.

“I want them to know that I am looking out for them, and they can confide in me for answers whether it’s about nutrition, A.I. protocols or anything. I am a straight shooter, and that helps gain their trust and get the sale,” McGuire said.

Typically, on an initial visit, he will leave them with some beneficial literature that might include the sale report from a local livestock auction market, along with some BioZyme product information and his business card.

He agrees that sales books are a great way to learn about operations, and you can tell a lot about calving times, calving windows, sire groups and just about the people from the contents of the sale book. He said his initial face-to-face meetings can last from 20 minutes to an hour, and you can tell how much a person will open up and trust another in a short amount of time. Once he has their trust, he likes to talk about Amaferm®.

“I will bend over backwards for a potential customer to get the Amaferm advantage into their livestock. We have great products for every species and every situation, and I want them to know I will help them meet their goals, not only with nutrition but in other areas, as well,” McGuire said.

Do your homework. Build the relationship. Gain the trust. Sometimes selling isn’t even about selling as much as it is helping a fellow producer meet his or her production goals. Relationship selling is all about helping others. And that is care that comes full circle.

Use Amaferm® to Sell Across All Species

With vitamins, minerals and supplements aplenty, there is one thing that sets BioZyme® products apart from all the rest – the Amaferm® advantage. This is the selling point used by many when it comes time to market the products we offer.

“I always talk about Amaferm and how it can help all species across the board,” said Lori Lawrence, ASM in Eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Lawrence attributes the brand recognition of Amaferm and VitaFerm® to the success of the products she helps her dealers sell, and she uses that recognition to trickle down into other products for other animals besides cattle. The product guide is her number one favorite selling tool.

“People are not typically single-species raisers, so that product guide is a great way to showcase all the products we have that contain Amaferm, all of them,” she said.

In her sales area, she might visit with a customer who has show lambs and a cowherd and a few horses. Therefore, she can talk about Amaferm and how it can help their lambs stay on feed and water, while helping with general herd health of their cows.

With an area that is predominately store front dealers that offer a variety of products, Lawrence said training new dealers and existing dealers on new products is a top priority. Because so many people do have multiple species, she recommends that the stores carry some of every product. She also encourages in-store displays during the high-selling seasons since often if a product is “out of sight, it is out of mind.”

“During HEAT® season or whatever season, I remind the dealers to bring a few bags of product into their stores to display. When they bring those products in for customers to see, their sales do increase. I like to remind the dealers that Amaferm is the biggest differentiation between our products and others they might carry. We are a premium mineral with premium results,” she said.

Western ASM Britney Creamer agrees that Amaferm is the key sales tactic that she uses. Creamer travels Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and also works with a diverse group of customers.

“Amaferm is always the first thing I talk about with customers and potential customers as it is the one thing that significantly separates the BioZyme line from competitors and provides the most overall benefits no matter the situation,” she said.

The Amaferm advantage of increased intake, digestion and absorption is important regardless of geography, production goals and species. Once a customer has seen the results in one species, he or she will typically understand them and be excited to use a product with Amaferm in other animals.

Creamer said once she has talked about Amaferm and its benefits, she likes to share examples of how the products have helped others. She makes sure they don’t have impractical expectations, and she always follows up.

“Utilizing testimonials, research and personal experience with products always seems to resonate best with potential customers and allows them to feel more comfortable or confident in what you are offering them. I make sure to not create unrealistic expectations as well because people want such quick results that they can visually see with their eye these days. It’s important to let them know what they can expect to see with the eye and also remind them that what is working inside an animal may take a few weeks to see on the outside,” she said.

With an ingredient like Amaferm, it makes differentiating the BioZyme products from their competition a little simpler. Sharing “premium minerals with premium results” across all species should be the goal of every dealer, and that is definitely what the Amaferm advantage does for you.

Letters From Lisa – June/July 2021

I believe that a profitable, fun business needs to be kept simple and can be easily described with a triangle. How?

At the very top of the triangle and business must be its goals. Goals should not be plentiful, nor too complex. These goals must be supported with strategies that are so important that without their completion, the goals won’t be met. And then finally, these strategies must have amazing, defined tactics behind them, to ensure they are accomplished.

