That Ranching Podcast

Why would we want to sustain a resource that's been so degraded over time? We want to rebuild that resource. I'm actually looking forward to our children, our son, our daughters coming back. Know, all our kids can be around. Mean, that's that's a big wish and a big dream. Nobody wants to inherit a break even business. Welcome back to That Ranching Podcast. Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Lindsey and Shane Maddock here at Matic Ranch Supply, Maddock, North Dakota. A lot of Maddocks there. Yeah. Can you folks introduce yourself? Start with you, Shane. I'm Shane Maddock. We're our ranchers in Central North Dakota here, North Of Maddock. This is my wife Lindsey. We own Maddock Ranch Supply in Harvey, North Dakota. Feed mix, it's a feed mill in Harvey, North Dakota also. We have four kids. We have three daughters and one son. And so we get to be ranchers and parents and raise our family in the midst of it so. That's really cool. Business owners so. Yeah. So you're you're ranching and you're doing business and you're raising a family, there's a lot of irons in the fire. So any of the kids getting old enough to help? Yes. Our oldest is 13. Okay. And probably more so reluctantly but she is a great helper when she wants to be. Yes, they are. And the younger ones, they'd love to be part of everything, know, in on all the actions. Have anywhere from 13 to 10, a six year old and a three year old. Okay. Well, rarely do we leave the house without somebody who's like, can I come with? Can I come with? Yeah. Yeah. Well you guys are... It's of intriguing to me because the the way your family operates and and you're all working together, but you're doing some things different. And I don't say that in a bad way, but sometimes in life I think it's not a bad idea to challenge status quo. Not for change sake, but for doing the right thing sake. And I often joke with Riomax, we were all natural before all natural was like a good buzzword or a cool thing. We did all natural right from 2006 because it was we felt it was the right thing to do. So maybe you can walk us through a little bit on your ranch, Your approach to ranching and running that holistically. Sure, yeah. So first I'll say, I'm a fourth generation rancher on a first generation ranch. In 2014, me and Lindsey had the opportunity to go and strike out on our own and form our own ranch and so we took that opportunity. And then later on, we had the opportunity to bring my brother and my dad in to the fold and we brought two ranches together to make one again. But from the get go and since I was a little kid, we've always been regenerative in our approach to ranching. Whether it's cell grazing, intensive grazing, mop grazing, it's always bale grazing, cover crops. It's always been first and foremost what's best for the soil. And so before we make any decision, before we put crops in, form a grazing plan, it's always like what is best for our soil, what's gonna be most beneficial for the soil and for us and make us the most profit? So the soil is at the... It's really foundational to this whole thing. And then you use that as a lens to make every decision through. That's really cool. So using that as a lens or decision making pivot point is... Does that... Has that changed the way you do things? Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know, I don't I don't just do the status quo. Yeah. Whatever what my neighbor's doing, what the guy down the road is doing, know. And maybe those guys are making money, but I'm looking through the lens of, okay, I wanna build this for the long term and I want the lowest input put I can with the highest return. How can I get that soil to be highly fertile and raise the best crops possible without throwing a bunch of input into it? Yeah. That's great. And we always say work with mother nature not against her. And that sounds like a bit of a cliched term but it's so true because when you start working with that natural cycle, the mother nature had this figured out before man tried to do his thing and so that's what I I I think it's such a inspiring story that you don't have to be... Some people think of regenerative ag as sort of out there and you're just normal people doing it but but you're making your decisions different and that's what's what I'm getting here. For sure. And you know, like you said it's... Mother Nature has always done it this way. It was not until the modern agriculture one hundred and fifty years ago when we started trying to force our ideas on how to do this. But if we go back a thousand years ago, when the bison roamed the plain, you know, they had that herd mentality, they stuck together and there would be thousands and tens of thousands in one herd. And they would move and they'd trample and they'd lay dung and urinate all over the land and then they would move on. Yeah. And that land had ample time to rest and recover before anything else returned. Yeah. That... Impact. Right. Yep. That's how we got those tremendous, the tremendous deep soils of these plain... In these plains. Yes. Yeah. And there's documentation from way back then with the... Would they say riding horse and through those those prairies with grass that was shoulder high to a horse. I mean, there's a lot to that and I think regenerative agriculture has a bit of a thing that it's the new thing, a bit of a fad. In fact, it's actually age old. Yeah. Going back to... It is. We're just trying to figure out what mother nature had you know, before we man arrived. That, how do you see the Riomax and the Rhyzogreen playing in? Are they helping that journey or are they sort of an addition to or where do they fit? It fits wonderfully really. Mean even just the other day when we were out moving cows and then we moved the tubs with them and it's like, well right over there is some Kentucky bluegrass. We want less of that, right? It's just an invader. So, that's where we put our tub. So, now we are gonna get the animal impact there and hopefully reduce our invaders and get more of our native species to come back. In that same particular area, we had had a gopher problem at one point in time. And so, I think there's a lot of just feeding the soil, whether it be with the animals doing it, the manure, I think Shane wants to talk a little bit about the manure. We'll let him have that moment but... Not yet. I think that that manure breaking down and bringing the helping, you know, that soil come back to life and so many factors feeding that. Yeah. It goes together beautifully. So. It does, yes. Yeah, well that's that's really cool. Maybe you can take us into the manure, that's one of my favorite subjects and and the reason I like manure is because it's a metric that you can see with your eyes. You can scrape a stick through it and look at the the texture, the consistency and it's... It takes science and makes it like dummy down so even I can understand it, but... Well, yeah. And the thing about Riomax and as you know Owens and most people that are using Riomax is it's a it's a natural product, it's natural minerals. They're easy digestible. There's no sulfates or oxides in it. So what goes in an animal ultimately comes out of an animal and as on our goes on to our pastures on our soils and our soil microbes, if there's something in there that they don't like, they don't wanna eat, our insects don't wanna be in there, those paths won't break down. And then before we started with Riomax, I would have manure paths that would last year, two, before they had ever break down. I probably drive out to the pasture now and find manure paths that are four years old if I really wanted to find them. From prior to Rio? Prior to Rio. Yeah. But, since we switched to Rio, it takes about three weeks and those manure paths are completely gone. Yeah. So, and that was one of the first things I noticed. I'm kinda, I don't know if I would call myself a manure nerd, but that's one thing I really pay attention to on our regenerative system is, okay, how much how much manure and urine am I getting spread across our pastures? Is it getting too concentrated? And then how fast is it breaking down? Cause I wanna utilize those nutrients in I'm the glad you said that part cause that's... I'm maybe not a manure nerd, but I love to find ways to get more out of what we've already got. So if you got an acre or you got a thousand acres and you have better breakdown of your manure, you're gonna get more production because the nutrients are going into the root zone and the dung beetles are a lot of times part of that transportation mechanism to get it into the root zone. But that's what I love about regenerative agriculture is because you're basically spinning this natural flywheel And then it keeps spinning. It does, yeah. Yep, for sure. So, just back to Riomax. Anything else that you're seeing in terms of what results, hay savings, forward saving, weaning weights that sort of plays into this story? Well, yeah. Definitely, we've increased our carrying capacity on the acres that we've had. I'll go back, our first year on Rio, I think was '23, maybe '22, I can't remember. But it was a horrible, horrible dry year. So maybe an inch of rain all summer long. And by the middle of July, I mean, were browning up. But we were using Rio and our pastures were kinda hanging hanging in there. We reduced the number of acres it took to graze a cow by one and a half acres that year. And, we saved a 100 acres of pasture for the following year. Okay. In a in a major drought. We were d four drought that day. When most people were pulling off of grass early. You were doing the opposite. You were doing the opposite. So you saved an acre and a half. What is it like five acres per... Yeah. With our regenerative system, we were doing between five and six acres and then when we added Rio into it, it's been like four to four and a half. Yeah. For sure, yep. And it comes back to, you know, what you're talking about carrying capacity, it comes back to the financial side of it then. Right? It's not just regenerative ag to be doing good things for the next generation. It's actually got a financial aspect, does it? Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, we have to be financially profitable in this business if we want our... If we wanna build a legacy that will carry on to our children, our grandchildren. Nobody wants to inherit a break even business. Yeah. And we wanna pass on profitable businesses that will, you know, will surpass generations. Yeah. So, yes. So Riomax and and Rhyzogreen are a great tool to help us achieve those goals. And I'll you talk to Rhyzogreen just to introduce it to the listeners. Taking the same science of feeding microbes in the rumen of a cow with Riomax, So there's more of them, they're more active, they do a better job of extracting nutrients. We do, we use that same science in the soil to feed your native soil microbes. Here we are in North Dakota and we're feeding your North Dakotan microbes. Right? We're not trying to introduce some foreign species. We're feeding your native microbes. And and they serve to unlock the nutrients in the soil and make them plant available. So that's sort of how the science works. But what does that look like on the ranch? Does it sound like a bunch of foo foo dust like I'm saying or? No, it's not. It's real thing when you feed those soil microbes and they're able to go to work for you and release those nutrients. It's amazing what the plants will do with that natural organic, I guess you could call it fertilizer or nutrients that it's able to pull up and and utilize how much more dense and nutritious that plant will become. Yeah. Yeah. You've used it on your corn silage? We used it on corn silage this year, yep. Yep. So... How did you get along? There's a major difference. I think we're gonna be in that... We're gonna probably be anywhere from 10 to five to 10 tons more per acre than we normally would that would run-in this area. And, that's saying we were even... We were really dry in July too. So... So, it wasn't like you just had a really good year of moisturizing. No. Shut off. Yeah. For a long time. Yeah. Okay. So what would the average be then? Like a tons per acre? Between fifteen and twenty tons in this area. That would be the average. Yeah. And what what what do you... We're gonna we're gonna push that 25 to 30 ton range I think. Okay. Yeah. So, yep. The silage corn is probably 12 feet tall. Wow. So, and I I got you know, the ears on it are probably that long and Okay. It's it's pretty significant different. Well, I I think you know, we're we're not here to say you gotta move away from fertilizer or Rhyzogreen can eliminate fertilizer. But it certainly can help you unlock and and extract more goodness out of the fertilizer that makes a plant available. For sure. So if you're spending you know, every dollar you spend on fertilizer you get more out of to the plant. Because there's a high percentage of fertilizer that is not plant available, it's in a locked up form. So, you're paying for it but you're not getting the benefit of it. And the missing key or catalyst is life in the soil. Surprise again. So we talk about Q fifty at Rhyzogreen Nutrition. Our quest to increase ranch efficiency by 50%. And that's looked at from two ways, one is Rhyzogreen helping get more production per acre, we see 10 to 30% increase as an average. And then Riomax helping get 15 to 30% more savings. So we're producing more forage and we're using less forage. So you start compounding that, you do see that 50% increase in efficiency. What are you guys seeing or how does that math look like to you in day to day ranching? Was it last year we're on that webinar? What did I call it? Rancher math or monkey math? But I I'd said you know, if we'll just take a 100 cows for example, if we can use Rhyzogreen and increase our pasture forage growth by 15%, well ultimately that's 15 more cows we're able to run on the same amount of acres. Right. So and then if we add Riomax into that equation and on the conservative side, we can do another 15%. Well now we've increased our carrying capacity from a 100 cows to over a 120 cows. Yeah. With just adding Rhyzogreen and and that ultimately is not only pays for itself, return on that is really good. