Changes Coming in July

AMAFERM® PELLET BAG SIZE CHANGING

The Amaferm® Pellet will be reduced from a 50 lb bag to a 40 lb bag, starting in July. The price will be adjusted accordingly.

SURE CHAMP® SPARK® DISCONTINUED

Due to the continual decrease in sales over the past four years, Sure Champ® Spark® will be discontinued once inventory of the products and buckets has been depleted. Customers who have relied on Spark can receive many of the same benefits and more from Sure Champ Extreme with ClariFly®, available in 25- and 40-pound bags.

Dealer Emphasizes Sustainability, Sells Stacks of Empty Orange Tubs

What started as a family tour around Dr. Bob Black’s ranch landed as an opportunity and an idea for sustainability. Bob, DVM and cattle rancher, and his wife, Shirley, had “massive stacks” of the empty VitaFerm® and Vita Charge® tubs around their ranch, when family toured last Thanksgiving. At the suggestion of a sister-in-law from Texas who said that someone could surely use these empty tubs, Bob decided to start offering them for sale on the popular Facebook Marketplace starting in spring 2023.

“My goal is to see an orange tub in every yard in Wichita,” chuckled Katie, Black’s daughter, who works full-time at the Elk County Vet Clinic where Dr. Black practices, while she also studies nursing.

Katie said their family lives about an hour from Wichita, and that is where a majority of tubs end up. With her grandmother and an aunt living in Wichita, those driveways often serve as the pick-up point for the tubs that get used for starter gardens, storage bins, water recycling vestibules, cleaning yards of sticks and leaves and more.

“My dad does most of the Facebook postings, listings and monitors all of that,” Katie said. “Some people will come to the clinic or contact him directly because they have heard about all these tubs.”

Dr. Black shared that he enjoys recycling the tubs.

“Having a second or third use for the plastic tubs is great and helps recycle a product that otherwise might not be used,” said Dr. Black.

BioZyme dealer Bob Black is creating sustainable uses for empty tubs and providing new customers a product that they can readily use. That’s care that comes full circle.

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BioZyme® Dealers Grow Animal Health and Supplement Businesses to Earn Achievements

BioZyme® Inc. recognized the following dealers for their outstanding sales, action, years of business and diversification in 2022 at the BioZyme Dealer Retreat June 6-7, 2023, in St. Joseph, Missouri. These awards recognize dealers that are taking action to grow their animal health and supplement businesses. BioZyme was thankful to bring the Dealer Retreat back in-person for 2023 to recognize these “out of this world” dealers on their 2022 achievements.

Central Farm Supply of Kentucky – Kentucky

  • Top Overall Dealer
  • Second Place VitaFerm® Dealer 
  • Second Place Gain Smart® Dealer 
  • Second Place Backyard Boost® Dealer 

K Triangle Feed – Wyoming

  • Second Place Overall 
  • Second Place Action Dealer 
  • Second Place Overall Individual

Basore Cattle Company – Missouri 

  • Top VitaFerm® Dealer 

Twin Rivers Vet Supply – Texas

  • Top Gain Smart Dealer 

Associated Feed & Supply Co – California

  • Top Sure Champ® Dealer
  • Top DuraFerm® Dealer 

Cowell Ag – Illinois 

  • Second Place Sure Champ® Dealer 

Sullivan Supply, Inc – Iowa

  • Top Vita Charge® Dealer 

Stockmen’s Feed Bunk Inc – Texas

  • Second Place Vita Charge® Dealer 

FarmVet.com, Inc – Tennessee

  • Top Vitalize® Dealer 

Surrey International – New Jersey

  • Top Backyard Boost® Dealer 
  • Second Place Vitalize® Dealer 

Heritage Cooperative – Ohio

  • Second Place DuraFerm® Dealer

Boyce Feed and Grain – Texas

  • Top Action Dealer

Jeff Cluxton & Sons – Ohio

  • BioZyme Dealer for 50 years 

Hess Ranch – Louisiana

  • BioZyme Dealer for 52 years

Cottor Farms – Wisconsin

  • Family of Brands Diversification Award

Producers Coop – Texas

  • Second Place Family of Brands Diversification Award 

The BioZyme network is comprised of more than 2,000 independent dealers from coast-to-coast who provide access to the BioZyme family of brands, including VitaFerm, Gain Smart, DuraFerm, Vita Charge, Sure Champ, Vitalize, and Backyard Boost. To locate a dealer near you, visit: https://biozymeinc.com/find-a-dealer/

Central Farm Supply of Kentucky
K Triangle Feed
Basore Cattle Company
Associated Feed
Heritage Cooperative
Cluxton Family
Missy Hess
Cottor Farms

A Day in the Life of a BioZyme® Employee Mike Wadle

Title: Additive Territory Manager

Number of Years at BioZyme: 14+

Describe a “typical” day in your job: The beauty of the job is that there is no typical day; one day I am flying all day to get to appointments on either coast, the next day driving to meet with prospects/customers, and then the following day being stuck in a hotel room because of the weather working on the computer. 