The triangle must be supported with investment and structure, as a well thought out set of business goals, strategies and tactics can only be completely successful if they have these behind them. Without all these features, a business will not be able to maximize its growth potential, since we need to make plans for the future to create opportunities, rather than simply wait for new business. Without an organizational structure that puts key employees together on a regular basis, it will be difficult to create effective strategies and impossible to hit the related goals.

Strategic management includes creating growth through introducing new products, using new distribution channels, expanding geographically or going after a new target market. These strategies give the path needed, while the tactics are much more concrete and are often oriented toward smaller steps and a shorter time frame. In other pages of this month’s VISION we talk about a variety of strategies and tactics to position products and hopefully help sell the BioZyme products.

Business is not simple, but it does not have to be complex either. Remember a triangle is the simplest form of a polygon and “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr

July 2021 Changes

We have lots of changes happening this month. Be sure to check them out below.

PRODUCT UPDATES

  • On July 1, the Vitalize® Alimend® and Vitalize® Alimend® K9 labels will be getting updated to comply with NASC standards. Though the presentation of the labels will look different, the formula and ingredients will remain the same. The feeding directions will be changed to mL (instead of ounces), but the feeding rate will not change.
    
  • Vita Charge® Gel and Vita Charge® Climate Control Gel are now being produced and shipped in 60 mL tubes. This change was made in June due to supply issues with the 80 mL tubes. The case quantities, product numbers and SKUs of these two products did not change.

PRICING UPDATES

  • If you have purchased anything in the past few months, you have likely noticed a price surge. Most of this is due to the simple business principle of supply and demand; when supply is low and demand is high, the price increases. Unfortunately, the same is true for those of us in manufacturing. At BioZyme, we are experiencing price hikes due to shortages in both ingredients and materials like packaging. As we always do, we are trying to do everything we can to keep pricing under control. However, these are unparalleled times in our history; and hopefully ones you will be able to tell your grandkids about overcoming. So, hang in there with this and we will all survive together. Remember, it is not how we stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but how we stand during times of challenge that really matter.

ORDERING UPDATES

Tips to Make Your Summer Sales Sizzle

BioZyme® Inc. offers a multitude of products for all species to beat the stress of summertime heat. With temperatures warming up, or in some parts of the country fluctuating, we wanted to focus on each of them in this issue. So, we asked our sales team to offer their viewpoint and give their best sales pitch for some of the summer’s HOTTEST products.

DuraFerm® Sheep Concept•Aid® HEAT®

“This nearly mirrors what we are doing on the cattle side. When these temperatures start getting hot, we want the DuraFerm HEAT out there to help regulate internal body temperatures. I see a bigger influx of trying to gear that toward my A.I. and embryo transfer program customers. That’s where we are going to see the most added benefit because they will be breeding in the summer. A lot of these show stock guys will start flushing and AI-ing and if we can control that internal body® temperature, that is obviously going to help with conception rates and help those ewes produce more viable embryos.” – SAM SILVERS, ASM, Texas & New Mexico

“I actually have quite a few commercial breeders looking to maximize their bottom line, and they view the DuraFerm HEAT as an investment. They know their true costs are tied up in getting their ewes bred, and as fickle cyclers, they have a smaller window of opportunity to get them bred and keep them bred. Once they realize the return on their investment means more lambs and more pounds of lambs to sell, the® DuraFerm HEAT sells itself as a premium mineral to increase their genetic potential.” – SHANDY BERTOLINO, ASM, Illinois & Indiana

VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® 5/S HEAT® & VitaFerm® HEAT®

“My goal is to help my customers reach their goals and help them save money at the same time. The HEAT package found in the VitaFerm HEAT and now VitaFerm Concept•Aid HEAT acts like extra insurance to get your cows bred back. The capsaicin in the HEAT package helps reduce heat, therefore lowering any heat stress, and helps those females retain more pregnancies, which is very important during those first 30 days of fetal development when heat stress can be unbearable in June and July. The HEAT mineral is a real lifesaver in Missouri, where we have so much fescue. The combination of Amaferm and capsaicin helps those cattle grazing fescue to lower their core temperature while converting the nutrients in the grasses.” – DAVE GALLAGHER, ASM, Missouri

