Riomax vs. Other Lick Tubs: How We Saved 12 Bales of Hay

We've been in a severe drought for eight years. Within the twenty one days, you're looking at forty bales of hay and at least twelve hundred dollars worth of molasses blocks. We've always used minerals and salts. It's a traditional molasses block. I wanted to cut the cattle back from a sugar diet to more of a natural diet, and that was my main focus. I first started using Riomax in twenty nineteen. The winter, first noticeable effect I had was feeding ten bales a week on fifty head of cattle. Immediately dropped to five bales a week, which then went up to six, but it stayed at six bales a week for the rest of the winter until spring came and then no longer needed any hay. The second thing we've noticed is we went from about a ninety two to ninety seven fertility rate. When I say that ninety eight percent, that's including the first year heifers. So on the calf side, I had a few premature births before using Riomax. And since reusing Riomax, the calves seem to get up right away. I have not had any premature bursts at all. I don't know if it has anything to do with digestive and reproductive system. It seems to at least contribute. They just seem to go and get up faster and move better. Body condition is always maintained both through winter and summer, even with flies and parasites. During the summer and spring now, the grass is a lot more abundant. The cattle seem to be much more relaxed. I mean, I've got a sack of feed here and they're not trying to eat it. They seem pretty content. We've been in a severe drought for eight years. My Riomax tubs on fifty head would last me twenty one days. If I was to use that same concept with the molasses tub, I would put three tubs out a week. I would have fed forty bales of hay and at least twelve hundred dollars worth of molasses blocks. Whereas with one Riomax tub, you spend a little over five hundred dollars and the savings on four bales per week. So you're looking at twelve hundred dollars in hay, not to mention fuel and manpower putting out the hay. It will save you to get through a drought or run more cattle than a place will normally run, especially if you're rotational grazing and any other regenerative ranching practices. Don't let the sticker shock stop you from trying it. Yes, you pay that high price upfront, but the supplement is gonna last longer than if you were to buy any other molasses tub. So your cost over three weeks is gonna be the same. Your cattle condition's gonna be better and your pasture recovery is gonna be faster. Not only are you recovering from them not eating all the grass, but the manure that they are producing and spreading to go back into the ground for the next generation of grass to grow better. So you're winning on three fronts, saving money, saving grass, and producing better grass in the end. I also had cattle in a feedlot for a while. And the main thing I noticed is I was averaging about four fifty a day per head, went down to two twenty five for the second month and was about one hundred seventy five. And at the third month, the lowest month was one hundred fifty six before they went to the butcher shop. They still maintain three pounds of gain per day with half the amount of feed. That's a lot of money over time. You got fifty five head in there, a dollar a head, that's fifty five dollars a day. And they're in there for anywhere from one hundred and twenty to three hundred days. I'll admit, I was a little sticker shocked at first, but I really wanted to get away from the sugar content. That drove me to go ahead and try it. Immediately noticing the difference in the hay cost was the number one shock that I was surprised to find out.