#30 | $225 or $600 Lick Tub: Which One Actually Costs More?

I am the same guy with the same passion and the same care and the same heart. Welcome back to that ranching podcast where we address real topics around the kitchen table and further to discuss the comments, the naysayers that we appreciate on social media. So another really common question that we get is around price. So I see one day Anita said, it's worth the same as other companies, two hundred and twenty five dollars and a bit more, not six hundred dollars. It sounds like she might have been from Canada. Yeah. That's correct. Not by the words she used, but just by the price she quoted. So thanks for that input. Duane, what would you say to that? Jeez. Giving me all the tough ones here today. Well, I I can start it off. No. Fair enough, Anita. When I go to the local Ford dealership and I need to buy a pickup for a a new hire, let's say a new sales guy, you know what my first question is? And it's stupid, but it is. It's like, how much is that one over there? And what about that one? And the the Ford salesman, who I know quite well, he looks at me and he says, well, first of all, I mean, I can give you the prices, but what are you trying to get done? Because that one will do x and y and that one will do ten times that. The common denominator is price, so they're like, they start comparing price versus price, which is very fair. What I would like to educate folks on is it's more about what you're trying to get done and then looking at your cost per head per day. With Riomax, have a very concentrated product that they don't need to eat very much a day, one eighth to one third of a pound. And so the cost per head per day is usually the same or less than the El Chipo tubs. And so we just wanna educate folks what are you trying to get done? Like, what's the result of this product? And then what is the cost per day? But that's probably I'm probably off the rails. No. I I was actually the cost per head per day was the first thing where my head goes is upfront cost is one thing. What does it actually cost you? You know, Riomax is a a lot more concentrated. So when you say cost per head per day, cows are gonna eat less of the tub. So a two hundred and thirty five dollar tub, if they eat four of them to one Riomax tub, you know, you're spending just about a thousand dollars in the same time you're spending six hundred and thirty five here up in Canada or, you know, four ninety five here in the US. What I would say further to that, like you said, Trevor, is the results. So okay. So we we look at it and there there's definitely times when we're by far cheaper on a per head per day basis, so it's an absolute no brainer to switch to Riomax. Then there's times when we might be even on a cost per head per day, we might be double the cost of your loose mineral program. In which case, we need to say, alright, if we're gonna do Riomax and it's gonna cost me double, I'm gonna be investing, you know, maybe it's fifty dollars ahead or whatever that cost is over this time period. Now, what am I looking to get done for that extra investment? We may need to look. What what are you currently doing? What results are you currently getting? And if you're gonna invest the six hundred and thirty five dollars in a Riomax tub, what what are you getting that isn't in what you're currently doing? Because there there's reasons why we we cost what we do, and I Trevor, you could say this as the owner, but if we could make a tub for two hundred and thirty five bucks that would do the same thing that the Riomax formula currently does. We'd probably have two hundred semis backed up over here instead of twenty. But my the the point is we agree and are sympathetic that these are very reasonable questions because people do judge things upfront on price. How much is that one? How much is that one? Back to the Ford dealership, imagine if I'm trying to pull a gooseneck trailer, I go there and I say, what's your cheapest pickup? And he says, these Ford Rangers are super reasonable. He's, what are you thinking, just run the kids to school every day and have a weekend truck? I'm like, no, I'm pulling a gooseneck with this thing and he's like, okay, you're gonna need to think of a f three fifty. We wanna get people what they need to get the job done and don't forget to do the due diligence on your cost per head per day. Awesome. So another question we get is folks saying that they never got back to me. I had over consumption or I had some issue, and I feel like they didn't hold up their end of the bargain. As a family business, that is definitely not the experience we want for any any producer. I think it would be fair to say, Trevor, if we agree with this statement, but as a as a company We usually agree, but not always. We've had a fair bit of growth here over the last few years, and we're very thankful for it. A lot of cows joining the Riomax herd, a lot of new dealers joining Riomax, and it's been an awesome journey. With that comes some growth challenges. So when there is situations where, hey, you know, you'd reached out and someone hadn't got back to you, we very much apologize for that. The same token, we there is situations that it does stuff falls through the cracks. So what we would ask is if that's happened to you, please get in touch. You know, if if it if we see something on Facebook, we do our darndest to reach back out. Otherwise, if you shoot us a text, give us a call. You can Google it. Just call our main number. One of the girls will answer and send you over to one of our territory managers or business development guys, resolve twenty four, anyone that's available there. I think it's an absolute priority that if you have a problem or a challenge and you've been a Riomax customer or a Rhyzogreen customer, that we get that that addressed. Would you say? Yeah. Again, I'd say I'm sorry, and it's definitely not the experience that we wish for you, and, we take it seriously. So like Twain said, get in touch. We wanna take care of you. Just another thing to note on that is our dealers, our dealer network, we very much value them and and they are ranchers first, you know. So for for some of these guys, especially in remote areas or poor reception areas and, you know, let's say we're in weaning season or maybe calve the heart of calving. There may be times when there's a couple weeks where that dealer is flat out from dawn till dusk doing what they do on their ranch. And we don't blame them for that. We knew that when we got them started as a dealer. But if there is a challenge where you're not able to get a hold of your dealer or you, you know, maybe that just hasn't the message hasn't got through and back to us. It's not backdooring the dealer to just pick up the phone and give us a call as a company and say, you know, here's my dealer, here's who I work with and this is what I'm running into. We work very closely with our dealers to help service their customers as well. Absolutely. Just reach out to us directly if there's any challenges there. We wanna make sure we get you taken care of, be it through the dealer or just us directly as a company. You're still under them as a as a customer, but we wanna make sure you you have a good experience regardless of of how you're currently getting your product. I will say that and it's not an excuse, but with rapid growth because of the results that guys are seeing, there is growing pains. There is, you know, hiring good people, and I was hearing of a no fence collar company that was growing so fast that they they just simply couldn't hire people fast enough. So is that a bad company? Probably not because something they're doing is working, but damn it, can they hire faster? I very much sympathize with your pain if that's how you're feeling, and I assure you that we will take care of you. And if you have fallen through the cracks, that is not acceptable in our books, and we apologize and wanna make that right with you. Just on that, Trevor, with the hiring talk is as a company, we also do we we wanna make sure we have good people that can answer your questions and do a good job looking after you. So to be quite frank at Riomax, we don't hire anyone and everyone. If we are hiring someone, it we do take a lot of time to put in training to make sure that they're, you know, they're servicing the the industry how we want them to be servicing them. So, you know, if we get someone that comes on board it, it may take six months to a year to fully train someone into their role at a Riomax. And so I'm not saying that as an excuse or, you know, even apologizing for it. It's just more of the facts of it is as we expand and as we grow, we're gonna continue to to do what we can to make sure we're servicing all of the western half of US and Canada. There's challenges that come along with it and we're doing our darndest. Thinking back a quarter of a century ago, which seems like a while, I was a one man band in a one car garage driving an old Buick LeSabre. And at that point, I could control everything our company did because there was only one touch point. Okay? I am the same guy with the same passion and the same care and the same heart, and yes, we've grown, like I said, because of the results, folks. See? And we will strive, might and main, to do the right thing by the people we serve. And if we've let you down or if you feel let down, I am sorry. We wanna, work with you to resolve that, and, please, reach out to us. So I think that wraps us up for this episode of That Ranching podcast. We will see you next week.