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you add in heavier weaning weights, better conception rates and I think our cows go into winter better than they ever have in the past condition wise is very good. That's cool. So, there are a lot more successful coming out of winter when they go in looking good. Yeah. Having some condition on them especially up here in North Dakota. I was just out at a customer's place last week and he just started on Riomax's last spring. And I went out to to the pasture and we're looking at his cows and those cows came running up and I go, wow, those cows look like they've been on Riomax and he said, they're the best they've ever looked. Is that right? Yeah. A dry year. In a dry year. Yeah. So... Yeah. So he was pretty... He was really happy with how Riomax has been working out for him. Well well, in regenerative ag you talk about efficiency. You know, efficiency is almost more important than just profitability in isolation. And there was an old guy that said to us years ago, he said he said to me, son, efficiency will never go out of style. Mark my words. And here we are probably twenty five years since he said that. And efficiency is what we're talking about here. Efficiency is what you're measuring in regenerative ag. Efficiency is not trying to you know, starve a profit out of a cow or you know, just really just go for yield and yield only. It's looking at that longer term flywheel and working with mother nature. For sure. Definitely. And you know regenerative egg too, know. We out there is this saying not too long ago you know sustainable agriculture but why would we want to sustain a resource that's been so degraded over time? We want to rebuild that resource so that I think that's when the regenerative, regenerative eggs been out forever but everyone started really pushing that term regenerative agriculture. We want to build things back up, we want to regenerate it. Yeah. But just with that mindset and using those methods of regenerative agriculture, it's amazing how much more efficient you can get just with that alone and then you add in some of these other tools that come along with it and it just makes us ranching enterprise just so much more profitable, but it's more fun to just go out look at your cows too and how they're functioning and how your soil is functioning. Yeah. I mean, you get to the fall of the year and you have ample grass that normally you would have it grazed off because... Right. And you just got more grass than you know what to do with. It's really fun to be in the ranching world when you're doing that. Yeah. I I think we're kinda getting into the the core of this and this how it makes you feel when you're working with an abundant ecosystem. And it's an abundance mindset and you're working in sync with mother nature and you're seeing the results. So talk to me a little bit about the legacy. When you get this flywheel going and you got the next generation as you alluded to earlier, how does that look? Well, I mean we obviously have a passion for agriculture and raising cattle and livestock and I think more so it's the way of life you know. And I don't know that kids really learn to appreciate that, I probably didn't as a child learn to appreciate it until you're an adult, right? So, on a day to day, maybe they don't always see the benefits of the lifestyle we're living, but I think once they maybe go to college and come back and they're gonna want to raise their family in the same sort of system and you know within the different businesses that we have going on but the base of it is the ranch you And that's kind of what started it all so I think they'll want to provide that for their family too. And not only that too, it's whenever you do something, know, when you work hard at something that you want some rewards with that too. With the way we're ranching and the products we're using and stuff like that, we get to experience those rewards hopefully our children get to see how that affects us and want to have those same feelings and strive for those same things. Yeah, that's really cool. And you think about you know, passing on to the next generation. If you pass on a wore out farm that had just had all the nutrients just mined out of it or even a cow herd that was very dependent on synthetic inputs to prop it up, you wouldn't feel that good in handing that on to your own offspring. I wouldn't know. Whereas, how do you feel handing something like this on? Oh, yeah. I'm actually, we talk about it all the time. I'm actually looking forward to our children, our son, our daughters coming back and hopefully bringing husbands back. Maybe if we continue on this path, with what we've already built, there'll be enough there to be able to have four families working on it and you know all our kids can be around. I mean that's a big wish and a big dream but that would be you know if we keep going and our land is functioning and our cattle are functioning and all these things are working together for the good of things, I could see having at least two of my children coming back and being part of it. But regardless if they come back or not, they're still taking with them what they learned. Right. And wherever that takes them at least they still have that foundation. Yeah. Well, this is great. It's a great discussion and I think it brings hope back into agriculture. Agriculture has taken a bit of a beating over the years. I think breathing some life back into it, some regenerative approach, healing the land, working with mother nature but then you know the family aspect and that regenerative, that generational aspect is heartwarming. Brings life back into agriculture. Good. Any further comments to the viewers on regenerative ag? I would just encourage if if you're curious, there's a lot of great organizations out there that promote it. North Dakota, we have the North Dakota Grazing and Coalition. There's the Leopold Sand County Foundation. NRCS is a great resource to... They're really starting to dig into some of the more regenerative things instead of just handing out money for programs. They really wanna dig into these regenerative programs and and really help guys get to a point so it's not so financially burdensome in the beginning to get some of these things going. And get it started. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good. Thanks for joining us today and thanks for joining us on this That Ranching podcast. We will see you again next Thursday morning.

Agriculture is about keeping food on the table, keeping a community, being involved in in what's happening around you, and and caring enough to be involved. Well, back to That Ranching Podcast. We're thrilled to be in Tatum, New Mexico today joined by Brad Harris sitting at the kitchen table. Brad, can you introduce yourself to the viewers? Absolutely. I'm Brad Harris and we are a five and six generation ranching farm family here in Southeastern New Mexico. Our family came here. They homesteaded here before it was even a state and we're just grateful to be here today in this hot wonderful summer day out here where it rains all the time. And and where you can definitely see a jackrabbit running across the prairie for the dirt that he throws up. So, thank you We for having we are one and a half miles from the Texas line. But this used to be Texas and then they re. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. We're we're on a historic ranch. You said 5 5th And 6th. Yes. And I I like that because it it kinda alludes to the topic we wanna touch on today that is so near and dear to our heart and and everybody in ranching is the generational aspect, know. But before we get into that Brad, maybe for the viewers, tell a little bit about your operation here and your family and Absolutely. Yeah. Well, you know, we've We have a seed stock operation and we raise registered Angus bulls and we service a large area of commercial breeders that that are raising, you know, more of a top a top end commercial type herd that will, you know, perform in the feed yard, that will perform on the ranch, that will, you know, yield more, you know, more red meat for for what we're what what they're consuming here. You know, our our environment here is semi arid. I mean, mostly arid. We don't always have rain. We've gotta produce we've gotta produce as much as we possibly can and then get the most out of it. Yeah. And so with that being said, our operation is an operation where we're here to try to serve our our community, our friends, the different people that we'll meet. We work extensively on every aspect of the cattle market that we can. We operate in a cow calf operation, we operate in stocker operation, we operate in feeding cattle all the way through to the end. And we're currently working on things where we can look at the end, the packing end of it, and being able to evaluate, you know, things like nutrient density and things of that order so that we can better serve, you know, the the public. So it's really broad. I love it. And and we were just in the Texas Panhandle earlier today. So obviously, that's the home of a lot of know, lot of beef is fed there. A lot of feed lots and and I think in that area is where the originally the the way red beef is is grated. It came out of that, you know, as far as your marbling. And so I'm not here to challenge the status quo or the the way beef is graded, but it is graded on marbling which is the fat within the muscle. But Brad, you mentioned an interesting thing that I think is a very under loved subject, and and I think we're gonna see more developments on this. It's not the topic of this podcast, but it could be a future one. You said nutrient density. You know, imagine going to the store and selecting not just on fat in your meat, which is great by the way, love beef, love marbling, but but on nutrient density, perhaps iron levels, vitamin a, d. And and we've seen the maha movement make America healthy again. And suddenly, beef has gone from something that was almost frowned upon, red meat. And now, as as Secretary Kennedy said, it's at the center of the plate. And it should be. But I think we're gonna see beef taking steps further towards a health food because it is. It's it's it packs a plethora of nutrients there, but no one's getting rewarded on it. Or are they? Maybe you've got something we don't know yet. Well, you know, I think that these are these are all things that we have to put into the equations. And and the the equation that's set is we come to the table realizing that there is a a mathematical equation that we don't have the answer to. And it's there for a reason, because we're supposed to be the ones that find the answer to it. In agriculture, we have a plethora of problems. And when I'm saying problems, I'm referring more to the idea when you go to math class and the teacher's written up on the board a bunch of math problems that need to be solved. And it's not a problem, it's that it begs an answer. Yeah. And so, in today's world, we have to be careful to not fall into the trap of the idea that all problems have already been answered. There's a unique set of problems for each generation that need to be answered. They beg to be answered. That's why we're here today, and this is why we're in this world today, is to answer these questions and to find the answers to them. So, in years past, when you consider health of a nation and people working hard outside and doing all of the things that involved, you know, everything from active lifestyle to coming into the world that we're in today where we're air conditioned, thank God, and we're heated and A 106 out there. A 106 out there. Yeah. Yeah. We turn on the we turn on the water and we can get a drink. We don't have to worry about whether we've got water in the cistern or not because it rained or didn't rain. I mean, we've fought generations before us have solved a lot of equations and given us answers. Now we come into this scenario, agriculture today, with problems that beg answers. And so we have things, health things that are going on. We have climate change that's going on. We have all kinds of of of things that are, you know, beyond our control that if we come together, we have an opportunity to to find answers. We were created to come up with answers. Yeah. I I think it's really our our responsibility to lean into some of these issues that face us. And I've been accused sometimes of having a dream that might only ever be a dream. One of them is in in the feedlot starter phase, know, days is to get by with minimal antibiotic usage. Not because I'm against antibiotics, But on the flip side. I'm all for a healthy end product that relies less on on Stimuli or props. Okay, so and I've said I have a dream that we can get away from antibiotics at that highest risk, highest stress time of that calf's life. People laugh at me and they probably should. But