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The Championdrive Podcast
February Episode - Tyler Rhoads // Harrell Club Lambs + Maximize from RSG + The Mindset of Marketing during Sale Season
00:37:07
The February episode of the Championdrive.com podcast is here! In this episode, Tyler Rhoads of Harrell Club Lambs joins to discuss their operation. Dr. Tad Thompson from RSG is featured in our Product Spotlight, with their new product MAXIMIZE. Lastly, the latest "So You Suck at Marketing" from Novel Designs goes over mindset going into sale marketing and making sure your bases are covered across all platforms. For more information on all topics covered, visit championdrive.com
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- [00:02]
A
Now entering the ring, another episode of the Champion Drive podcast presented by Novel Designs.
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B
Welcome back. We're here with our February episode of the ChampionDrive.com podcast. There's been a ton of stuff going on in the industry. Live sales are kicking off. The Texas majors are in full swing. OIE is right around the corner. Be sure to be visiting Champion Drive as we've got great results coverage from the south coming in. There's been a ton of sale results from SC Online sales been coming in and then there's been a ton of exhibitor and breeder spotlights posted on championdrive.com I always like the breeder spotlights, especially because some of the questions in there this time are more about like hardships they've faced or different things they've faced in their operation. And it's been really interesting to read some of those as a breeder as well. And then the exhibitor spotlights I think are always interesting too, learning how they got started and some of the challenges they face. So there's been lots of new ones of those up@championdrive.com so be sure to visit over there a few other things that we have going on. As we mentioned, live sale season is kind of getting ready to get into full swing and this weekend is the Heritage, which is Neff Livestock's customer appreciation sale. That is this Friday, February 27th. The preview is from 6 to 7pm and then on Saturday the 28th, 10am Is the preview and at noon central is the sale. And that sale is held at the American Royal Grounds there in Kansas City, Missouri. So it's a great option in terms of delivery points and being able to see a really good set of sheep that's selling this weekend. Also this weekend on the other side of the Midwest, Shroyers have their open house. That's Saturday, February 28th from 9 to 4 and then Sunday, March 1st from 9 to 2. And they've got sheep ready, priced and ready to go in a variety of price ranges. Schroyers are located in degraff, Ohio. I actually went through and looked at their fall set and I think their barn setup is awesome. Especially for those of you who maybe really enjoyed our Barn Renovations podcast. I thought their barn was set up really, really neat and definitely can tell the that's a family that's raised sheep for a long time. That barn set up so smart. So be sure to swing through Shroyers this weekend for their open house. Also this weekend, Diamond Sea Livestock and Diamond Sea Genetics have their Flush sale going on that Sale actually opens tomorrow, which is Friday, February 27th, and we'll go into extended bidding on Saturday morning, February 28th. They're located not far from the Heritage, so I think they set that up so you can, you know, swing through and check those sheep out while you're in town in Kansas City. That sale does close at a different time than most online sales, so that one goes into extended bidding on Saturday morning with the goal of being able to get some rides for sheep headed out from the Heritage. Outside of live sales, Branded Show Gear has a hat special going on right now featuring three of their premium styles. It's six of each of the three styles that the girls picked out. Be sure to drop branded showgearmail.com and email if you want to get started or go to their website, brandedshowgear.com and the information's featured on Champion Drive as well. We'd be excited to help you out to get some new caps your way for sale season or to give out to customers as they're coming to pick up babies. This episode I'm pretty excited about. I caught up with Tyler Rhodes of Harold Club Lambs. I actually did this segment with him right after the first of the year, so it's been a little bit and it was really interesting to talk to him. I went through his place and looked at some Fallborns and then recorded with him a couple days later. And we've been wanting to get him on the podcast for quite a while, and we're excited to finally get him locked down and grab some time with him and to get his insight. For those of you that don't know, his grandpa would be Joe Harrell, which for those of us who have been in the industry for a long time, Joe definitely played a big part in the industry and it's really exciting to see Tyler take over that operation and put his own twist and spin on it. So let's get right into his episode Today. I've got Tyler Rhodes with me, and for many of us that have been around the sheep industry for a long time, Harold Club Williams is no stranger to the success in the show lamb industry and is in the genetics of a lot of the sheep that we all use or have shown and everything. So I was excited to get you on today. Tyler, let's start a little bit. Can you kind of give me the back history of the backstory of Harold Club Williams and how everything got started?
