Feeding tubs seems like it's one of those things where you just walk out there, toss the tub, and you don't come back until it's gone and it's time to replace it. I used to think that too, and although it's not rocket science, there is a little bit more thought that goes into placing tubs. So today in this video, I want to talk about when you're using Riomax, what is the best scenario? What is the best ratio, tub placement, cell placement, so that you can have the best success when you get started. Hey, guys. Ashley Kettner with Riomax. We are actually standing on our ranch today because I want to show you a few different things of how we use the Riomax tubs on our ranch, especially with different seasons. So what we're gonna talk about is the initial tub feedings, some factors that can change consumption. We'll talk about high consumption, how to deal with it, low consumption, salt, water, and how to deal with smaller group sizes as well because these are all very, important to make sure you're getting set up the best possible when starting with Riomax. Alright. So for initial tub feeding, we recommend that you put the tubs in an area where the cattle are gonna visit frequently just to make sure that they're seeing them. What I'd recommend is putting one tub to fifty head because of the concentration of the tub. Now, what we recommend with that is to make sure that you have free choice salt. Whether that's salt blocks or loose salt, it's okay as long as you have it out there. And when it comes to the right ratio of salt, I would say two salt blocks to one Riomax tub or one salt block to twenty five head. And remember, the tub, Riomax tub was one tub to fifty head. Now a good practice to start out with right away too is going and putting that salt block right on top of the tub just to help reassure the cattle don't overeat a lot. Now a little bit of overconsumption those first few weeks is normal. It should be expected because they're trying to get their needs met and get everything up to par as expected. So just monitor intake those first three, four weeks, and after that you should start to see that bell curve of consumption start to go down. So factors impacting consumption can be a wide range of things. It could be from weather to the size of your animals. It could be your health status of the animals, stage of production. It can even be the quality of your water or the quality of your feed stuff. There's tons of things that can play a part in bringing consumption up or down, so it's very important that you're following along with some of these practices to help manage consumption on your ranch so you can stay within the range of the particular formula that you're using. Okay, so if you're dealing with high consumption, there's a few things to note. Now first, with the Riomax formulas, by design, they are going to absorb moisture. That means that the first inch or so is gonna get soft after you pull that sticker off and it's sitting out there for a little bit. Now, if you're dealing with high consumption, there's a couple things that you may have heard in the industry is that you put more tubs out to get consumption up, and that's accurate. The more surface area there is, the more availability the the cows have to lick on that that tub. So reminder, the one tub per fifty head with the Riomax, and if you're experiencing high consumption with that, what I would recommend is reducing the number of tubs that you have out there. That would be one option. Another option would be to move the tubs further away from where the animals congregate. Get it out of the loafing area, away from the area that you feed, get it out into the pasture a little ways. A couple other options would be your salt placement. So often we see what will work is if you wanna leave the same number of tubs out there first to try that, okay, but then make sure you're putting salt blocks on top of the tub to help reduce the surface area and make it almost as if you reduce some of those barrels. Now, if you're gonna do that, I would recommend using loose salt if you have the availability of getting loose salt because that seems to be a lot more effective than salt blocks. When you're doing this with the salt blocks though, it's very important that you still have a secondary location of free choice salt away from the tubs to make sure that when they need their salt requirements, they go there, they get them. The salt on the tub is simply to help reduce surface area. Okay. So now let's say you're dealing with low consumption. A few options you can do here, but first before we dive into that, I just want to give you a friendly reminder that if it's green up or you're in some lush pastures, it is natural and normal for the cattle to back down on consumption. But just monitor it. If they're getting below the recommended range, that's when you'll want to implement some of these practices. So low consumption. Some options that you could do is add more tubs so that you have more feeding stations. That simply means there's more surface area for licking opportunity. Another option would be moving the tubs into the congregation area, so wherever the cattle are loafing, whether that be close to the water source, a shelter area that they seem to go to the most, anything like that. Another one that we've tried too is putting