I will say that once you have a dream and you're chasing a goal that is, according to the general public unreasonable and not possible, you will find that doors start opening. That's right. And I think to your point, we have problems in different maybe different set of challenges in different generations. But I think it dovetails well, Brad, into what we'd like to discuss today. And that is, if I could say, there's a problem in agriculture that me or you alone can't do anything about. We can we can't change the world, but we can maybe influence some things. And that is, I walk into your your ranching operation, your house, and I'm I'm met by your family, and there's there's a unmistakable generational vibe. And it's quite different to what you find in a lot of ranches. I am privileged to get on a lot of ranches all over the Western 0.5 of The US and Canada. But we see the youth moving away. They're going to the the coasts, or they're going to the cities, or they're going to the oil fields. And fair enough. Maybe they've got their reasons because they're looking to earn a a better living or is that something we could talk about today, Brad? Absolutely. You know, Trevor, I've been blessed with the the opportunity to raise eight children. And I have currently two daughters and and six boys. And we've sent them, you know, the older ones that are college age have been, most of them been through college and, you know, and and studied, you know, studied ag programs and with the intent of trying to come back and find a way to make viable things that that don't seem viable. To make possible what seems impossible. So I mean the way that the way that I like to explain it the best that it it makes sense to me is there's ag industry and then there's agriculture. And an ag industry is is a beautiful tool in the hand of agriculture. But ag industry having agriculture in its hand is a really bad mistake. Because industry is focused on on the on the return on investment. It's it's about stocks. It's about portfolios and how things operate. Agriculture is about keeping food on the table. Keeping a community. Being involved in in what's happening around you and and caring enough to be involved. Yeah. And so, ag industry developed out of agriculture. And and and so we're in a time when the focus has gotten to be about ag industry and how do we push push push push push and turn this into a bottom line and that be the only focal point. But we forget that it's agriculture is where the grid is. Agriculture is where people meet people. That's where the the consumer has the opportunity to put a face behind the producer. To connect back to the land that they may not ever know, they might not ever you know, own, but they have an opportunity to say, is a family. This is a real people. This is generations. Well, I I think there's a there's a quote iron sharpeneth iron and you've just said something that kind of hits me because at Rhyzon Nutrition our purpose and you can find it online. I'll say it right now is driving profitability back to rural North America. So I say that and I'm like, boy, what you've just said, that that sounds more like ag industry. And industry has a lot less of a of a you know, it's it's got less life to it than what you say ag culture, agriculture. Culture versus industry. And I've been thinking about this and and we've been talking about it at with the family the family business and You know we we're not going to back down from our drive to help impact profitability in a ranching or farming operation because that's part of you know having a functioning ecosystem and keeping the youth But it's much bigger than USD or Canadian dollars. It's much bigger than that. It includes that, but I mean I I think we need to be relooking at our purpose in the light of is it more about and I'm gonna throw this out there. You can shoot holes in it. Is it more about helping folks earn a good living in ag and live a good life and leave a good legacy? How does that sound? You know, think that that is a a That it's noble. It's noble in task and purpose. You know, and along the same lines of earn a good living, it put it into into a context. You know, you can go and and a person can earn a good living. If I'm a doctor or I'm a lawyer, can earn a good living. But that doesn't mean that my kids are gonna get anything from that. They are gonna have to become a doctor or a lawyer Yeah. And then they're gonna have to step up and do their own thing. Now, in agriculture, if we can help them do the very things that you spoke of along with give them a vision. A vision. A vision for that future. Yeah. Then then out of the vision for the future that that we can help them get. Then they will have the strength, the fortitude, the grit necessary to pursue it and and see it come to pass. So when I when I think about a vision, I think about you know an idea that that encompasses the desire of the heart first. And and the desire of the heart is to is to be needed and have a purpose. Because you can you can you can fall short of a million things, but if you have a purpose and you're needed, you'll find a way. As a as a parent, as someone who is going to lay something and and and hopefully an inheritance up for my children or maybe a dream up for my children. You know, I have to be able to articulate and hand off a purpose. And if if we take a purpose like agriculture and we say, you know, a purpose in agriculture is is is multifaceted. But the first and most important purpose in agriculture is to reconnect the populace, the people back to the provider, the source. And so in agriculture, we are a direct link to connect people back to God, To the Creator. And when we do that, we find that in that, we have an opportunity to teach people how to be giving and how to care and put other people's needs before ourselves. And when we do that, then we begin a process of building what maybe maybe the maybe one of the hardest things in in in our society in in agriculture as a whole is helping the next generation build on a foundation that won't be divided. And that begins with marriage. And so, if we can put purpose before we put marriage, then marriages hold together. Then families hold together. And then people grow. So, to find purpose is and meaning is is where a vision is. And if you don't believe that there's a purpose and a meaning for the next generation in agriculture, then you're you're pouring cold. You're pouring water on the fire. Because there is a purpose and a meaning. You just don't believe it yet. And if we paint the picture that that it ends all with us and you know, the last thing I want is you know, going back into the seventies and the eighties and things of that order. And even the nineties, know, people, young people would leave the farm and they'd be like, when I got off that tractor, when I turned 18, was the last time I fed those cattle. Told I my dad, here's the keys. I really appreciate it. We'll see you later. I'm gonna go make a living for myself. I'm not I'm tired of doing this. To where I wanna see the kids, you know, get off of whatever they were doing, the tractor or the horse and say, man, I loved it today. It was hard and it was great. You know, I'm glad we got to do this dad. The funnest times I ever had is when we all work together. Yeah. You know, I want that to be a culture, a legacy we pass on and we wanna give them an opportunity to do that. And that's what I appreciate about Riomax and what you guys are doing. Because for that very reason is how we met. I mean, because of the point I was looking. Was saying, hey, how in the world am I gonna take these yearling bulls and keep flesh on them and while they're in breeding season to my customers and you know, these guys, know, it's it's nobody wants to be feeding in in in April and May and June, know, but we don't have steady rains and we don't know what's gonna happen and and so how do we keep these bulls in good shape? And so that brought me to Riomax. And and so with that in mind, it has filled a whole lot of other equations and help me find answers to that help me be more successful and help my customers be successful. And so that in mind is what what started me on Riomax is how can I help them be successful with their operation? Notice he he keeps using this word help. And and I love that because as long as we're helping folks Yep. And the like the Riomax dealers are driven to help. Yep. Make an impact not just financially, but also that that leaving a legacy being good stewards of the land, but having something to pass on and and and and giving a vision as you said, I think is is exactly what we need, but to your point, if if we can create a Ag system, agriculture that has a true culture to it. Where young people are thrilled they're attracted to stay. It's not easy. Nothing worthwhile in life is. Nothing that I found anyway. But I think you'll find that with purpose and and a vision that it'll attract the youth back. Imagine more young people coming back into ranching and farming. I mean how many towns have I driven through in the last two decades dead or dying towns. Right. And again, can't change the world, but can we can we light a fire in people's hearts to show that there there is a way. There is way we can do this and the answer is not necessarily Rhyzor or Trevor but can we be part of it maybe but if nothing else if we can work to bring the culture back in to ag, so we've got agriculture and it's worthwhile, the juice is worth the squeeze. Absolutely. You know, Trevor, this is one of the things that I'm really passionate about. And I was reading a book the other day. There was an Andy Andrews book. And one of the quotes he was talking about is he was talking about in history that we've been sold a bill of goods, an idea that, you know, children were were going to overpopulate the world to the point that the world wouldn't have enough resources. And and he went through and and he really he did a lot he did the research and then just showed. He said, look, there has never been children that starved due to the fact there weren't enough resources available except for the fact when there were tyrannical governments and people doing evil things. Because always always there's been enough. And we've risen to the to the occasion to help and to come forward with what was necessary to supply what was needed. Now, that being said, in agriculture, we've taken the same we took the same bad medicine. We said the farm's not big enough to support us all. The ranch won't support us. We don't have enough money. We don't have enough capital. We don't have enough, you know, there's not enough land for everybody. We can only have one or two children. Maybe one can come back and have this thing. And we bought into that bill of goods as a whole and we have to change. If we wanna change what's out there, have to change what's in here. So we've gotta we've gotta be believers ourselves. We have to believe that we don't have to be dividers of things but we can be multipliers of it. And, if we can surround ourselves with that kind of a view and believe that, we can see it. I promise you, you know, the inventions of the days, the the the you know, everything from our our internet to our I mean, you can sit there and ask your phone questions and it can search the databases of everywhere and then give it to you instantaneously now. And all of these things were not answered, you know, ten years ago. And and twenty years ago, they weren't in people's mind. But once they started becoming in their mind, they became a reality. You know? And so, what can we do as agriculture if we are willing just to dream a little bit and get a little vision beyond. Instead of looking at it and saying, hey man, I'm already sold on the whole idea that this next generation just will not have enough. You know? And so, we're out here in the desert so to speak. It's getting hotter. It's been hotter. We get rains, you know. We have more drought years than rainy years. But that's not that's not a reason for me to tell my kids, look, there's not gonna be enough for all of us. I look at them and say, hey, you know what? You have You were put into this world to be To to find answers and to be an answer. You didn't break this world. This world has has strategic math problems for you to find answers to. And when you do that, the world will be better because of it. And it's gotta start here. Well, think that, almost wraps us up. Very inspiring. Yes, there's challenges. Yes, there's problems. But I think as Brad has alluded to, it's on us in agriculture to lean in. And you know, you spoke about the the fallacy or the the idea, crazy idea that we would run out of resources. I don't support that. And we always have a saying, you know, get more out of what you've already got. The audience has possibly heard me say that before. Get more out of every acre. Get more out of every mouthful. Get more out of every cow. Get more out of your ranching operation. And the first thing you need to get more out of though, before all that happens, is get more out of your frame of reference and your you know perhaps how you see the world and I think Brad is giving us some awesome ideas and how to think differently and give the next generation the hope they need to stay in. Yes. We need resilience. Yes. We need, toughness, but, it's a great industry, and, I'm proud to be a small puzzle piece in this. Brad, as we wrap up, I I wanna thank you for having us here at Tatum, New Mexico. And as always, thanks for joining us, and we will see you next Thursday morning. Thank you.

