Tom Schnabel

When Tom got started in 2014, he went out at least once/week to measure the consumption and it was right at 0.23-0.27 on almost all the groups. He said he is so impressed! He said he would have bet money that they would over-consume but they have been right on the money right from the start. The first fall he called in absolutely pumped; he had only 1 open out of 55 heifers! They consistently ran 8-10% open on them! They had 12 called open out of 165 head of cows and 61% AI conception! It’s just unbelievable! The barrel is the only thing they have changed. He said he looked at the calves and they are about 50# heavier than last year. “I am sold on this! You have me hook line and sinker”.

He ran 125 cows on a rented pasture, but this year they have 165 head out there and there is still lots of grass left. That’s a 30% increase!  In February of 2015, he said he measured the bulls and “The scrotal measurement was a noticeable difference. We averaged 2-3 cm bigger this year with the tubs!” He also said, “We have had heifers cycling WAY earlier than most years! … we are selling our mineral feeders. Riomax® works so good and it’s so simple to use, I don’t see us ever going away from it!”

Fall of 2015, Tom said he improved breed up even further. 4.5% open on 505 cows! Fall of 2016 Tom mentioned, “We only had 12 open out of 195 cows, 4 open out of 125 cows, and 7 open on 115 replacement heifers! We just can’t believe what these Riomax® tubs do!” His nutritionist said, “This is the most complete and highly formulated tub I have ever seen in my 35 years of consulting!”

May of 2017, Tom said he had 10% open in 2013 before he used our product, the next year was 5%, the year after that was 4.5%, and the next year he had 3.6% open with 500 cows in a 60-day breeding window. Tom said 4.2% on 600 animals total including heifers on a 60-day breeding window – that’s 120 heifers. Fall 2017, Tom said his bull calves’ average weaning weight was right at 800lbs, commercial steers were 725, and purebred heifers were about 730lbs.

Tom starts calving at the end of February. Most calves are March/April with average around April 5th calving.  The way it sits right now, they will be 3.5% open. Bull sale averages $4,000. Commercial is all NHTC certified. 200 steers last year only had 150lb spread. Ran a D3 drought for 9 weeks this summer and consumption ran 0.20lbs/hd/day. Fall 2018, Tom met with Rio territory rep Tom Dvorak and stated, “Very happy with the Riomax® tubs. Got an extra 30 calves. That paid for the whole mineral program“. He has also had heavier calves and better cow condition…it is a no brainer to use Riomax®. Can’t understand why so many people have such a hard time figuring it out when they can see his results and the cost per day is less.