“VitaFerm Concept•Aid 5/S HEAT is a really good option for both spring and fall calving herds. For the spring calving cows on Concept•Aid the main thing is to keep those cows out grazing, so they don’t circle up to fight the heat and fight flies, and the bull can still get his job done. The combination of Amaferm, chelated minerals and the HEAT package is amazing. Literally two weeks after you put it out, you’ll see your cows spread out and stay grazing all day long. They don’t huddle up, they’re never in the pond; I mean we’re dropping that core body temperature three degrees, so they can go out and keep pounds on those calves and keep rolling. And then on the flip side of that on the fall cows, Concept•Aid is golden for those guys because we want them on Concept•Aid 60 days prior to calving to get those vitamins and minerals in there to help them clean good, and yet some of them are still calving when it is 100 degrees, which takes a toll on them, so that HEAT pack is awesome.” – SHANE SCHAAKE, ASM, Kansas

Sure Champ® Extreme

“The whole concept behind Sure Champ Extreme is that if you can regulate body temperature and help reduce heat stress, your show livestock will stay on feed and water. Animals that consistently eat and drink are healthier and higher performing – this is true across all species.” – BLAINE RODGERS, ASM, Western US & Show Livestock Manager

“Sure Champ Extreme is a great product for customers that are gearing up for county fairs, state fairs, junior nationals or traveling the show circuit. From my own personal experience, I have found that the animals that are fed Sure Champ Extreme adapt better when arriving at the show. Traveling to a show during the summer heat can be very hard on animals, especially the ones that are kept in coolers during the day. I feel that when animals are fed Sure Champ Extreme the temperature difference does not affect them as much. This product is key when you are trying to get show heifers bred because it helps regulate the body temperature and helps reduce stress. When selling this product, I like to share my own personal stories and experiences. If I am a believer in the product, I feel my customers will gain trust from me and try the product out for themselves.” – KORI SOUTER, ASM, Iowa

Vita Charge®

“A lot of my customers run several thousand stockers a year, and a majority of these calves are high-stress cattle that are prone to sickness. I always let the customer tell me what their challenge is, and a lot of times, I hear, ‘If I could do better, I wouldn’t have to buy as much medicine, or I could get them eating faster.’ I don’t try to sell them a product for the whole herd. I want them to see the results for themselves, so I will give them a jug of Vita Charge Drench and challenge them to use it in a control group of 100 head out of 500 head group. They can see it work that way once they get their hands on it. As for the Vita Charge Stress Tub HEAT, those are another bullet in your gun when it comes to fighting heat stress, especially on black calves in the south. We have seen a big difference in the heat stress relief in some of those black calves with the introduction of that HEAT Stress Tub.” – CHRIS KYLE, ASM, Arkansas & Louisiana

Gain Smart® Stocker HEAT®

“No matter what product I am trying to sell, I always start by talking about Amaferm®. If they are running stockers on native grass, I will talk to them about Amaferm, and the value it brings to gain and feed efficiency and utilization of nutrients. In addition, Amaferm has a positive effect on gut health for those animals. Then, I will find out their interest in the HEAT package. Due to the capsaicin, that is research-proven to help maintain the animals’ core body temperature, the heat will dissipate from them, and they will be out grazing longer, converting more forage to pounds.” – JOHN JEFFREY, Feedlot-Stocker Business Development Manager

“Up north here, where I deal with a lot of customers, I encourage them to start feeding the Gain Smart Stocker HEAT by at least June 15. The capsaicin in the HEAT package works great at increasing blood flow and maintaining the body temperature, and the garlic works at keeping the flies off those cattle. This product works, and I know it works because I use it myself. The calves graze and stay spread during the day. When I’ve got customers getting calves ready for a Superior sale, they see the value in it, and they know they need to be on Gain Smart at least 45 days before they sell on Superior.” – JOHN TUCKER, Large Beef Accounts Specialist