The risk is greater than ever. Record prices are awesome, but the financial risk and liability of owning these calves, it's intense and it's stressful. Well, welcome back to That Ranching Podcast. Today, we're lucky to be in Lubbock, Texas at Texas Tech sitting here with Doctor Ryan Rathmann. Doc, introduce yourself to the listeners. Yeah, you bet. Thank you for having me. My name is Ryan Rathmann. So I'm a beef cattle professor here in the animal and food sciences program. And so most of my career I've spent coaching the livestock judging team. But by trade, I'm I'm a reproductive physiologist and a rumenant nutritionist and really, really just passionate about moving the beef industry forward, whether that be in on repro or nutrition or health or meat science and growth and development. Just an enthusiast for the industry and really enjoy research and research that's practical, right? That can truly make a difference for our stakeholders that being cattle producers at every level. Well I really respect what you've just said and I think we have a strong alignment right out of the gate when you said just doing things to move the industry forward. You're doing it in your capacity, we're doing it in ours. Yes sir. But the net result is the people we serve, the beloved beef industry here in America. You know, I first met Doctor Rathmann at Hemphill Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas April this year, April twenty twenty six. Ever since that time, I've wanted to sit down and have a podcast to help glean and have you share with our viewers some of the insights that for me was an 'Aha' moment back in April. So doc, if you could just speak a little bit about in my terms that energy redirection. I think that's cool both for the cow calf folks and for the feedlot space. It applies to both. Absolutely. Yeah. Let me talk on that just a little bit and then you can redirect me if you need me to go a different direction. Okay? So, yeah. I I really enjoy evaluating beef cow efficiency and trying to figure out, you know, a lot of the talks like the talk I gave that day honestly was aimed at trying to decipher the most optimal cow size as defined by mature weight. And then also her milk production level. That's kind of a cow herd level, because we're talking about means. Not every cow is gonna be the same size, the same milk level. Right? And so we're talking about striking that optimum for your cow herd. Then we do a lot of research as well looking at individual cows and differences amongst them that make some more energetically efficient versus others, right? And so I think in the long run we've got to get a better handle on this. So from a genetic selection standpoint, we can start to identify these genetic lines that are more energetically efficient, that do more with less, that are, you know, healthier and just, you know, convert God's grass to more total pounds of beef and maybe specifically pounds of lean at the very end of the system. And so that's where my heart's at. That's where I like investigating. And where I think honestly some of the low hanging fruit is in our beef industry. If we're going to make really true strides in reducing our carbon footprint to produce a pound of beef, I think it lies a lot in what we're about to talk about. And so that day, you know, I think what sparked your interest was talking about the cow. I think first you need to you need to take a step back and say, hey, what is the cow spending most of her energy on? And most of her energy, about seventy percent of it in the in her production year is gonna be spent on maintenance. And so, just to make sure we're all on the same page, maintenance energy is basically if you fed a cow, x number of calories and she neither gained nor lost weight, she you'd be feeding her at maintenance. Right? And so when you'd start to break that maintenance requirement down, what I was actually mostly after that day was discussing how much of it is utilized by her GI tract. So I kind of missed the point, the main point you were making. No its all good, we'll get there. We'll get there. This is like my catch up day. About thirty eight to fifty four percent of a cow's energy consumption that's dedicated towards maintenance is going to be consumed by the liver and the GI tract. And a big part of that is the liver. I generally I just generally round it and say the liver consumes about twenty five percent. You know, the liver is very expensive simply because, so many of our metabolic reactions are occurring there. The storage of nutrients, and then the acquisition of them and the distribution of them to the target tissues across the cow's body. And so it's huge in dairy cows. Cows that give more milk are going to have larger livers. It goes hand in hand. Even progeny out of cows that have more milk, They're say steer and heifer progeny in the feedlot. They're actually going to have larger livers and their maintenance requirement will be a little higher. So consequently, if you look at their feed conversion rates, they're not quite as good. And so there's reasons not just at the cow herd level, but all the way through the receiving and the feedlot phase to try to optimize milk production levels so we can optimize liver size. Right? And then, the GI tract, you know, the four stomachs and the small intestine, large intestine, that'll that'll consume another sixteen to twenty four percent. So anyway, so that's kind of a big part of what we were talking about that day. But I want to let's take a little look into maybe the other components. Right? Physical activity is one. And it gets counted as maintenance requirement. And so if you have cows, cows could have anywhere from say ten to fifty percent of their calories they consume actually be expended on on foraging. Right? Walking around. They walk miles and miles and miles. They may Cows being cows. Yeah. Exactly. They they may walk more miles than an international soccer player. Right? I think they say an international soccer player that plays in the midfield runs about ten miles a game. So that cow probably has that soccer player beat. But, I used to do a lot of confined cow calf system research. And when you put cows in confinement and make them a couch potato like a feedlot steer, you reduce their maintenance energy requirements by about twenty five percent. We don't often think about that. But probably a lot of your customers that y'all serve are in the western half of the United States. And their cows are spread out. They've got to walk a long ways to water and a long ways to grass or long ways to that supplement depending if you're trying to use it for grazing distribution purposes. That eats up a lot of calories. Right? And a lot of times you can't do anything about that. Right? But it is important to understand that that's part of the maintenance requirement. So another one that we talked about that day that's big is the immune system. And so the immune system on a daily basis will consume about fifteen to maybe upwards of forty or even fifty percent. Wow. Of the energy that a cow consumes on a daily basis. Right? And so when you look at that spread, the cows that may only be consuming fifteen percent, those are the healthy cows. Right? They're not mounting an acute immune response to a disease per se that's in heavy abundance or pathogen that's heavy abundance in her environment at the time. And so, you know, she doesn't have to spend quite as much. What I think your viewership needs to understand though is the like I talked about with the liver being energy demanding. Right. The immune system is highly energy demanding. And more specifically, it demands glucose. Glucose is, you know, tremendously important for things like marbling deposition. And so when you when you shift that that precursor away from something like marbling to having to take care of the priority which is survival. Mounting an immune immune response because that's more important. It takes it takes priority. Then we can burn a lot of calories and divert it from maybe our own production objectives for growth and for marbling deposition. I think maybe I quoted that day one thing you told me, Trevor, that was kind of neat. In some like lighter weight calf studies, There's calves that can burn up to a pound of glucose in just a few to several hours, when they're trying to combat something like BRD. That's huge. Right? I mean, they could literally lose weight and you can understand why. Their intake goes down. That's the problem. It's kind of a a double edged sword. Right? The calf's sick. He eats less. He gets less calories. But then his immune system is also demanding more fuel. And so it kind of goes backwards and that's kind of what sends him a tailspin. That's why it's important to keep him healthy in prevention. You know dependent upon what they're having to deal with in their local environment that immune system can really really consume a lot of fuel. It's very enlightening to me and it's kind of a no brainer when you stop and think about it. This conserving, better optimizing available energy because we're talking the same diet. Whether it's a feedlot calf or a cow out on pasture, it's the same diet but it's what are we doing to better optimize the available energy. That's right. Help us and the viewers maybe unpack that a little bit as to how does the body know to say, Hey, we're good here. Let's use this for weight gain. No, that's a good question. Yeah. I guess maybe the best way I can explain it is survival or Darwinism takes priority, right? You think about our own needs. It's kind of hard to maybe explain how does the body per se prioritizes it other than we just have to understand that mother nature knows best. Yes. And mother nature says, if you can't survive, then everything else like reproduction Comes second. That's out the window. Yeah. Right? And I don't care what we're talking about physiologically. That's the case. And the immune system is going to take priority over everything else. I guess maybe that's the best way I could explain it without getting too scientific. That's cool. I like the way you're talking to me so I can understand. But so mother nature is doing the prioritizing. Yes. We don't totally understand how she does but she knows. Yes. So what comes second after the immune system? Yeah. Would say probably after that the priority is on the GI tract. If if the if that cow can't take what she consumes and and and, you know, and put it to use Yeah. Then the the immune system never gets to use it, right? Guess you could make the argument that perhaps the GI tract is first and the immune system is second. The only reason I may say that's a little bit different is because when you get a cow on a negative energy balance, she'll actually lose, visceral organ weight. And so the GI tract shrinks. It kind of goes hand in hand with intake, but the liver will shrink. Right? So you start looking at a cow that's going backwards from a say a BCS five to four to three to a two. She actually drops five to ten percent, with each of those full body score drops in her daily maintenance energy requirement. So it's actually cheaper to operate a cow that's thin as opposed to optimal or especially fat. But the reason is because her visceral organ weight shrunk. Right. And so, mostly as she goes backwards, it's going to be muscular atrophy. Just like if you or I were sick, you know, we're laid up for a few days with the stomach flu and we're throwing up and, even though there's probably other areas of our body we wish would lose weight on. We probably realized that after a few days, we've probably lost a little bit of muscle mass. That cow as she's going backwards, she'll start to catabolize a lot of that skeletal muscle and these other protein tissues because most of these organs are mainly protein based. She'll catabolize that and redirect it towards energy when there's times in her diet when she didn't have enough energy to fulfill it. So I'd say the the GI tract's a major priority. The immune system a major priority. And then a lot of the other factors are secondary. You know, we didn't I didn't really mention it, Trevor, but you know, obviously it kind of goes without saying. But things like operating the cow's heart, her lungs, her brain, these obviously are a major priority. Right? After that, we can look towards that cow, dedicating calories towards growth or you know, marbling or even milk production, right? She'll sacrifice and compromise milk production way before she's gonna sacrifice being able to operate her organs or her immune system. Would you say reproduction comes before or after milk production? I would actually say reproduction comes after. Yes. Yeah. And we use that expression, a cow milked herself thin. Right? And it's those thin cows that we wind up being more likely to diagnose open in the fall Yes. And have to cull, right? And so I'd say, to go back to maybe the mother nature sentiment, I would say that mother nature says, take care of the progeny you've got before I equip you with another one. Yeah. That's a quote that we'll keep. That's brilliant. So, just to that point, we've seen countless times over the last two decades with cows or heifers are on an incline coming into breeding, they'll have much better success than even if it's a fat cow on a decline. Because at that point, mother nature is prioritizing. Is that correct? Yeah, I think so. I mean, there's probably a little bit of debate to that but I agree with that. There's probably some signaling mechanisms in regards to just caloric intake, energetic feedback back to the brain that then maybe influences the endocrine system that's, know, hormonally getting that cow prepped and in position to reestablish cyclicity so she can hopefully get bred that, in absence of it or in a negative energy balance probably, are a little different. Right? It may be more meaningful maybe say in like sheep than cattle. I would say in cattle it's probably a little more just her status. Her current condition status maybe even more so than like, hey, today she was in a negative energy balance. Right? And so to me, I definitely agree. I'd rather have a cow going up and expect more reproductive success than going down. The challenge in a production system is a lot of times, we're going this way and and you look at a dairy cow. Right? That's her and that's why they suffer so much from reproductive standpoints. Right. They prove your point. Know, how how how difficult it is fertility wise to get these dairy cows re bred because there's such a huge demand for milk. The the time of the year when you want a beef cow in the best condition is when she calves. Reason being is because it's the cheapest to recondition her prior to that when she's dry Doesn't have a calf on her side. And, now I basically built in an insurance policy for that cow. If she's say at a six, then I can afford for her to lose weight while she's lactating. If I don't have, you know, the absolute maximum nutrition to support it. And she's still at a five. Right? Where your break your break over in a lot of climates is probably that five to four. If we slip