Last updated on February 25th, 2026 at 09:08 pm
Making sure you're getting the best supplement for the needs of your ranch is important! There are so many options on the market; so what makes Riomax unique?
Right off the bat, we'll tell ya that Riomax® supplements cost 2-3 times more on the upfront price than competitor products. That's simply because of the way they're designed. They're very dense, which allows the tubs to have a low consumption.
But here's where it's really different: Riomax's approach is to hone in on your cost to feed a product, which is your cost per head per day. This explains why the supplements are so dense with a low consumption. Ultimately, this drives your cost per head per day down. Not to mention, when product lasts longer, you don't have to replace it as often so you can reduce your labor as well.
On the other hand, supplements with a cheap upfront price tend to have higher consumption and cattle to go through them faster. This means you'll be putting out tubs more often, and drives your cost per head per day up.
Nutrizorb, the Riomax digestion pack, is a combination of many different components that work together to hyper-activate and stimulate the good bugs in the rumen. Why is that important? The more good bugs there are and the more active they are, the better they can extract nutrients out of any forage they eat. Whether it's good quality forage, poor quality forage, any kind of grass, corn, or feed, Riomax is designed to optimize the way those microbes work, so that you can get more out of the existing feed sources you already own.
Riomax supplements help livestock meet their protein requirements differently than most supplements. Through the use of indirect supplementation, Riomax enables the rumen microbes to do more of the work for you. They do a better job of extracting nutrients, protein, and energy from the feed and make it available to the animal. Think of indirect supplementation as a key that can unlock nutrients in feed.
Additionally, when rumen microbes become hyper-activated and there are more of them, you end up with more microbial protein. Rumen microbes become microbial protein when they die. Microbial protein is a direct source of protein for animals and it makes up a percentage of their daily protein requirements.
Traditional supplements on the market are known as direct-fed protein. This is when tubs have a certain percentage of protein right in the tub. While there's nothing wrong with this method, it's just more limited than indirect supplementation technology.
Every Riomax product contains a mineral package known as Esqort®. This is made up of 100% protected key trace minerals. That means that the minerals have the highest scientific possible chance to get through the harsh rumen environment, to the small intestine, and finally into the bloodstream where they can do their job.
Now, what's common in the industry is oxides and sulfates. They're very inexpensive to get, but they're very poorly available to the animal. When oxides and sulfates are consumed, they can make it to the rumen, but they often get tied up there and are rendered useless. They go out the back end, and can even be detrimental to the microbes in the rumen and the microbes in your soil.
Riomax products contain additional technology called ForageBalancer, which allows animals to self-regulate on Riomax supplements.
What does that mean? This technology works with animals to help them consume their supplement in proportion to their forage quality. If the quality of the forage is lower, the animal is able to get the nutrients she needs by consuming more of the supplement. If the quality of the forage is really high, that's great. The animal will be able to self-regulate and consume less of the Riomax supplements.
This technology works regardless of your elevation, your forage type, or your animal breed or age.
Let's talk about results. Because let's be honest, at the end of the day, that's what matters, right?
Across the board consistently, Riomax supplements help ranchers experience between 15% to 30% increase in forage utilization. Whether it means feeding less hay in the winter, stretching your pastures to last longer, getting more days on them without taking more grass off, pushing your hay date off further into the fall, or even increasing your stocking density.
Additionally, Riomax supplements improve conception rates by 3-10%! But not only that, it can also get those cows bred a cycle sooner. That leads right into the next one: when they become bred sooner, that means more days with a calf to put weight on. On average, ranchers using Riomax are able to see a 10 to 40 pound gain on their weaning weights.
And last, but absolutely not least, is herd health on an overall spectrum, including but not limited to:
- Calf vigor. The faster that calf gets up, the faster it gets colostrum, the better that calf's life is.
- Decrease in sickness. Whether it be the cows or the calves, Riomax reduces sickness including pneumonia, scours, coccidiosis, pinkeye, and hoof rot, just to name a few.
The best part is, this isn't just one area's results. These are consistent results across the board, all over North America.
Riomax carries plastic or biodegradable tubs, which range in sizes from 60 to 250-pound options.