- [04:21]
A
Yeah. Steve, first off, I want to thank you for having me on. I appreciate you having me on to talk about the sheep. Sorry I couldn't get Joe in on, but anybody that knows Joe know that that was nearly impossible. But he did give me a little bit of info that he wanted to share. So Joe's my granddad. He would have started raising sheep. The best we can figure. We don't have the records from 75. I think we have them from 85, but we don't have them from 75. 76, 77. But I think the first ulams he bought was in 1975. Is the best we can decide. Actually bought Cole U Lambs from Waylon Johnson and Weldon Johnson. Pardon me, that was Ben. I guess my mom was maybe like 4 or 5. And he knew that, you know, he'd want that. He wanted my mom and my uncle to show sheep, so he started buying some. Joe actually showed South Downs when he was in, I think junior high in high school. He told me there's some comical pictures. I. I wish there was a way I could share them with some of you. These South Downs are probably a foot and a half tall. They're. They're as wide as they are tall. When my mom and uncle got, you know, like I said, they're four or five years old or something, I guess he decided that he wanted to start trying to raise a few. So by the time they got ready to show, they could be good enough to do some winning as he's very good at. In just a few short years there, he got them pretty good. I think it was maybe four or five years in, he was winning state and national fairs and selling bucks to everybody in the country. It would have been a sight to see. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and see some of those sheep. Probably wouldn't think they're very good, but it might have been something to see.
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B
Did you grow up like you grew up showing lambs? Did. Were they pretty much from your grandpa or was it still on the. Did you grow up on the place that you're at now?
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A
Yeah, yeah, we grew. We. We grew up. Mom and I both. We all grew up right there on the. On the same place. It's all connected there on the same farm. He said if we showed many sheep from Joe, he's not going to hear this, so I can say it, but Joe likes to sell his sheep. So we bought a few from Joe that we showed, but he liked selling them and, you know, still selling quite a few rams when we were showing. So maybe didn't show as many as some people thought, but we saw. We showed A fair amount of them. And the ones we did get to show we were able to get along good with. You know, my mom and my uncle. A lot of people probably listen to this, don't know, but like my mom and uncle both had very successful show careers. You know, they showed and they, they kind of got the same treatment to a lot of the, A lot of the weathers they wanted to show had to get sold as bucks and maybe somebody come through and really wanted them for a weather. But they still were both very successful. You know, mom, mom won Hawaii I think in 85. I think that same year my uncle won the crosses and she won the Hamps or I guess it had been Suffolk's maybe. Suffolk and crosses. I know they won American Royal a couple times. So they were, they were lucky to be both very successful. And I think they showed a majority of. Of Joe sheep for sure. And maybe my sister and I, when we showed, you know, we, we showed a few less.
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B
Did you know that you always kind of want back and be involved in it or how did it come back to you being to kind of taking over?
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A
Well, you know, we, I really enjoyed showing sheep. We were able to be, you know, pretty successful. So like, like anybody that's successful showing, you know, you really enjoy it. You know, I always wanted to be like Joe Harrell. That was my goal, you know, if I could, if I could make a living ranching for lack of better terms, that's what I always wanted to do. So yeah, I guess it was always what I wanted to do. I never really knew how it was all going to play out. It was a pretty interesting deal. I was actually in my first semester of college, first and only, I'll add. And I guess at that time it was just me and mom and Joe that were pretty well doing all the, all the labor. We would do chores and then I would go to 8am class and coming back from class and never studying in lamb. And it was, I mean it was a chaos at that time. He said, I'm not telling you to quit school, but if you do, somehow you'll have the sheep. If you, if you stick around and basically go to the hard knock school of Joe Harold, then if you make it, somehow we can get you the sheep. Was about how that went. So it was a, it was a shock to me at the time. It was actually Christmas break between first semester and second semester. So we were just gearing up, getting lamb and you know, it was getting busy and he was like, you basically told me not to Go back to school but we won't tell my meme all that.