to a four and we're still in the middle of the breeding season, we should probably expect our pregnancy rates are going be suppressed, right? And it's environmentally dependent. That may be more so true up north than it is in the southeast per se. But, but yeah, no doubt about it. I agree with you Trevor that, you know, ideally, we'd love that cow to be on the up tick. It's just really hard because she's Yeah. She's trying to to lactate and she's trying to re breed. And if it's a cow less than five, she may even have growth left still to be accomplished in her life. And so there's a lot of priority there. That that, that sixty to ninety days postpartum is when her milk peaks. Yep. And so there's just a lot of demand. It's pretty hard to provide enough nutrition. And mother nature, obviously, we can get drought pretty pretty quickly too. That that it's tough to contend with. So I I think just having, you know, a good management plan in place where you've got the right supplemental program and you're fully utilizing everything that we understand could be beneficial from a reproductive success standpoint and health standpoint would be to a producer's best interest. Well, I think the take home message for the listeners is really looking at whether that cow is out grazing or whatever the program is, there is an unspoken prioritization of demands and survival comes first and then it flows on from there. But let's now just jump into a different space and talk about starting calves in a feedlot the first sixty days and how that whole energy redirection plays in in that space. Yeah, when we jump into that conversation, my biggest deal would probably be, hey, we don't want to be behind the eight ball per se. We want to, like I said, be good planners and say, let's do we have this calf's health and immune system optimized prior to coming into that stressful period. Right? And and no doubt about it, nutrition at that moment is really important. But like I said, a lot of them are slow to maybe start on feed if they've never been exposed to creep. And so having a cow herd that's got the right mineral program, having those calves, pre weaning exposed, you know, to good mineral vitamin and energy and protein, program, certainly sets them up for success once that once that stress comes. But once that once that does come, I completely agree with you. I mean, I think for me the priority initially is palatability. We're trying to teach that calf how to eat. And so, whatever nutritional company you're dealing with, you you want to go with one that, you feel like is is making that a priority in my opinion. In terms of just, is this a palatable feed stuff or supplement? Do they want to come to the bunk? Does it engage them? Because it's you're intake dependent. We can talk all day about all these energy demands. But if they're not eating it. If they're not eating calories then it's going to be a tough battle. You're going get into health problems. We had an old nutritionist that always used to say, to your point, you want a calf healthy, hungry, and up at the bunk. And so if we don't get it up to the bunk, we have much bigger problems at play. I agree with you. But I love where you're going. You start with the foundation. You got to have foundational immune health and mineral status, whatever company that you're getting that from. But then coming into the feed yard, however you'd you know, whether they've been pre weaned or weaned or shipping or co mingling, sale barns, all of this is a huge stress event. Absolutely. And fourteen to twenty one days post stress event, we do have disease breaks. I mean, it's very typical. So maybe talk a little bit about how the energy redirection and a good health status plays into that. Yeah. Doing the best we can. Absolutely. That first couple of leaks I agree with what you said. It kind of depends on the pathogen, right? Something like mycoplasma may break a little bit later, where you may have other BRD pathogens that break a little sooner. So there's a lot, you know, a lot of pathogens have different time courses, but, no doubt about it. Just making certain that we get adequate energy intake And then, perhaps more so even, or just as importantly like that mineral component, that vitamin component and making and making certain we got a lot of protein. We hadn't really mentioned protein. We've been talking energy. But, make no doubt about it, the immune system, although a big fuel consumer, heavily dependent upon protein. Right? A lot of the products that they're producing to try to defense that calf against those pathogens are going be built with protein. Right? Right. And so we got to make certain that's a priority too. Balancing, you know, their ruminodegradable protein versus that escape protein, to make certain that we've got that in concert. But I think if we have challenges during that time frame, obviously it could compromise their maximum immune efficiency. And so they you may get higher pull rates. But I think and that's kind of obvious, right? But I think in the long run maybe what we don't think as much about is setting that calf up for long term success. You know, not getting to the point where they're, you know, become a chronic. Yes. Making certain that if we do have to treat them that they can rebound and they don't have any, you know, chronic damage. Right? It doesn't go so severe that we get long term liver abscesses or lung abscesses that compromise that calf's growth and efficiency. Those are the calves that are really the killers as far as Right. On the bottom line, besides the mortality. But, and then what I was talking about was maybe more so any days spent of that calf quote unquote unhealthy or where they've got to devote closer to that forty or fifty percent of the calories they're consuming versus the fifteen percent. That's a calf that's not, you know, necessarily set up as well probably from a marbling standpoint in long run. They're not quality grade as well. So yeah, there's a lot of carcass effects are decided And you've seen that. Yes. A lot of carcass effects are decided, you know, one hundred and fifty, two hundred days prior to You spoke about the long term. So just to zone in on that first sixty days, what we do in that sixty days getting that calf up to the bunk, getting it on feed, helping the immune system. How much does that actually impact the trajectory throughout that calf's days in the feed yard? Oh, it could be huge, right? And so I think a lot of times when we look at scientific research from a practical or applied standpoint, they'll try to do comparisons where they put them in silos and say, these are calves that never got treated. This is how they performed carcass weight wise, quality, you know, grid distribution. And then, you know, pulled once, you know, and then pulled twice and then pulled more than that. Right? And they'll try to make those applied comparisons. I mean, it's massive. I mean, it's hundreds and hundreds of dollars difference between these calves that haven't been treated and these calves that are that have been treated multiple times. And so when you add up the the medicine costs from antibiotic perspective plus, you know, the reduction or depression in long term growth and performance and feed conversion, their cost of gain is much higher. And again, a lot of times you generally always see a carcass weight difference amongst those comparisons that I stated. Okay. It's probably the biggest thing right now, right? When carcass is worth, whatever the market's at two, two twenty, two twenty five, two thirty today per pound and you can see a eight, ten, twenty, thirty pound difference in a lot of those comparisons, maybe more. We're talking about a significant amount of money. The stakes are high. Excuse the pun. But the stakes are high. And for the feeder, he may not necessarily be making a whole bunch more margin. It's good conditions for the cow calf man and we appreciate that. They've had tough times not that many years ago So we're we appreciate that. But maybe you can speak a little bit with what's at stake and how much these calves cost. They're not making a whole lot more margin. Can you speak to managing that risk? The risk is greater than ever, right? And that's the tough part about the cattle business today. Record prices are awesome, but the financial risk and liability of owning these calves, it's intense and it's stressful. And so to me, there's never been a more logical time to get better at your craft. And when I say that, I'm saying your nutritional craft, your vaccination schedule, your preventative measures. Right? And a lot of that is based on nutrition. And so just make certain you're working with a company or nutritionist that can help guide in your specific environment and management conditions. A good plan so that that that you can protect that investment. Margins have been pretty bloody here in feedlot sector the last couple of years. And, you know, I think, maybe one thing worth mentioning is, you know, in today's climate, you know, those feeders are basically forced to feed them for forever to try to get on the better side of this profit equation. Right. Because that initial investment is so much. They've just got to get so much carcass weight out of them to ever come out in the black. And so that again, that just elevates the importance of making certain that health is on the up and up. Right. To try to protect that. We talked about maybe the overall just well-being of the animal and things that happen in the first few weeks of receiving. I don't know. I'm speculating a little bit. But we're talking about organ integrity and we're talking about things that may have some influence on late deads. And so you know, given the fact that we're taking these cattle such extreme weights, you know, we probably need to consider that the implications of what's going on those first few weeks. Foundational. Yeah. That's a good that's a great way to put it. Foundational. Maybe foundational to being able to support cattle that can go to that heavy of a weight. And just thinking practically speaking, we're sitting in on the second floor of the animal science building here at Texas Tech. But it's supported by a foundation, right? You couldn't build a structure like this. And as far as the floor coverings and this nice office we're in, it's all great but the foundation came first to support that. It all has a huge impact. Just to wrap up here, Doctor. Rathmann, can you speak to the mood of the beef industry right now? There's a lot going on. There's a lot of risk. There's a lot of optimism. Well, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of factors at play right now. I I think we still got to be excited about the beef industry no matter what happens. I mean, the people that are a part of it, they choose to be a part of it because fits their lifestyle, fits their passions. Yeah. And I know some days can be tough. It's fun because, you're balancing the science and physiology that we talked about and somehow doing your very best to understand all that. But at the end of the day, figure out how to translate that to just good practical everyday decisions. Yeah. That can, keep our cattle healthier and, keep them more profitable, consequently. But, it's a great time to be in the beef industry. I'll say this, I felt like when I went to college in the nineties, I'm forty six now. But when I was in college as an animal science student, I almost felt like I was discouraged by my professors to go actually raise cattle. Because in that period of time, the beef system in the United States probably only generated about thirty five, forty dollars of total profit across every segment. Okay? So that shared cow, calf, stocker, feedlot, packer. Even though I know I was studying it, I was still yet discouraged. And so, let's fast forward now to two thousand twenty six. There's nearly nine hundred dollars worth of profit built into every animal that we generate in this industry that's shared across these segments. So no doubt about it. The cow calf guy is getting probably even more than that, last year or this year. And then at the other's expense based on, you know, inventory. Right. Packers and feedlots, taking it in the shorts a little bit. But, let's look at the bigger picture and appreciate the fact that we have built the premium protein in the world and we have tremendous consumer demand that has gifted us the opportunity to build in nine hundred dollars worth of profit. And so I know some days are tough, but that to me should be positive information to push you forward and say there's always opportunity to make money. Yeah. Well, you pushed through in the nineties and I think we can take a cue from that. There is optimism. It's worth being passionate about. People are still voting with their checkbooks. The beef demand is is really strong. Great words of wisdom you shared with us, doctor Rathmann. That wraps up our That Ranching podcast. We'll see you next Thursday.