What is the most interesting thing you have ever done at BioZyme: When starting to work at BioZyme, having to travel without all the technology of today and trying to find ranchers, farmers, customers and business prospects using a plat map and road atlas.

Share a funny story about one of your days at work: Traveling 2 hours to the airport for a 10 am flight and then going through security and realizing it was a 10 pm flight. It pays to double and triple check schedules!!!

What has been one of the biggest challenges: Working the territory because they are usually big and then not getting down when the word “NO” is heard more than “YES” when asking for the order.  There are so many opportunities in a territory and never giving up.

Why is care that comes full circle important to what you do? Understanding what the prospect/customer/distributor wants and needs and helping them fulfil that request. I have always said we help them; they will help us and as we need more boots on the ground it has worked out

What is something you enjoy doing outside of the office? It has been watching kids compete as that phase of life is moving onto being a Grandpa and working around the family farm with the cattle.

Changes Coming in June

SURE CHAMP® SPARK® DISCONTINUED

Due to the continual decrease in sales over the past four years, Sure Champ® Spark® will be discontinued once inventory of the products and buckets has been depleted, likely later in June or early in July. Customers who have relied on Spark can receive many of the same benefits and more from Sure Champ Extreme with ClariFly®, available in 25-and 40-pound bags, especially through the summer months.

AO-BIOTICS® EQE ADDED TO BACKYARD BOOST® DAILY ESSENTIALS

AO-Biotics® EQE will be added to the Backyard Boost® Daily Essentials, in addition to Amaferm®. EQE is the first-and-only postbiotic designed specifically for layers using patent pending technology. The addition will help enhance egg quality, number of eggs and egg mass. This will be a rolling change as inventory of the current stock is sold.

AMAFERM® PELLET UPDATE

Beginning in July, Amaferm® Pellet will be reduced from a 50 lb bag to a 40 lb bag. The price will be adjusted accordingly.

Dealer Spotlight: Cottor Farms Excels in Diversification

“We wish we would have gotten started with BioZyme® products sooner,” said Leo Sanftner, of Cottor Farms, Osceola, Wisconsin.

That’s a pretty strong sentiment from an 11-year veteran dealer who sells everything from VitaFerm® Concept•Aid® for breeding success to Vita Charge® Liquid Boost® to show rabbit customers, and even mixes AO-Biotics® Amaferm® into their own custom layer feed.

Sanftner, long-time employee of Cottor Farms, said he was first introduced to the BioZyme family of brands by former ASM Dorothy Orts at a bull sale when she recommended the Vita Charge tubes to jump start newborn calves. As they say, the rest is history.

According to Sanftner, once they saw how well the calves responded to the Amaferm in the Vita Charge, they started expanding their product offering to other BioZyme brands. Today, he said they have a majority of their customers on the fly control mineral for the summer. Cottor Farms mixes their own feed and serves both Wisconsin and Minnesota, being so close to the state line. They will average three tons of layer feed per week that includes Amaferm.

“We have very few dairy cows up here. Most of our customers have beef cattle, hogs and chickens. We cater to the smaller customers. We are smaller; they trust us,” Sanftner said.

Their mission is to go above and beyond when it comes to customer care. Sanftner said he will deliver feed up to 100 miles away for customers who need it, primarily larger customers and those who have show animals. They have also created signs for their show livestock and show rabbit families with the same statement: “Go above and beyond with Cottor Farms.”

Cottor Farms also supplies Maple Hill Feed & Farm Supply in Maple, Wisconsin, with their BioZyme products, including Backyard Boost® products and layer feed they needed for a recent Chick Days event. He said they will also conduct horse and beef clinics at the store; however, most of the promotion and education comes from him visiting personally with customers or through their social media. A new website is in development to be launched early this summer.

From chickens, rabbits and hogs to cattle and horses, there are no customers too big or small for Cottor Farms when it comes to showing care that comes full circle. Thank you for being leaders in species and brand diversification and hitting the target on one of BioZyme’s core goals!