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B
So at that time like how many use did you run and now like when you took over and then how many used do you run currently?
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A
I graduated 2014 and then I got six years of the Joe, Joe Harold, hard knocks. I think he paid me 300 a week. Labor is what I made. I don't know if we had. There may have been 200 black use. And in that time frame is when we started really, really pushing like shipping fresh semen, doing embryo work. So like there was a lot of variation of recips, black use. I mean it was up and down but somewhere I'd say around 200 use. And then when I bought Joe out in I guess the end of 2019, there was still somewhere around that. Two maybe 200 blacks and 200 recips. Maybe if I was just going to throw a number out there that that was probably somewhere around where it was.
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B
I got you. And do you guys just have sheep or do you also have any other species?
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A
No, we run a few cows too. I don't know when you know, Joe, Joe sold all of his cows. We had a bad drought here. I mean there was like a 10 year drought and everything went dry. And as before I was old enough to really help much in terms of hauling water and I mean, you know, and you've got 300 cows scattered out over 20, 30 miles or whatever. Watering them and taking care of the sheep was a chore. So I can't remember when he sold them but I think it was maybe 14 or 15 right in there when we started buying a bunch of them back. The sheep were, you know, fortunately the sheep were doing well. Maybe that was like 15, 16 between mine and his. Now there might be 250 or something something in that range.
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B
So in present day Harrow Club lambs, what does your typical day look like? And kind of to back up a little bit like, kind of when, when do you lamb? Like what, what's kind of your schedule around there? Like do you do falls, et cetera?
- [11:04]
A
Feels like we lamb year round. We've started raising a few falls. Like everybody, it seems like, you know, there's becoming more of a demand for some of those older sheep. So we start, start there middle October didn't end up with a November set this year. Wish I would have, you know, we generally lamb middle through the middle into March this year we're going to pull. We pulled out a little early because my, my sons do. They're the first week of March. So we've changed our, our plans up just a little bit, but that's kind of generally the middle October, middle March.
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B
In terms of a typical day, are you the one that does most of the work around there or like how do you, how do you kind of manage your typical day?
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A
Yeah. So my dad and my brother in law are actually both full time at the farm. We own another business that my brother in law helps out a little bit with. But between the three of us, I'm sure if you asked them that same question, they'd say I don't do anything. Between the three of us, we were pretty well, the, the laborers, I guess. We've always been a family operation. Never really had much outside help. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I really don't know. I couldn't do it without them guys, that's for sure. And my mom, my mom does a great deal. I mean she works, she works over to bank, but any day she's not working, she's, she's helping. So we're, we're pretty fortunate.
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B
Yeah. I didn't realize when we were doing the like the barn and the lambing roundtable podcast, Chad Charmerson had mentioned, he's like, you need to get Tyler's mom on. She's really good at lambing and everything like that. So.
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A
Yeah, yeah, she, she keeps everybody line when she's around, that's for sure.
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B
Well, let's take a deep dive kind of into like some breeding and genetics questions because I feel like your perspective is, is just a really interesting one to get. How do you approach breeding decisions each year in terms of what bucks to use? Do you breed a UBAC the same way or do you try different bucks on her? What's kind of your logic there?
- [12:59]
A
This is kind of a Joe Harrelism, if you will. But you know, I heard him say a lot. You breed good sheep to good sheep and if you know what you're doing or know what you're looking at, you're going to have good sheep. When I was younger, say I was a teenager, you know, I was trying to study all the pedigrees and, and do what a lot of people today and they make it work, you know. And I'd have my paper with all my pedigrees and studies and, and Joe would go to run and use of the shoot and he'd have his four or five, you know, at that point it would probably paint brand numbers and he had his list of four or five, six bucks. He Just go down the line and run them through the chute. You know, nine times out of the ten when he, when that you come through the chute, he knows what she looks like coming at him, going away from him and you know, going out across the pasture. Because I mean his, his memory is just unreal. He could, he could tell you what lamb that you had the year before, what it looked like, what it needed, what it, you know, where it was best. So that's, that's our breeding strategy is just, is more a phenotypic approach, I guess. Now obviously when there's some of those rams that come in that you know, do an incredible job and you start crossing them up a lot like we're doing now today, you know, you got to kind study some of the pedigree to see how tight you're lining them. But he, he sure didn't study the pedigrees a lot, that's for sure. And I, I don't just, just by the simple fact that that's how I was raised up and taught.