And about fifty percent of them would laugh in my face when I said, I'm trying to figure out a way to help feedlots reduce or eliminate antibiotic usage. Welcome back to that ranching podcast where you join us around the kitchen table to talk about things that matter to men and women in ranching. Well, I say ranching. This is probably a got a little bit of a twist to it. Twain, maybe you can, tell the viewers where we're going in this podcast. Absolutely. Well, we're excited to announce the launch of our new Turboboost program, which some of you may have heard of the Turboboost Paste. We relaunched early May of twenty twenty five. It's been quite a journey over the last about a year and a half, but sure. Including running out of paste. Maybe you want to talk about the new tub we're launching. Yeah. So the turbo boost program is in short a tool for feed yards, starting calves, high risk calves. It includes a dose of paste at arrival and then sixty days exposure to the tub. But before I go into that, can I go like way back? Yeah. The history here. Alberta, about fifteen years ago, this is long before paste or the Turboboost program, we had a customer that, had a baby calf that was sick and they had given it everything. Shots of every antibiotic known to man. Couldn't turn it around. Finally, one evening, he dragged it into a barn with its mother and he was about to go in for the night and he said it's gonna be dead in the morning. He thought one last thing. He thought, you know, that Riomax tubs that he was using, if he could somehow get that into the calf. He took a hammer and a chisel and he went at whatever ten eleven at night and he chiseled himself a chunk of tub. Went into the kitchen, mixed it with hot water, dissolved it, put it in a drench gun and drenched that calf, shut the barn door, went to bed and said to himself, I'll I'll drag that dead calf out in the morning. He went out in the morning, opened the door and that calf was up sucking. He said to us, you guys have got to figure out how you can get a condensed concentrated form of the tub into a paste. So that's where the paste came from and we called it as we launched last year twenty twenty five, the tub in a tube. Obviously, very concentrated form. But to that formula, we added a few extra sciences to help stimulate and and get an immune response. And that's kind of where we started seeing some traction, didn't we, Twain? Yeah. It was last winter coming into spring, we started to see some guys doing the the paste, the Turboboost paste in in the feed yard situation, in sick pens or in receiving cattle, and and even some alongside the PG three sixty and the Repel tubs. So that got us thinking. For about two years, I've been researching and pursuing a dream. I have a dream, and maybe that's all it'll ever be. But that is to help guys starting calves to wean themselves off of dependence on antibiotics. Which means against life. And so maybe it's all it'll never be more than a dream. But when you start pursuing something and chasing something, you find doors open. And I would sit down with the brightest minds in the industry. PHD nutritionists. And about fifty percent of them would laugh in my face when I said, I'm trying to figure out a way to help feedlots reduce or eliminate antibiotic usage. But the other half, when I said, I need a new sheriff in town, all barrels blazing, the best of the best, all natural of course, no drugs, no chemicals. Over the course of time, we found that there were different technologies and sciences that we could use and then incorporated them. So when we've done these trials on the Turboboost program in the south, all the data was collected from using that, you might say, the Repel tub with all the antioxidants, everything you expect in the Riomax tub plus a few additives. It's got a bumper level of the Riomune yeast which ties up and flushes out the bad guys. Scour causing bacteria. Bad bacteria just gets rid of the bad guys. Then a bumper level of the key trace minerals that really fuel the immune system. And then finally, probably the most important thing is the Turbomune, which Turbomune is an immune response activation. And it's like an on switch for the immune response. So think of it, instead of a sick calf getting antibiotics, that sick calf is now empowered to fight off disease challenges from the inside out. We're not saying it's a silver boat, it's not a cure all, but the data we've seen so far is very exciting. Absolutely and just to touch on that, so the tub, when we set out, this is not specifically designed for Riomax customers necessarily. Exactly. You know, guys that are if you're running your cattle on year round, and weaning them on already, you don't necessarily need to look at upgrading to the Turboboost tub. Although, we'll touch on that in a minute. We got guys that are are doing that. But, yeah, that's a good point. Really, it was mainly designed for guys that are bringing in high risk calves, un weaned calves that are they're being commingled, they have a suppressed immune system, and typically low mineral levels coming in, and and they need a they need a boost as the Turboboost program would would imply. But Trevor, you were telling me earlier, do you want to explain how you've you know, guys wondering, is it a fit for me? How you how you let them qualify themselves. So the the biggest things we've seen on the trials we've done, you know, less treats, less doctoring, less retreats, less death loss, and more weight gain. And I say to guys, if any of those four are important to you, then Turboboost program is important to you. The other thing,Twain, I would say that who who it may not be a fit for, let's say it's a Riomax guy. Those calves have been on the the Riomax program since they were, in the fetus stage and, they may not need to to use this. In in talking to one cattle trader in Montana last week, He said, boy, if anybody has any questions or doubt as to the mineral status or the immune status or you don't know where those calves came from or you know where they were commingled or shipped from. If there is a question and with the size of the prize, in other words the risk with what these calves are worth, he said he would definitely do it. Worth worth the investment. Hundred hundred percent. Yeah. And and actually just to put some numbers to that, so the Turboboost program, what it looks like, it's a dose, a thirty cc dose of the Turboboost paste on receiving the cattle, and then a one round of tubs out to the cattle. We're looking at one tub per twenty five head, and that's gonna last you between forty five and sixty days at average consumption. And so total cost all in, we're looking at about forty bucks a head for per calf. You know, bringing bringing them in, getting them the paste, as well as the tub through that initial sixty day period. With those numbers in mind, you know, a forty a forty dollar program and given that calf the best chance, you know, setting the trajectory for its entire life in the feed yard, let's bounce back to some of the summer data we have. We did a bunch of trials in the south just because that's where calves are moving. So we got Oklahoma and we got Texas Panhandle which you know, there's a lot of cattle fed there. And then we got East Texas. Oklahoma, we had the Turboboost tub program versus control that happened to be another stress tub. The numbers were as follows. Treat rate, five point two percent on Turboboost calves versus fifteen point two on the other program. And then weight gain, two point two pounds a day versus one point eight eight. Now we're not guaranteeing weight gain, but when you have a healthy calf, more of that energy does go to weight gain versus just feeding the immune system. Just got an update from the Texas Panhandle trial after the sixty days. Out of two hundred nine head, one dead, so point four percent death loss versus ten percent on the same the brothers and sisters of these calves from the same ranch in the same feed yard last year. So point four percent death loss versus ten percent and two point two pounds average daily gain. They came in at seven hundred pounds, had a bunch of baby fat to lose. They had a lot of hundred and five degree weather. No rain, super dusty, lot of stress that way. But he said not easy calves to get along with, but there we have it. Let's bounce to East Texas. Treatment rate, so doctoring down thirty percent. Retreats down thirty percent. And then weight gain was, one point six pounds on the the control group and two point one on the Turboboost group. So here you see, you know, from point five pound increased daily gain to point three two on the low side. Just to give you directionally where we're at. Could you also touch on where it didn't work? Yes. Good point. So I've given you three sets of data. The fourth one was done in New Mexico. And this guy told me, he said, I'm bringing in good quality calves. He paid really good for them. Ranch raised. And he brought in a set of steers and a set of heifers. He put the steers on the Turboboost program, heifers on his just his standard practice. And and just a quick point there. We're not saying change anything in your program. We're saying in on top of. Right? Don't get rid of your nutritionist. Don't change your ration. This is on top of. So what he said to me on day thirty eight, so we're not through that sixty day, but we're over the worst of it. He says, you know what? I haven't treated any on either group. So in that case, technically, it wasn't just a roaring success for Turboboost. But just to give you some context of where it really shines and where it maybe doesn't have as much impact. However, he said by day thirty eight, he said the steers, the Turboboost group, seem to be eating and converting a little better. They look stronger than the heifers. So jury's still out on that one. He thinks from what he's seeing, he's going to get, you know, some weight gain there that he's, you know, more so than the other group. But I'm glad you asked that, Twain, because the viewers might be saying, you know, where would I use this? Or who's a fit? Who's not a fit? And I think that's good because just like any of the Riomax family of products, the tubs or the Rhyzogreen is, we got to look at where are you currently at? You know, what are you looking to get done? So this is probably more in terms of treat rates, death loss, weight gain, and what are you what are you looking to get done in your operation? What's it gonna cost you to incorporate the Turboboost program? And does it make sense in your situation? So as always, love to discuss a little bit further with you, see what makes sense in in your situation, but we do got a lot of guys doing to start off with, and we're strongly encouraging it, is to do it, do a comparison yourself. So as you're receiving cattle this fall, let's say you're getting them in in groups of a hundred at a time, we would recommend doing at least two, but probably three if you can groups of the Turboboost calves. So if you're getting in a hundred calves, let's say two hundred calves a week and they come in in one hundred head groups, you do a group of the Riomax calves, a group of control, a group of the Riomax calves, a group of control, group of the Riomax calves, a group of control. And that sounds quite extensive, but why we're recommending that is what we've seen is if you have a guy where they're bringing in cattle once a week, let's say, and they bring in a group of cattle, they put it on Riomax, and then they bring in the next week, it really heats up, and then they receive a bunch more cattle that is their control group. Well, that group that comes in in a hundred and seven degree heat is at an unfair advantage regardless of the program they're at. So to stagger it so you can you have those controls in there, think is very important to actually be able to measure that over not just one one group versus the next is you you got a couple tests. And it'll help you take some of those variables out and get yourself a truer test. Going back to we knew starting with the repel tub, we knew that we could make traction on less treats and less retreats just with that. But when you added those three things I mentioned, that's where we've seen that extra getting us to the next level. And people ask, you know, why the paste and the tub? And the best way to say it is it's like coming onto an interstate that that pace is like your on ramp getting you up to speed and fast right now. And then the the tub is to maintain exposure to that tub maintains that calf through that critical sixty day period where you're setting the stage, you're setting the trajectory for that calf's gain. So one question we get a lot is, is there Bogotech or rumensin in it? Twain? The short answer is no. It's all natural. The ingredients in the Turbo Boost program is all natural. Everything we have in there for immune activation, none of that is medicated. And the cool thing is it's approved by where food comes from for natural programs. So yes, it is all natural. Dead calves don't gain that good and they're hard to sell. But even if they're alive and they're in the sick pen, you know, we talk about retreats. Sick pen and you get chronics and people are like, man, I just treat them and treat them. That's what we're fighting against, folks. When that immune system is healthy, it's sucking less juice so to speak. And that's known as energy redirection. You take the energy in a diet, what Doctor Ryan Rathman from Texas Tech taught us is that fifteen to forty percent of that energy will go to the immune system. To feeding the immune system. And he explained that, that if that immune system is suppressed, you know, there's disease challenges, it's gonna suck way more energy just to keep that immune system fighting. So up to that forty percent. And the converse, he explained is also true. If that immune system is strong and that that calf is in good rig health wise, way less energy is gonna be used for the immune system and that redirects. This is the beauty of it. That redirects and goes straight to weight gain on those calves. And so he has seen in his meat quality studies where a calf that was sick during the feedlot versus one with a really strong immune system on the same diet, the healthy one marbled better, which is what we get paid for in the beef industry, you know, besides, you know, it's an incentive, besides just weight gain. So I think it's really cool because everyone wants to get more out of what they've already got. And when you have that energy redirection, it's helping you basically pull more energy and use it for weight gain than just fighting the battle on the disease side. So that kind of comes full circle. Health equals weight gain. Health also equals less treats and less antibiotic. You know, that has a cost associated with it. The stress of running them through the chute. The labor. But ultimately, health equals weight gain. One more thing, tub placement. If you imagine a pen like that with the the bunk at the front, we recommend placing your tubs about halfway back, not too close to the front because those cattle are likely skittish and shy and, you know, when the feed truck's driving by, they're gonna hang back. And so placement of your tubs about halfway back and do leave a passing lane because those calves are gonna walk the perimeter. Let them walk. But have that tub set in a little ways so that they walk, they'll smell it and pretty soon one or two stop, then you got six or ten stop. And and and what you're doing is getting calves like, on the program fast and healthy, hungry, and up at the bunk. If bringing your treat rate down and your retreats down, your death loss down, and your weight gain up. If that is important to you, definitely consider this tool. So thanks again for joining us on That Ranching podcast. We will see you again next Thursday morning.

