From skepticism to conviction - Riomax brings an interesting transformation to a drought-stricken ranch
Three months is all it took for Leslie Harrison to become a Riomax convert
Harrison Cattle Co.
Arapaho, Oklahoma
“You order a truckload of those things and it’ll take your breath away.” That was Leslie Harrison’s reaction as he was considering a switch from his usual mineral supplement to Riomax360 tubs. He told his Riomax dealer, “You’ve got to be kidding me. There ain’t no way I’m doing that.”
That was in mid-2023. By year’s end, he was committed to putting all his cattle on the orange tubs. The story in those few short months is one that’s repeated time and time again across cattle country.
Harrison and his wife, Jan, operate Harrison Cattle Company, a registered Hereford outfit near Arapaho, Oklahoma, in the western part of the Sooner State. He grew up in Texas Panhandle ranch country, but the lure of the oilfield called him away. However, he ran cattle on the side and eventually left the oil patch and turned to his first love, raising good cattle.
Harrison Cattle Company is comprised of around 4,500 acres, mostly improved pastures with a little farm ground. He runs 250 registered Hereford cows and sells around 50 bulls and 50 bred heifers or pairs every March. Like most, he’s been battling drought.
“About the last three years, it’s been terrible,” he says of the lack of rainfall and its effect on grazing. “We get some rain in the spring and then we don’t get any more, most of the year.” He’s looking forward to a better 2024, however. “We had probably 10 inches of rain in December,” he says, and the moisture recharge should get spring growth off to a good start.
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The cattle winter primarily on pasture. While he doesn’t feed hay to his cows unless there’s snow on the ground, he supplements his cattle with alfalfa cubes to offset the lack of protein in the dry, brown winter grass. And that’s how he became a Riomax convert.
He was intrigued by the claims his Riomax dealer detailed to him. “I talked to other people. I watched all the videos, the webinars (on the Riomax website). So I decided to give it a try.” He bought enough orange tubs to put on three sets of pairs beginning in late summer. “I told my wife, ‘We’re going to try this. One thing about it, we can always go back to buying feed and feeding it if this doesn’t work.’”
At first, he wasn’t convinced. “But as time went on, I got to comparing those cows to my other ones and they actually looked better with less feed. When we weaned calves, my wife said, ‘These cows and calves look a lot better than the others.’”
Their hair coat was better, shinier. Not only that, the calves weighed more. That was after only three months of being on the Riomax tubs.
What’s more, the cattle supplemented with Riomax consumed half the amount of cubes than his other cows and flourished on the dry, droughted-out pastures. The price for the cubes he feeds used to be $240 per ton. “Now they’re $420 a ton in about three years.”
Among the ways to look at that is this: If his Riomax cows consumed half the amount of cubes as his other cows, that rolled the price back to $210 per ton. Applying the $210 in savings against the cost of the Riomax tubs quickly proved their worth.
Then there’s this: “The rest of my cows have been on other brands (of tubs). And I’m using about three tubs to one of Riomax in the same period of time. So you know what? Technically, that’s the same amount of money,” he adds.
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“The reproduction deal and the other stuff, the health and all that, I’ve had guys tell me that their calves are healthier, their cows breed back better,” he says. “We’re still I’d say another year to a year-and-a-half from really seeing that because we’re too young using it at this point. But we should see it next fall after we keep them on it all winter and through the spring and summer.”
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In addition to his registered cattle operation, Harrison owns a feed store. “I tell a lot of people who come through our feed store, ‘I can’t definitely prove it. I can’t sit down and black and white say this is what it’s done. We’re too early. But I can tell you I see a difference. And for me to quit, go to all Riomax, I think that says that I believe in it.”
It will take a while, however, for the transition to the orange tubs to be complete. He has contracts with other companies to supply his mineral for the ranch. “As soon as those expire, every animal is going on Riomax.”
In fact, he’s so committed that he asked the company to put together an ad to include for free in his sale catalog he sends to Hereford breeders across the country. “I think it’s pretty much proved itself as far as I’m concerned.”