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B
What about breeding way will you, will you breed her the same way multiple times or do you kind of try different bucks on her each time? What's your thoughts on that?
- [14:26]
A
Well, my thought is Joe's thought, you know, if, if we breed that you to say we bred her to Doc Holiday and got a great one, we should be able to breeder to shoot. Yeah. Doc Holiday sign and get an even better one. I blame Joe. I was actually having a conversation about this with a buddy the other day about how. How in today's world we're just always breeding bucklings. You know, everybody wants to breed a Buckland. Well, I blame Joe Harrell for that because his, his mentality was always, you know, my buck lamb should be the best sheep on the farm. I mean, and he did, I mean he pushed the envelope breeding Bucklands because he didn't want to breed this you the same way twice like ever.
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B
Have you said what males to keep intact as what to cut for? Weathers.
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A
That's a question I don't, I struggle with. I mean, you know, always keeping in mind what you, what you need in your flock. You know, obviously just studying, studying their overall quality. Those sheep that need to stay intact, they surface when they're into glam and jug. You know, for example, I know there's a lot of sheep that a lot of people give us a hard time about cutting. Was the sheep that Brad Dale's niece Brooke showed there in 2018. I mean when everybody come through and Those things were five weeks old. I mean, they just couldn't believe how good that sheep was. And everybody, you know, obviously once he'd go out and he won, like every show he went to, they're like, oh, why didn't y' all leave the, you know, these nuts in that one, he should have been a ram. But you know, he didn't, he didn't look the part in the jug. I guess that's a, that's a big, big deal. I mean, back, you know, way back before I was born, you know, Joe sold a lot of, a lot of rams for 3, 500 back then, you know, that's what they, they all sold for. And they, they sold in the jug. Most times. I would say for us it's important that they look good from the get go or we're not going to, you know, not going to leave them intact.
- [16:10]
B
Yeah, and this kind of ties into my next question. Looking back, aside from the dale sheep, what were some of the key sheep either winners bucks or females that kind of stand out? When you look back at Harold Club
- [16:21]
A
lambs, I kind of asked Joe his, his thought on that. One of the first, you know, this is going way back in like the 80s. There was a walking tall son he bought from Raleigh Rosenboom that he used a couple of years there. But the first lamb CR crop he made a buck called two. And most people won't understand this concept, but back then, you know, neighbor over here would haul 10 use over and you know, it was just swap breeding. There was no such thing as AI. And in them days or, you know, buying semen from your buddy and he buys some from you, it was, you know, we'd swap breedings around. And that buck between the use that Joe bred him, you know, two of his own and then the friends used that were hauled in and you know, he made, he made champions for everybody that bred him. That was kind of the turning point, I think is the best way Joe described it to me was like two was of that time was the, the one, you know, and then you get into, you know, there was like Train and Reno and Vegas and Twister. There were several of those through the years. You know, that really hit it hard. There was a long string of them. But, you know, getting back to our more modern day, I GUESS it was 2000 and maybe it was 2010 when Joe got really fired back up about the sheep. I think he saw it as a challenge because, you know, that everybody was converting to the Hamps. And at that point, you know, Our sheep were really still pretty suffocate. You know, you had that Caesar son buddy. That kind of was the start of the transition. But I think Joe saw it as a challenge. He went out and bought bucks like there was a mark until 43 son that we called looking up Tim Lamb owned or we owned the Tim Lamb. I don't remember exactly how that played out but you know that sheep made a big big help and transition in the sheep and then probably where like modern day the the two main ones that really are three. I guess there's a solution was a maker son probably the only FF maker son that was used extremely hard. And we were fortunate because we were able to put some of those solution daughters back on Doc Holiday. I'd say if you if we had to pick one I know I've went way over my my limit maybe but if we had to pick one it'd probably be Doc Holliday. Joe had to use you know I'd got back serious maybe four or five years. Four, four years I guess. And it really culled hard and kind of made the hand transition. When he. When he bought that Doc Holliday buck. That was the I mean that was sure enough the turn from from almost being there to. I mean that was when you know a lot of people say that pin of yearling use that were Doc Holliday's some of the best pen used ever seen. And they were, they were they were very very impressive. After Doc was probably Crinkle that was another one that was close to Doc that no matter what that what you bred that sheep to, you're going to get a pretty good one. You know, obviously the females like a lot of our our females go back to crinkle docks or Crinkle Doc Solutions for that matter. You know that that's probably the most often pedigree you see most often. If you really get back to studying some of those sheep let's talk about
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B
kind of move into current day. Let's talk about the bucks that you currently are selling semen on and that you own. Do you want to talk a little bit about those?