The kind of checks these guys are gonna have to write are gonna blow your mind. Forty bucks a calf on a three thousand dollar calf isn't isn't a lot of money to spend. Well, to That Ranching Podcast where we usually sit around the kitchen table. Here we're out in Cody, Wyoming to talk about things that matter to men and women in ranching and in the feedlot space. So today, I'm joined by Matt Thompson. Matt, thanks for joining us here in Cody. Tell us a little bit about yourself and and why are you here today because you're from Idaho. Yep. I'm from the eastern Idaho area. My family's been in the ranching business for over a hundred a hundred and fifteen years or so. And right now, we're cow calf producers. When we first come to Idaho, we were in the sheep business in nineteen ten I believe my grandfather came here and like a lot of ranchers in Eastern Idaho it's slowly converted over to cattle. So got three boys and and I'm married to my wife Jamie. We're here in Cody today because I've been a video rep for several different companies over the years, fifteen years or so, but I market quite a few calves every every summer and and we ship them in the fall and early spring usually. I handle some breeding stock, but I've always wanted to be in the be a rancher and be in the business like my my dad and my grandfather. I'm hoping I can hold it all together so my sons can be in the ranching business and and it's the only thing I've ever wanted to do. Well, that's a great story. We got your great grandfather, your grandfather, your father, yourself and then your sons. You said you had three sons? I've got some sons and my brother's involved in the ranch with me and he's got some sons as well and some kids that want to be involved. We're talking generational, that's five generations and that's a really heartwarming story because that's the fabric of rural North America really is that generational aspect to ranching. And so just to jump into the here and now, we've got the sale today. Talk to us a little bit about where the industry is at and the optimism and some of the prices you expect to see today. The cattle business has been phenomenal the last few years. But the reason that that it's been phenomenal is because the numbers are way down. The supply is low and primarily brought on by drought and different factors, but we've sold and I've even sold my own calves for money that you'd never would have thought of ten years ago. But we'll have calves selling today from twenty five hundred to three thousand dollars ahead I would would say some even more than that. A lot of money to have invested in these cattle and you want to do everything you can to keep keep those cattle going and gaining weight and not in the dead pile. Yes sir. Obviously, Rio Nutrition, home of and Rhyzogreen, our focus for the last quarter of a century pretty much has been the cow calf space. The new focus we have or a new segment that we're working on is this feedlot starter space. And I will say right on camera that we are not experts in the feedlot industry. But I will also say we know one or two things about bovine performance in nutrition in terms of immune systems, getting an immune response, digestion, efficiency, overall performance. So with the Turbo Boost program, that is a dose of paste of the Turbo Boost paste on arrival and then sixty days exposure to the Turbo Boost tub. With these guys that are buying these calves today to start in a feed yard or in a backgrounding operation stocker, whatever that is. So the prices are what they are. The the ranchers that we serve, it's good for them. They deserve it. They've had tough years and and we're very very happy for them. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on in the minds of the buyers today and what's at risk. They got to take these calves, some of them from a high stress deal, some of them won't be weaned, some of them will be weaned, but they don't know how they were weaned. I mean, we give them a protocol that they've had shots and everything but they've got a lot of money invested and they just can't afford to have one go home and stand there and lose weight and be sick or die and there's nothing worse than a sick calf. Pneumonia can just devastate these calves on arrival when they get stressed and get hauled twenty hours and unloaded in a place they don't know where they're at and dumped in with a bunch of other calves and nose to nose contact can transfer really fast they can they're you can get in a wreck in a hurry. The kind of checks these guys are gonna have to write for these calves are just gonna blow your mind but they gotta have them they gotta have those pens full and and they're in that business so they got to pay the money to play the game. And we appreciate it. Know speaking from the ranching side of things, the cow calf sector, we appreciate it. We appreciate the consumer out there. Look at the consumer demand even with these prices of beef, Matt, from everything I've heard, people are still voting with their checkbook. They're they're still buying beef at the counter. I think chicken's great but I think it's more, you know, fitting as a salad. Beef stays in the middle of the plate. So we we realize there's optimism but coming with it is this risk. And as Matt alludes to, you don't want something in the dead pile. That's worst case scenario, but you also want something that is, you might say, expressing its genetic potential. How much money and effort and progressive thinking has gone into development of our bloodlines and the genetics. Genetics, yes. And so when we have a stress event, pulling them away from mom, that is a stress event right there. Shipping, commingling, talked about running them through a sale barn or maybe they don't go through a sale barn if it's a video sale, so you you eliminate that stress. But one way or another, we're trying to navigate a path of it's gonna be a stress event, how can we reduce that stress and how can we help that calf respond and heal up, you might say, and get straightened out. I'm very excited about the turbo boost product. I've I've been weaning my calves on on the regular Riomax PG three sixty and I've got a lot of confidence in that. But for these guys that are buying calves and guys putting them together at the sale barn to run his yearlings next year, this is gonna be an invaluable tool just to give them a shot of boost their health. Anything you can do, it's it's gonna be well worth the money to keep them keep them gaining. So the the question comes up, well, how is this different to the regular Riomax? And that's a fir it's built off of the Riomax foundation and then the turbo boost tub specifically has three main things added to it. One is a bumper level of that Riomax yeast that's in every tub but that Riommune yeast ties up and flushes out the bad guys. I don't know if everyone agrees with ice or likes ice but I'm going to use that example. Ice ties up and flushes out and sends home the bad guys. Yep. That shouldn't have been there. That's what Riommune yeast does. So we have a bumper level of that, we have bolstered levels of the key trace minerals to feed that immune system, and then most importantly, we have that Turboimmune which is an all natural package. It serves to stimulate an immune activation response. So let's just talk about an immune system. An immune system is like a military base. It's equipped, it's got troops, it's got artillery, it's got ammunition, it's got training. As soon as there's a threat, it goes into high alert mode. It goes into fight, fight, fight mode. And that is what we refer to with turbo immune as that immune response activation. It's like an on switch for that fight, fight, fight mode. And where we're going with this folks is pursuing my dream and maybe that's all it is, is a dream, Matt, to help these guys starting calves to wean themselves off of dependence on antibiotics. Definitely. I don't think we'll ever get it done completely. But already we're making progress to that end so that instead of treating a disease challenge that comes from a stress event with an antibiotic, we do it the other way around working with mother nature and have that calf fight off and respond to that disease challenge with an immune response. Yep. That's the science behind it. A lot of the calves we'll sell today will be programmed calves, meaning they can be third party verified as verified natural and hormone free. And I mean, the American consumer has kinda shown that that the grocery store that they're willing to pay a little more for one. They know where it came from and know that it hasn't had antibiotics. This real product qualifies. It won't take you out of a natural program. It qualifies for third party. My own cattle are I sell this program, and if I have to treat one, it doesn't get to go on the truck with my natural calves. It goes to the sale barn and it sells out a discount to the rest of them. What sort of a discount? What what does that cost to you when it gets kicked out? Some of these natural programs, these calves are a couple hundred dollars ahead. You sell one on the video sale in front of a competitive bidding situation for a big amount of money, you might take it to the sale barn in October and it might sell it midnight at a discount, know. You just don't know. Which really comes full circle, Matt, back to our purpose at Rio. We're just a family business. And that is driving profitability back to rural North America. And that is the core or the lens through which we make every decision. When you talk about getting kicked out of the program and that money that we really leave on the table, that hurts. Right? What the cost of this turbo boost is is gonna sound awful cheap once you start losing cows out of calves out of a program or the weight loss, dead calves, you can pay for some some paste in some tubs pretty quick. And to your point, the the turbo boost paste and the turbo boost tub are both verified with where food comes from for those all natural programs. That was the first thing we got run through the the no one wants to be using something. Oh, that doesn't qualify. So that's all good there. You talked about using the regular Riomax for weaning, and guys have done that for over two decades. The thing we see there is they get up on feed faster in that transition and they overcome stress. Now with this, the Turbo Boost program, it's sort of on steroids and the question is, well, how is that tracking in terms of data? So for those that are hungry for data to justify a decision one way or the other, I have some early data that's come in. And obviously, we've been doing trials on the turbo boost program in the south just because that's where calves are moving sooner. So we've got Oklahoma, East Texas, and Texas Panhandle. So Oklahoma, there was a study done turbo boost versus control, and of course, that's the paste and the sixty day exposure. Treat rate, if that's important to you, five point two percent on turbo boost versus fifteen point two on the other group and a two point two pound daily gain over sixty days average versus a one point eight eight. That's real money. That's real money and health, folks, equals gain. I know that sounds corny but it's true. When that immune system is not trying to fight a disease, conserves the energy in that diet, the same diet, and it'll take more of that energy and channel it to weight gain and that's what we're seeing here in Oklahoma. Let's jump to the East Texas, treatments were down thirty percent. And retreats, which retreats kind of gives a shiver up your spine. Right? Because a lot of time a retreat could be on the way to a chronic and then they stay in that sick pen and go nowhere. Treatments down thirty percent and retreats down thirty percent also. And they're showing up in weight gain at two point one pound average daily gain versus a one point six. So there we have a half a pound differential over those sixty days. And then jumping to the Texas Panhandle, obviously, a lot a lot of cattle fed there, Seven percent treat rate versus a fourteen. And retreats point nine five percent, so just under one percent versus four. And then a zero death loss versus five percent. Now, it's hard to make money on dead cattle. That's the obvious. The frustration here and the risk that's at stake is you can't afford to not have calves gaining at their genetic potential or flatlining. And so we're not this is not a silver bullet but it is some good honest tools that are all natural that we can pull some levers with the immune system, with the digestive system, with the appetite, get them up to that bunk sooner, get them on feed sooner. And as our old nutritionist, German nutritionist said years ago, and he just passed a couple years ago, Fransky used to say in his German brogue, is a healthy hungry calf up at the bunk. Oh yeah. Is this sounding like a different language or does this make sense? It makes sense to me. I think the buyer knew that the calves would been on a turbo boost Riomax program. I think they add value to those calves. I think they're worth a little more to them because they got the confidence to know they're not gonna fall apart on them. I think you guys are going in the right direction for sure and I'm real excited about the turbo boost. And then the last question that comes up, well, how much is it? Because everybody's watching their dollars and I get that I'm in business too. For the program, that dose of paste on arrival and sixty days exposure to the tub, you're looking at around that thirty eight dollar mark. That's the cost of this technology to get you a healthy, hungry calf up at the bunk. It's not a cure all. We're not promising that you can step away from antibiotics completely, but follow us on this journey because with this dream, when you have a dream and you're pursuing something, it makes you do things that you wouldn't have done otherwise and we're pursuing this path to help these folks get by with less dependence on antibiotics. I think with your explanation on the weight gain, you just showed them how these tubs are going to pay for their selves too because I mean it's it's real money that's gonna go back in your pocket with added weight gain and and less sickness. So Matt, before we wrap up, you're no stranger to the Riomax science and all natural technology. Maybe you could just say a little to the listeners as to what you have seen over the years with calves, weaning, stress, disease, etcetera. I like it all year round. Reel's an excellent product, but when I'm calving, I've seen baby calves two days old standing there licking that Riomax tub and it just helps get them going, it helps them their hair slick off and get them started right. But those baby calves that have been on the Riomax in the fall when you when you expose it to them, they know what it is and they go right to licking those tubs and it really helps them get calmed down and acclimated and know things are okay. But I've seen way better health on the on the calves, way less doctoring, just shinier healthier hair coats and their eyes, their ears are up. It's a game changer in my mind. I have one last question and I'm gonna ask you publicly and and I want a totally honest candid response. For the cow calf guys that have been on a Riomax program, like you said, that calf in the fetus at birth all the way through, they've been on the program. Do those calves need to be weaned on the Turbo Boost program? Or are they fine because we've built up the foundation of their immune system and their mineral status? Personally, probably stick for my own calves. I'll probably stick with the regular p g three sixty, but I'm not buying outside calves and introducing them. If I was at the sale barn buying calves or if I was at the video sale buying buying load lots of calves, when they got off that truck they'd have turbo boost and they'd have turbo boost tubs in the paste when we processed them. Forty bucks a calf on a three thousand dollar calf isn't isn't a lot of money to spend. Well, thanks, Matt. Thanks for joining in and and giving us some industry knowledge and expertise coming from, you know, boots on the ground ranching and in this buying and selling. And and good luck today at the sale, by the way. As always, we'll see you next Thursday. I can't promise next Thursday will look quite like this. We might be back in our ugly little kitchen table back in Redwood Falls. But for now, enjoy the Cody Wyoming scenery. And again, thank you Matt for joining us.