the salt either right next to the tub or even better right on top of the tub. That will, when you move that salt source to where the Riomax tubs are at and they're craving the salt, that will actually help bring them closer and then while they're here, because it's convenient and that's just the way cattle work, is they will start licking on the tub because it's there. So that's something we've tried. If you're still seeing that consumption is staying too low and you're needing it to get up, what we've done as well and many other ranchers is they'll completely remove all salt salt sources until the consumption starts to go up. Once it gets back up, then start reintroducing your salt out to that to that herd. Okay. Let's talk about small groups. Earlier, if you remember, we talked about one Riomax tub to fifty head, and I don't want that to freak you out because there's definitely things that we can do to help accommodate for groups under fifty head. So let's use some examples because surface area is a huge factor in helping control consumption or manage consumption up or down. So let's say you have a herd size of twenty five cows with their babies and we need to basically cut the surface area in half. So what I would recommend is taking some salt, whether it's block or loose, and putting it in your tub. So, like, for example, you can take the salt block and put it right in there, and there's still quite a bit of surface area to allow plenty of access for them to get it. We're just taking back a little bit of the surface area to help manage. What I always recommend is that you still monitor the consumption to make sure that we're getting within the range that's recommended for that particular formula. When you're using salt, I go ahead and just pour it on literally half of this tub. They'll push it around and play with it, but that's okay. They'll get it out of their way too when they're ready for the actual Riomax. Now what's important to remember too is that you'll want a secondary salt location somewhere else along with the salt that's going on top of the tub. I'll give you one more example. Let's say you have a group of only ten head. For example, we have seven bowls in a pasture. What works really, really well with groups that small is actually putting two salt blocks inside the tub. I know it looks like it might be covering too much, but I it it works every time. They can get in there. They can get their recommended intake just fine. But again, like always, keep monitoring so you can work with it and manage it properly. If you find it's restricting surface area too much, pull one of them out. Move the tub like we talked in the high consumption, low consumption videos. Play with those too. Move the tubs around until you find what is ideal for that herd size. Okay. So we've talked a lot about salt today, but it's so important, so I wanna reiterate it again. Having an extra salt source out to your herd is very, very important. Cattle have a specific or a range, I should say, of salt requirements every day. So having one salt block to twenty five head or two salt blocks to one Riomax tub are really good rules of thumb to use. You can of course adjust that. If it's a pasture or season that they need more salt, go ahead and put more salt out there. Another thing to reiterate is that loose. If you can get loose salt, I recommend doing that over the blocks. Another thing that seems to kinda go to the wayside that I just wanna touch on is water. It's so so important that we have clean water, fresh water available at all times because the quality of our water has way more to impact than just consumption on the Riomax. It has a direct impact too on herd health and their status, so don't forget about the water. Now a couple things before we close out that I want to mention too is that if you're looking at the bio bricks or already have the bio bricks that is fantastic. They're actually one of my favorite options but I don't recommend that they get used in muddy areas or if you have really low wet spots in your pasture to not put them in there because we don't want the natural moisture of those spots to break down the bio part of the tub. We would rather the cattle do that. So just move them out or just use plastic in those wet muddy spots if you have to. But along with that was storage, wanted to mention real quick. If you have questions on this, go to your go to the website and check it out on the particular container style that you're using. But storage, if they're not if the Riomax is not in a pasture with cattle, then I would recommend keeping them out of the weather elements, out of direct sunlight, out of the rain, out of the snow. Just keep them in a covered shed if possible and protected. Alright. With that, it's a wrap for today, but I hope you have a solid understanding of what to do for your initial tub feeding or if you're having consumption concerns, some practices that you can try and implement. But if there's absolutely anything that was confusing or something that you just want to double check with us, just pick up the phone or email, whatever works for you, but reach out to us because we want nothing more than to help make sure that you are set up with the right tools to manage this the best you can so that you can get the results that you wanna see on your operation.