- [19:25]
A
Sure sure. We're in the lamb and season out of semen selling season. I guess I first ought to thank everybody that did did purchase some semen on on any of the bucks that we own in on. We had a very good year. We're very very fortunate to raised raised three bucks this year that that went out and served this past year that went out and sold fair amount of semen. You know Alliance Would have been born in the fall group last October of 24. That was a sheep that we. We all love that sheep from like I said to the day he was born. I mean, he was. He was a stud. Around that same time. We had a warning shot. Would have been born. He had a little bit slower start to life. We sent him out to our buddy Greg in Pennsylvania Beatty club lambs. He shipped semen for us. That. That sheep for being FF ceasefire son. I mean, that one's. That one's. The lambs look really, really good. We're excited about him. Greg would have bought unfiltered, which would be a half brother to alliance that you. Man, that used an incredible job. It looks like so far. So far all those bucks are going to work. Work pretty well. So I'm excited to. Hopefully after we land this group of years, I can get out on the road and go see some of them because the reports sound pretty good from for some of the customers. So we're excited to go out and see some of them.
- [20:45]
B
Yeah, I know alliance was up for rookie of the year and then when I was at your place the other day, I thought warning shot looked really good. And I know the unfiltered on filters have been really good. And I guess you probably won't know this because it doesn't get announced till later today, but there's another buck that you own part of that was actually the champion drive man of the year, which is trace. Amigos, do you want to talk?
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A
Oh, did he win?
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B
Yep, he did. It's getting announced in about an hour, so that's awesome.
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C
Yeah.
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B
So, yeah, congrats.
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A
I can't. I can't take claim to that one. But, you know, that's a sheet that we went out there and bought from Greg. That was a very solid investment. Sheep's one of the more consistent bucks. You know, if. If we had this talk in three years and you asked me for one buck, I'd probably be the one buck. I think he's going to have that kind of impact. So we're sure fortunate to be. To be in on that sheep and we're sure glad that. That Greg and Jamie sold them to us.
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B
Let's talk a little bit while we're on the topic of bucks. Let's talk a little bit about how you work. Like the partnerships or like are the bucks housed at your place? Does the seaman ship from your place or how do you work that? Because the reason I want to ask this, I feel like a lot of people that maybe AI don't understand what goes into shipping semen and everything like that in the day to day process. So can you kind of tell us a little bit about how you have it set up?