If there was ever a time to get out of your box and try something new, this might be the best time to do it. Well, welcome back to That Ranching podcast. Today, we're have the privilege of being in Red Lodge, Montana joined by Terrill Ostrom. Terrill, go ahead and introduce yourself to the, listeners. Hi. Terrill Ostrom with, Lazy TM Livestock. We're a cow calf stocker operation here in the, Red Lodge, Roscoe, Fishtail, Montana area. In the last three years, I've become a dealer for Rio. We appreciate you being part of the family. The discussion today relative to the turbo boost calf starter program is to hear from Terrill a little bit in terms of the work you do as a broker and if we can just go up thirty thousand feet to understand the industry and the needs of this industry from where you sit and from how you see it. It all kind of goes hand in hand. Not only do we run the cow calf and stocker operation, but I also have a a brokerage business. That business runs under the auspice of Crossroads Cattle Company. Right. And Crossroads is the company that I clear through. It's owned by two gentlemen based out of Austin, Texas, Les Callahan and Jenning Steen. And they're very very gracious and very professional in that brokerage company. They're kind of our back office support. So we're able to trade cattle, through the barns, through videos, and more importantly, rancher to rancher direct in the country. The the firm itself, probably handles upwards of two hundred and forty thousand cattle a year. And what sort of area do they cover? You know, that's that's why I like working with Crossroads is because we don't we don't we're not set with any geographic locations. We basically buy cattle from California to Georgia, a few into Florida. So that'd give you an idea. Washington State and then send cattle up into Minnesota and that part of the country. So no geographic boundaries. Yeah, that's great. As the listeners would realize, where Rio has been operating for twenty five years is in the cow calf space. We're known for the tub that pays for itself and feed and forage savings, hay and forage savings alone. And coming out into this country, I see grass. Obviously, there's a lot of drought affecting Wyoming, Montana. I was in Kansas yesterday. So that's the cow calf side of it. What we're launching in September is the Turbo Boost program, which is a calf starter program just for the first sixty days. And so we can get into that in a bit here and go over some data we have. But, Terrell, talk to me a little bit about, what are the needs or what are the risks or what are the headaches and frustrations of dealing with these calves, whether they're unweaned or weaned and and shipping and commingling and sale barns. Obviously, you're doing stuff that takes a shortcut around that and makes it easier for folks, but walk us through how people are feeling and what the headaches and frustrations and, you know, in that space. Through the brokerage, we see cattle coming from all different kinds of backgrounds and we see anything from a put together sale barn type animal to a a really country fresh calf with two rounds of modified live around it branding, which is traditional, and then another round two to three weeks prior to weaning. So we see cattle at all different, spectrums and and all different, levels of, stress put put on those calves. One of the goals of everybody that touches one of those ball and calves is is least stress getting them started and getting them hydrated and getting them coming to the bunk. And so I think anything that we can do to supplement that and enhance that experience, anything that we can do to make that transition easier, less stressful, think would be a benefit. Right. And so if we have less stress, what is the product of that? What's the end game for reducing that stress in that whole transition? The the end game is to eliminate the number of treats that you have and and definitely then, you know, we know that we're not gonna be a hundred percent. There's gonna be that percentage of cattle that that you're gonna have to treat. But, if we can lower that number of treats and if we can and and once again, and if we if we have that immune system fine tuned prior to creating the stress on that animal Yeah. Then I think that we'll much better chance of success. And we still might have that percentage that we have to doctor, but we might eliminate those retreats. And I think that we'll have a better chance of whatever we choose as our method of treatment, we'll have a better chance of that working. Exactly. Well, I think we've got two things going on here. If we take the turbo boost program for starting calves and just put it to one side, what Terrell has alluded to is really building the foundation and that's what we do, that's what we eat, sleep and breathe is on the cow herds, you know, the cow is the factory and she needs to be have good mineral status and you have that fetal programming and it starts, you know, in in the cow. Now we fast forward and say, well, if a calf has been on Riomax, its mom's been on Riomax, we still have a stress event at weaning whether we like it or not. But it's less of a stress situation than, say, for example, a calf that was mineral compromised, didn't have good levels of mineral and and had a compromised immune system. That's kind of where where we are in the cow calf space. But stepping into these the starting program with the turbo boost program, we're looking at, you know, thousands of calves from all over the country that may or may not have had a sound foundation, if you like, to start with. And then the question is, how do we navigate that journey and that stress? Because a stress event will ultimately lead to a disease break or challenged immune system. So let's just talk about, let's say for example calves that are not have not been on the Riomax program. Maybe they've been shipped, maybe they've been commingled at a sale barn, they've had a compromised immune system and they hit that feed yard or that stocker operation, you know, they're coming off the back of that big stress event. How does that look now? We've seen all different scenarios given that situation. I think that anything we can do ahead of time like you alluded to but if we get into that situation where nothing's been done ahead of time, then I think anything that we can do to keep that gut healthy is really a big consideration. With the advent of the turbo boost paste and then having the turbo boost in the tub. Right. So for that constant exposure again to maintain that gut health, I think that that's the key. Well, as Terrell says, gut health is huge. The gut is the number one immune organ. You know, if you had a dead calf and you post it, you don't find, oh, here's the immune system. It looks like it was weak or compromised. The immune system is throughout the body, but the gut is the number one component of that immune system. So just to bounce back to the turbo boost program, what it is is on arrival, those calves get a dose of the turbo boost paste. That is like an on ramp to an interstate. Get them up to speed, very powerful dose, and get it get those levels up. Then they're exposed to the turbo boost tub for sixty days. What that does is it's like getting them up to speed on that on ramp but then hitting the cruise control and setting the trajectory of that calf's life in the feed yard in that first sixty days. And you talked about gut health, it's a lot more than that. Sure, it's gut health, it's stimulating the appetite, feeding the good bugs in the rumen, but then tying up and flushing out the bad guys, helping against the scours, helping against the disease causing organisms. But then really the genius of it is fueling the immune system and triggering an immune response. And that's where we see these all natural ingredients that we're using that science helps to reduce the dependence on antibiotics. I have a dream and people say, Maybe that's all it'll ever be. My dream is to reduce the dependence on antibiotics that there is in the feedlot industry, and many people laugh at that. Well, already in the trials we've done summer of twenty twenty six, we're seeing that happening. I didn't say eliminate, but reduce. And so the things we're measuring is number of treats, number of retreats, death loss, and of course weight gain in that sixty day starter period. I can share some data that we've got from early trials. We've been doing it in Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle where obviously there's a lot of cattle being fed, and then East Texas. So Oklahoma, where we did a turbo boost pen versus control, five point two percent treat rate on turbo boost versus fifteen point two on control. And a two point two pound daily gain versus a one point eight eight on the control, so a point three two pound difference there. Texas Panhandle, seven percent treats versus fourteen, and retreats point nine five percent versus four, and then zero death loss versus five percent. So these are this is directionally what we're seeing. Early data, I get it, but directionally, it's it's what we expected. When we formulated the turbo boost program, I sat down with smart minds in the industry, PhD nutritionists. I said to them, I want new sheriff in town, both barrels blazing, everything you know how to fight off disease challenges naturally without relying on antibiotics. And half of them laughed at me. The quest goes on to figure out you can fight diseases off by having a strong immune system, one, but by having an immune response mechanism, two. And so in East Texas, the trial there, treatment's down thirty percent, retreat's down thirty percent, and weight gain at two point one pounds on the turbo boost program versus one point six in the control. So there we have a half a pound daily gain. And so it's not all about daily gain, but ultimately, that's what you get paid for in the feed yard. And, I'll loop in doctor Ryan Rathman from Texas Tech where he talks about energy redirection. If you have a really sound, strong immune system, Terrill, less of the energy in that diet will go towards fueling that immune system and more will go to weight gain. I mean, it makes sense. So his thing is, you know, health equals weight gain. And so that's the way we're approaching it. You know, you've been on the road a lot longer than me and I respect your seniority in this space. From what I've said and from some early data, how is that gonna be received by these folks that are starting calves? I'm not the data nerd that you are and I say nerd in He's calling me a nerd. Yeah. Say that in a very respectful way. But but I do know twenty some years ago, I looked at some data on first treat versus second treat and at first treat and I I wouldn't want anybody to quote me, but I I know the the statistics are staggering. First treat on an animal for respiratory, specifically respiratory, which that's ninety five percent of the problems that you have Yes, sir. From the stress. At first treat, that animal has a twenty percent chance of being select of of downgrading from their genetic potential of a prime or choice carcass to a select animal. If you go one step further and you retreat that same animal, he has a higher than eighty percent chance of going from a prime or choice animal down to a select or a no roll type animal. So that in itself, just the meat quality aspect of eliminating those treats and the economic effect of that is just huge. Do you couple that then with today's animal and you take the average five weight calf that's worth somewhere around five dollars a pound and you're and and if you're restricting his gain in that starting phase, that first forty five to sixty days by by any percentage monetarily, that stacks up really, really fast. So anything that you can do to attain the the goals that you just just stated in in your very limited trials because I know they're limited. They're you're just starting. Right. And so anything that we can do to to to get the number of first treats and and those retreats down, think, not only from a carcass quality standpoint, but also from a getting them cattle to the bunk and getting them up and rolling and not taking away from the genetic potential of those animals to gain and convert. It's a no brainer. You've referred to genetic potential a few times and you know, the industry as an industry, we're very forward thinking, progressive looking at genetics. But along the way, there's all these roadblocks, hurdles you might say, that prevent a calf from reaching its true genetic potential. That's kind of sad but it's real. And so when you speak about those ones getting kicked out into select, the whole meat the beef industry is incentivized and graded on marbling. Am I correct? That's the definition of select choice prime. Yeah. That's how we measure success in beef production Right. Is, you know, not only monetarily, that's ultimately, what we're trying to to attain. So anything that we can do to let them maximize their genetic potential just just adds value to your operation. Absolutely. So to just dovetail off of that, what Texas Tech said was that when they did these meat quality studies, feedlot animal that had been subject to sickness and had immune challenges versus a healthy calf that had a really healthy immune system, same diet, same genetics, that had much better marbling in the one with the healthy immune system. Now that's a no brainer, might say. But I would say, guys, it's it's the same diet. We've just done a better job of redirecting that energy to where it'll actually pay versus having energy just fueling your immune system that's trying to cope with these disease challenges. So it all comes down to this one big measurable, and that's weight gain, but then quality in terms of, you know, what you're incentivized for in in your production. We've talked about the starting. We've talked about meat quality. You've mentioned getting them up to the bunk faster. That's a a huge thing with our program is getting them we have a old we had an old nutritionist that said for years, for feedlot cattle, healthy, hungry, up at the bunk. He said, I don't care what the program is. I want healthy, hungry, up at the bunk. So that's what we built the Turbo Boost program around, driving those three levers. But glad for any other insights into this this space that we're talking about. Well, think most notably just just in our in our local business here with, you know, limited use of the turbo boost paste, but last fall on some high risk type calves. And we had one local, darter backgrounder yard here, using the paste. His comment was, you know, normally his cattle, upon initial pull, he would be in the quote unquote sick pen, for anywhere from two to seven days. And with the advent of the turbo boost paste, he was returning a lot of cattle after first treat back to the home pen within two days. Wow. That to me said it all and and, you know, he was he was a believer right up front just for that simple reason. Yeah. I think this recurring theme we keep hearing and you've alluded to it is the number of retreats. Because when you get that second you got a doctor for the second time, yeah, you're getting a big knock as far as your grading. But sometimes those end up being chronic in the sick pen and they don't go nowhere. If they die, it's hard to make money on a dead calf. If they're flat lining, well, it's hard to make money on a calf that's not gaining. So this is getting that immune system dialed in and then having that immune response. We're not going to say there's no stress or no challenges. There's weather going like this, you might have other stress factors. What we're trying to do is build into that calf the ability to deal with stress and respond. And I call it that immune response activation. It's like a if you think of a military base, you know, an immune system is like a military base. It's equipped, it's ready, it's armed, it's got, trained troops. But as soon as there's a threat, that military base goes into high alert. And that's like the on switch on the immune system in a calf. And that's what we're working so hard, with our technology, all natural technology, to equip that calf with the ability to fight off those disease challenges from the inside out with its own immune response. You know, I'm not privy to the ingredients that are in the turbo boost but I think one of the one of the key features is that appetite stimulant. Yes, sir. Because if you keep that belly of that calf full, happier he is, the less stress you put on him. The, you know, the nutrition is there and it's readily available and that keeps that immune system tuned for that small amount of time. I think that's a huge benefit and and that's the comments that we've had in again in the limited use that we've used that the comments from anybody that's used it is those calves are sucking right to the bunk. They're staying hydrated. And I think that that's one of the keys that is being attained. That's great. I appreciate the feedback. As we wrap up, any thoughts on the the industry, the optimism, potential risks? If there was ever a time, I guess, to get out of your box and try something new, this might be the best time to do it in my mind because look at the dollars you got to work with. When you got a the average five weight calf bringing anywhere from twenty five hundred to twenty seven hundred dollars a head, You got a lot of these big calves dollar and up anywhere from twenty seven and a half to twenty nine hundred dollars a head. There's a little extra jingle left in the pocket. The ranchers are being rewarded right now. So if there was ever a time to step out of your box and try something new, I think this is this might be the time. To maintain the health of that animal is key in in the success of your operation. Absolutely. Well, Terrill, I stand in awe of ranchers and folks like you that are stewards of the land. And I think we need to encourage this spirit of stewardship of our extra jingle. Everybody, we're thrilled and and ranchers deserve it, but I think we need to be also wise stewards of that extra jingle. My my input on that would be look at it so in a way that you you use your money to make money. Don't sometimes if you're having a really good year, you can almost get lax in your in your how you manage that. And if we can use that to make wise decisions for the future, I think that's a a great whether that's genetics or whether it's stepping out of the box on other nutrition or, you know, upgrading the the carrying capacity of your ranch or the way you manage it. Well, that concludes us, on today's That Ranching podcast. Thanks for joining us, and we will see you next Thursday.