2023 A Day in the Life of a BioZyme® Employee Samantha Albers

Title: Marketing Brand Manager – DuraFerm® & Backyard Boost®

Number of Years at BioZyme: 1

Describe a “typical” day in your job: A typical day in my job is starting my day by checking my daily to-do’s and emails, then starting in on tasks that are more time-sensitive to marketing projects. I also go through each of the social media accounts for DuraFerm and Backyard Boost, replying to comments, direct messages and then scheduling content either for that day or for later. Along with reviewing social media content, I also look at Facebook and Google campaign ads that are performing well and look at the metrics of those. My typical day is heavily in Asana for managing projects and tasks and looking at timelines of planning upcoming events for both DuraFerm and Backyard Boost.

What is the most interesting thing you ever have done at BioZyme: Organizing and putting together a campaign for the first Chick Days since I started at BioZyme. This was really fun to put together and create the various marketing materials surrounding Chick Days, and then seeing the sales team push these pieces out to our dealer network was really amazing to see all come together.

What has been one of the biggest challenges: One of the biggest challenges has been keeping up with marketing trends, specifically with retail merchandising, and challenging myself to think of the out-of-the-box ideas to implement for Backyard Boost and DuraFerm products through the BioZyme distribution and dealer network.

Why is care that comes full circle important to what you do? I love talking with people about how BioZyme products have helped them succeed in their livestock operations. I showed livestock through 4-H and FFA and we fed Sure Champ® products to our show animals, and now with marketing the BioZyme Family of Brands to livestock producers and being on the other side of that relationship with producers is really amazing to experience the care that comes full circle.

What is something you enjoy doing outside of the office? I love photography, visiting family and friends, going to a good coffee shop or winery and traveling.

2023 A Day in the Life of BioZyme® Employee Jill Vanover

Title: Director of Quality

Number of Years at BioZyme: 5 (10 including time at Cogent)

Describe a “typical” day in your job: My typical day starts at 5:30 a.m., where I open my e-mail and address any urgent issues, review my meeting schedule for the day and roll my kiddos out of bed and off to school. I get to the Lexington office after a hearty dose of caffeine and kick off my day. Each day is a combination of meetings – mostly virtual, managing any urgent issues including product concerns, quality-related supply chain issues, addressing any ingredient and finished product testing challenges and taking daily steps toward continuous improvements from a quality perspective. 

What is the most interesting thing you ever done at BioZyme: One of the most interesting things I get to be a part of in my role is helping to take a product concept on its journey through each stage of the development process to create a finished product that positively impacts the health of animals and people.  

Share a funny story about one of your days at work:  We were trouble shooting a labeler malfunction with a vendor technician over the phone. I explained that the labeler was making a terrible noise when the lock rollers were engaged and the tech asked me if I could describe the noise. Without thinking, instead of using my words to describe it, I made a very pronounced honking noise like a goose. Everyone involved – including myself – got a good chuckle out of that one.

What has been one of the biggest challenges:  One of the biggest challenges in my new role has been working remotely and connecting with my team in the same way that I’m used to doing in person. Working together, communicating well and building trust is vital to an effective team dynamic.

Why is care that comes full circle important to what you do?  By “living” quality and adhering to a mindset of continuous improvement, we offer products that are safe and accurate. Consistently doing so creates a foundation for upholding care that comes full circle. We help BioZyme take the first step to care and anticipate the return of the boomerang.

What is something you enjoy doing outside of the office? Outside of work, I love to “experience” life with my 3 (not so) little ones – Griffin (13), Jaycie (12), and Emma (8). On any given weekend you may find us enjoying live music, swimming, exploring, fishing or golfing.

Letters from Lisa

At BioZyme®, one of our corporate goals is to produce products that meet or exceed our customers’ needs and wants. We call it safe, accurate product. This goal has always been very important to me, as I believe our end customer is the animal, and animals have always been my heart throb. My mother could tell you numerous stories about how many wild animals I tried to “save” and how many dogs I brought home that “found” me.

The responsibility of quality is to ensure all products are free from defects, the process reduces waste, and the product meets the customers’ expectations before it leaves the manufacturing facility. The pursuit of quality must be everyone’s responsibility at each stage of the process.