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A
Well, the last couple years I haven't housed any of the rams. We started, we started shipping semen. I don't know, it was 20, whatever year. Shoot. Yeah, I would have. Gosh, that's bad. I don't remember maybe 14, 15. And then there for several years we were, we were hitting it hard shipping semen all the time. And I got really tired of it, to be completely honest with you. It's hard to, it's hard to have bucks fertile in June and July in Oklahoma. So I got a little burnout, you know, obviously, obviously buying trace. He, he stayed at Greg's and then we were able to raise these bucks this past year that, you know, they, they either went to Greg or, or Charlie and them guys do an incredible job shipping semen. I can't, I can't thank them enough for all they do, you know, in the day to day. I, that's another thing. I don't think people realize that by the semen is how much goes into that shipment they get. You know, I think some people think that, you know, Greg or Charlie or whoever that's shipping, it just goes out, jumps him. You know, it's a 30, 30 minute process and you know, they get their check. But it's, it's sure not the case. It's, it's a whole lot of work. We're actually working on a barn now that we're going to air condition and, and we're going to house a few bucks this summer. Getting a little more motivated. I don't know if it's the, if it's the new addition to the family or what, but start back to shipping a little bit. If we're, you know, I think warning shot will house this year. And then our, our buck we sold a couple nights ago with our new partner Cody Miller in South Dakota. The full brother unfiltered. We'll have him housed here at the farm. So. And if we find anything out there this spring, we'll bring them in and have a stud. But you know, we'll also still have our, our sheep standing and stud it at Charlie's and Greg's. I'm a firm believer in options. Not everybody likes the same thing. So we're gonna have a few options for people to choose from.
- [23:41]
B
Yeah, I think a lot of people don't understand that it's not Just like you said, it's not just a 30 minute process. It kind of takes up a good chunk of your day in terms of getting them collected and making sure it's good and getting it shipped out.
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A
And oh man, it's, there's so much that goes into it. And even, even on the days that you're not, you know, not shipping it or selling it, you know, you still got to keep those bucks rolling. And I don't think, I don't think some of them guys that do that for a living or, or a lot get enough attention for what they do because it's, it's a lot. And that's the reason I quit, you know, there for I guess the last two, three years. Like, I haven't, I haven't hit it too hard trying to sell any semen because, you know, like I said, we, we were burned out and we wanted to break. It's time to kind of get back going, I guess.
- [24:24]
B
I guess with that in mind, kind of looking ahead. So you're going to start housing some bucks at your place. What are your other goals? I know when we looked at sheep the other day, you had mentioned that was an IVF set. Are you looking at doing more of that? What's your goals?
- [24:35]
A
We're actually going to, I've been saying this and people that are around me are going to laugh when I say this, but we're going to sell. We're going to sell down quite a bit this summer. We're actually going to maybe have a production cell put together or something. I don't know, but we're gonna sell, I'd say probably half of our black use and, and focus even more on IVF and, and flushing. We've been doing it a long time, but we've always done it. You know, we'll have 250. We'll say AI use 50 or 60 donors. Well, it's just getting to be, it's just getting to be too much and I'll do at the same time. And, and we really don't have the, the facilities the last four or five years. It's either like you need to build a, build a facility to, to hold what we're doing, or we need to sell, sell some sheep. So that's, that's what we're going to do. Sell, sell some of those ewes that have kept making us money. It's going to be hard to do, but we're going even deeper into the embryo game. That ivf, I think, is a unique tool to use I know some people are a little scared of it, but working with Progenics and Santiago, you know, we're fortunate that he's pretty close to us and we're able to have pretty good luck with it. We're gearing up, I guess you could say, for a whole lot of repro work.
- [25:46]
B
If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting in the industry, what would it be?
- [25:50]
A
I can't give the answer I'd like to give. Don't get discouraged. You know, we've. We've. We've had. Obviously, you know, I was born into this, so I shouldn't really, you know, say it's getting started from scratch, but, you know, after. After buying the use and taking on all the responsibility, you know, you can get. You can get pretty discouraged. There's a lot of things that can go wrong, and in the sheet business, if they can go wrong, they will go wrong. So I guess if my advice would just be to don't, you know, don't get too discouraged. Don't let things bother you too much or, you know, it can affect, you know, your quality of life at home or, you know, you just. It's. It's not worth all the. And I'm not saying don't be passionate about it, but just draw a line and. And gotta realize at the end of the day, you know, things. Things happen and it's just the way it is.
- [26:44]
B
Yeah, I think a lot of us get pretty beat up on those bad days when your. Your results from like a preg check don't come back good or lambing goes poorly or whatever, or long day going babies. So that's really good advice, I think.
- [26:57]
A
Yep, yep. That. That probably my main advice.
- [27:00]
B
Well, thanks for joining us today, Tyler. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed looking at sheep the other day at your place. And best of luck as we go through the rest of the lambing season. And congrats on the little one on the way. For you guys that are wanting more information, you can go to Champion Drive to find Tyler's website it under Harold Club Lambs. And make sure to stop by when you're in the Oklahoma area to check out his set this year. Thanks again.
- [27:20]
A
All right, thanks, Steva.
- [27:23]
B
Hope you guys enjoyed that segment with Tyler. Definitely someone who's always interesting to talk sheep with. Be sure to check out his website on ChampionDrive.com under Harold Club Lambs as we mentioned. Up next, we're into the product spotlight with rsg. I caught up with Tad Thompson and he's going to talk about their new product called Maximize, which is probably of interest for those of you in terms of what to feed for your donors or your aius or your recips. So let's tune in and hear what he had to say about Maximize
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A
in
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B
this week's Product Spotlight. I've got Dr. Tad Thompson from RSG with us here to talk about their new products, Maximize. Thanks for joining me, Tad. Let's start out and talk a little bit about the technology in this feed.
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C
Thanks, Steve. I appreciate having us on here.
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A
Yeah.
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C
So the Maximize product is a complete
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A
feed,
- [28:13]
C
14% protein, 3% fat and can be kind of used, can be used year round. But what really makes it unique is going to end up being the components in it to improve the overall animal health. And so as a veterinarian, the animal health is kind of one of the first things that comes to my mind whenever we start working with programs and trying to help improve results and things of that nature. And as we know, in all mammals, about 70% of the immune system lives in the GI track, including ourselves. And so if we can build them from the inside out, we can really improve the outcomes for everybody. No matter what phase of, or no matter what their production idea or model is. You know, whether it's natural breeding all the way to ivf, to aiet, whatever those plans are, it all kind of centers back to the same, the same basis. And so that being said, we all start with kind of the same high quality micronutrients. And so there's a lot of products on the market that do the exact same thing, but where we kind of take it a step farther, has to go into some of the specific essential oils that we use that actually helps improve the GI flora and kind of out competes some of the, helps us to out compete some of the bad bugs. A very specific chromium product that serves a lot of good data and proof around ovarian activities. And how do we help improve cycles and consistency of cycles through this, through this chromium product. We also look at several products that help to increase, enhance, if you will, embryo development or gamete production, which also translates into the sperm cell for the males. So there are several of those products and then the long term gold standard of linseed meal, which is one of those key components for Omega 3 fatty acid development and reduced oxidative stresses in animals. So, so those are some of the unique pieces of what our products carry.
- [30:16]
B
You know, something with as much as AI, ET and IVF is becoming a mainstay and how much semen and everything we're all using rather than just breeding naturally anymore. Like, I think that's a huge, huge thing to look into to improve your nutrition program. So for the product maximize, is this texturized pelleted to be a pelleted feed, when do you recommend that someone starts her feeding this if they're going to be doing an AI group or a flush?
- [30:41]
C
Yeah, we really feel like at least 60 days ahead of the, ahead of the breed day just to get, get the benefit of it. We also have to keep in mind, you know, those, whether it's the rams or the ewes, you know those, the eggs or the sperm cells are in production even before that 60 day window. So 60 days, kind of the minimum to get the benefit. If we could get it in there a little bit longer, we can see improved embryo, embryo or oocyte quality, if you will, and some reduction in the degenerative embryos and things of that nature.
- [31:13]
B
And then what is the feeding rate? How much do you suggest feeding it and is it, you know, once a day, twice a day? What do you, what do you suggest?
- [31:20]
C
We actually have the RSG production guide and what that, what that builds out is kind of the phases of production and the key component to the basis of that production guide is body condition score. And so there's a, there's a, there's a map in there, if you will, to help people learn how to best body condition score their animals. And then the feeding rate gets adjusted based on that. And so the rate's really going to run somewhere between one to three pounds per head per day. But again, it depends if, depends on where they're at. Body condition score wise is really the overriding component of it.
- [31:58]
B
And then after the AI or the flush of ivf, do you recommend leaving them on it or do you transition them to a base feed or what do you see there? Especially when we talk about rebreeds on donors and such like that.