This pursuit at BioZyme includes the following:

  • Reliable products – From a business perspective, consumers favor products that are reliable.
  • Safe products – Perhaps the most critical element is that we must ensure our products are safe to use.
  • Compliance – There are many rules and regulations we must adhere to, and compliance is a key issue of quality to prevent delays in production and avoid fines.
  • Consistency – All products must meet the same standard of excellence.
  • Waste reduction – We lower costs when material resources are conserved and used wisely in the production process.
  • Minimizing risk – A rigorous QC process identifies root causes quickly when there is a problem.
  • Continuous improvement – Quality is about always improving the process to create a better product.

Once you have these standards defined and implemented, then you must decide how you will know they are working. At BioZyme we wanted to be very specific about our safe, accurate product goal. That started with defining safety and accuracy.

Those definitions are outlined here:

  • Safety refers to all factors that impact the health and well-being of the manufacturing employees and the products they manufacture.
  • Accuracy is the degree of conformance to the known standard when it comes to the quality and performance of a finished product.

Next, we worked hard to define our versions of each.

BioZyme Safe

  • Produced under safe, clean conditions.
  • Free of harmful, foreign substances.

BioZyme Accurate

  • Labeled appropriately, legibly and truthfully.
  • Consistent in look where look is defined as color, smell and particle size.
  • Consistently palatable.

And finally, in true Lisa style, we outlined how we would measure if it was really happening by defining these metrics:

  • 0 worker accidents
  • 0 animal deaths
  • 0 pounds of off-spec product
  • 100% of product produced is without a product integrity customer concern.
  • 100% of finished product tested matches its tag.
  • 100% of product hits parameters set for the color spectrometer and particle size analyzer.
  • 100% of product contains formula tested amount of flavor.

After defining, outlining and documenting all the above we began upgrading all that we do at BioZyme to ensure we walk the talk.

Below is a list of what we have done to date:

  • Installed an Industrial Dehumidifier
  • Perform Monthly Leg Camera Scoping
  • Installed a Feed Cleaner Just Before Bagging
  • Installed More Magnets, a Magnet Drawer & Metal Detection
  • Implemented AI Camera Pictures of Every Bag with Alarms
  • Ensured FIFO Monitoring
  • Implemented an Employee Safety Program
  • Added Sampling & Testing of All Inbound Ingredients
  • Added Sampling & Testing of a Statistically Significant Amount of Finished Product
  • Ensured Full Team is PCQI Trained
  • A PCQI is an individual who has successfully completed adequate training to implement a food safety plan. A PCQI manages important aspects of the food safety program and ensures that preventive controls are effective and proper records are maintained.
  • Implemented 100% Automated Checklist Use with Alarms when a NO is Clicked
  • Ensure Dust Control Content Analysis
  • Implementation of Automation in All Processes Except Drug Hand-adds
  • Employed Two Full-time Sanitation Employees at each Facility
  • Track & Manage Moisture Variation in Amaferm Drying
  • Implemented QC Bag Screening on First 10 Bags of Every Run
  • Hired a Certified, Professional 3rd Party Pest Control Program
  • A 3rd Party Audit at Each Facility for Quality Certification
  • Added an Equine Safe Manufacturing Line for our Vitalize Line

Is safety and accuracy really worth all this effort?

According to the National Institutes of Health, interacting with animals has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and lower blood pressure. Other studies have found that animals can reduce loneliness, increase feelings of social support and boost human mood.

Yep, it’s worth it

Changes Coming in May

INGREDIENTS UPDATED TO SELECT PRODUCT LINES

In April, we added an antioxidant to the granular VitaFerm®, Gain Smart® and DuraFerm® product lines, to improve quality. Dealers and customers could see some added ingredients listed on the label. We continue to provide the highest-quality ingredients to ensure the best shelf life.

HYALURONEX® AND TRIXSYN® PRODUCTS NOW PART OF VITALIZE® FAMILY

Hyaluronex® and Trixsyn® joint health products are officially part of the Vitalize® brand. The products that many equine, dog and cat lovers have come to know and trust still consist of the same great formulas, but now are labeled under the Vitalize name and have a new label and look.

PERSONNEL CHANGES & ADDITIONS

We have made some changes and additions to our staff that you should be aware of including the following. Please note the new titles & responsibilities:

  • Brandon Barlage, Inside Sales Representative – New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
  • Alison Brunner, Animal Health Sales Manager
  • Hardy Goodman, ASM – Florida, Georgia
  • Wyatt Marshall, Industry and Events Support Specialist
  • Jenette Masarie, ASM – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
  • Morgan Weinrich, ASM – Missouri