- [32:09]
C
Yeah, I think that's, I would recommend leaving them on it. If you're going to, you know, if your first program, if you can get it 60 days ahead of the first program and if you're going to repeat the program or if you're going to, you know, natural breed them back or whatever that component plan is, you still need to keep them on it in order to kind of maximize the rebreeds.
- [32:30]
B
And lastly, where can maximize be purchased or how would our listeners go about ordering?
- [32:34]
C
No. So it's been a great new partnership with Umbarger. So Jackson, Umbarger and us, we all sat down here about a year ago. All the Repro Elite line and Maximize is available through the Unbarger dealers.
- [32:49]
B
Perfect. Well, thanks for joining us and thanks for being the sponsor again for the Female of the Year. I know a lot of our listeners are your customers and are busy lambing out everything that they've all worked hard on this summer. So thanks for being a big supporter of the industry and thanks for joining us today.
- [33:05]
C
Thanks Diva.
- [33:08]
B
The last thing we have to talk about in this episode is is the so you suck at marketing from novel designs this time I want to talk about kind of the logic and mindset of marketing during sales season. There's so many sales currently because we all obviously lamb at the same time and all have stuff to sell. So the question we get a lot is how do I stand out or what do I do different and how can I be more than just another one of many? And I think the best way to look at it is to kind of think about what your story is and how you can tell that story. You know, people need some time to think about like when sales are and to make time to travel to see them. So kind of getting out ahead of that is important. And plan your marketing out. We actually are bringing back a really popular special called the Mix with all of this in mind and it kind of covers your social media, your advertising on Champion Drive, email blasts, just giving yourself a wide array of places to be seen at. You can't just show up the day before your sale and expect everyone to find out about it. You might not catch everyone and you might not catch the right people. So it's important to have a mix across all different types of platforms. You're going to get some visibility from whichever online sale company you're using, or if you're going through a live sale, there's going to be some visibility there. But it's important to have some social media graphics to kind of tell tell your story of what you're selling. Maybe there's a backstory of, you know, like the U bases behind them or past winners that tie into it or just nicely displaying everything you've got. And it's important to post that not only on your social media accounts, such as on Facebook or Instagram, but also Snapchat stories have become really popular. We have a ChampionDrive.com Snapchat that's been blowing up, I would say. And if you run a homepage announcement or a headliner ad on Champion Drive, we feature that on our as seen on Champion Drive Snapchat deal. So that's a great way to get new eyes that maybe don't follow you. Updating websites website traffic has been really good and because it gives the people a place to see the story of your whole program, you can look back and see what winners have these people had, what's the U base like, what sires have they used, learn a little bit about them, figure out where they're located, which it's so much easier to figure that out from your website rather than going back through a ton of old Facebook posts to try and piece together really quick, easy way to give people a good overview of what all your your program's about and what all you've been working on. So the mix that I talked about that features social media graphics, features a homepage announcement or headliner ad on Champion Drive, and it also includes being on Our weekly champion championdrive.com email blast and then on those Snapchat graphics that I talked about as well. So that's something if you're interested in kind of upping your marketing. We put that package together just because we kind of hear a lot of people who get frustrated that there's just so many bases to cover. This makes it really simple. We can kind of help give you a cohesive look across all platforms. And then if you have a website through us, as always, we post that on your website as well. So it kind of takes care of everything by just sending in one email. Here's the lot. You'd make some graphics for me, get me an ad put together and just kind of take care of it. And people seem to really like it. That's called the mix. There's information on it on championdrive.com the other thing I wanted to remind you of on the so you suck. Now's a great time to be thinking about sale signage. Whether it's a dry erase sign, a banner to go over your pins, a pin wrap, a lot of those live sales are coming up here soon. We've still got time to get those designed and ordered into you in time. Also be thinking about if you want to do any giveaways that you know, such as pens or koozies, or if you want like a table or chair setup up for your display, we do all those all through branded show gear. So now's a great time to be thinking about those and getting those ordered. Be sure to reach out to any of us. Our information is all on champion drive.com thanks for tuning in. We'll be back with our March episode next month,
- [36:57]
A
Sam.