Making a Difference – Natural Beef and Horses Using SweetPro® Products
Basically (at Diamond A Ranch in Arizona) we have 7 camps scattered out over 1,200 square miles.
We have taken the old way and modified it a little bit to be cattle friendly, horse friendly and user friendly. It just makes it transition our calf crop going into the feed yard – people love them now.
We produce a natural calf. And that’s where SweetPro® comes in. It’s a natural feed. We don’t have any additives in it that’s going to mess up our natural program.
We’ve been on SweetPro® products for 7 years now. Prior to that we had since I’ve been there, 9 years of trial and error. All the other products that you can think of we tried for a supplement program. There was a drawback on everyone of them and maybe not even any benefit with some of them.
SweetPro® came along, we tried it, gave it a shot. The cows did much better, the calves did better, the breedback was better. The delivery system made sense to us.
We could put out the product. The cows would not gobble it up. We had a control consumption – it wasn’t a controlled consumption, they controlled themselves as far as the consumption goes. The other products, you didn’t know what your consumption was going to be like. And, the cows just stayed right on the supplement, wouldn’t range out. But now with the SweetPro® product, you can put out the tubs. They get what they need, they go on about their grazing activity. They don’t stand there and try and consume as much of the tub as they possibly can. It just worked out very well for us.
I feel like it decreases range grass consumption by at least 20%. We’ve extended our grazing period by using SweetPro® in these drought situations.
Of course the thing that really has helped us, a lot, too, with SweetPro® is because our bulls this year, have to tell you, we just got average rain but our bulls never came through the Winter as good as this year as they ever have. It wasn’t easy. They didn’t get the best hand handed to them feed wise, as far as grass you know. But I have to tell you they preformed extremely well with what they had. But I would attribute the condition significantly to the product (SweetPro®) that’s really been a God send this year. Because without that bull battery ya know, we’re in a lot of trouble. Especially the price of these calves. We need every one we can get. This year has been one of those that proved to us the product (SweetPro®) the value of it and quite obvious this year.
Our cows are in great shape. You wouldn’t even know that we were in a drought other than to look at the feed conditions. The feed conditions were not good at all. But the cows, you would think there’s nothing wrong. And, the calves are happy. They’re doing good. They’re growing.
You can’t play catch up with a cow. You can’t play catch up in this business. It’s very difficult. You can’t, starting from behind is not a good place to be so we try to get out in front and we try to project the best we can, what we need to do in the way of nutrition. You know the product (SweetPro®) you know that you guys provide us has done us a lot of good. Kept us in business in the tough times. I can tell you that. I’m pretty happy with that stuff. It’s been good.
Now the horses, you’re one of the rare operations that really is horseback on all of the cattle hand legs. And, the use of the SweetPro® product line is as active as I understand it within the horses as it is with the cattle.
That’s right. We ride horses that are fed nothing but grass and SweetPro® product. We avoid grain. If we do anything we’ll feed a little bit of hay to our night horses whenever we hold them over so that they’re ready to go the next morning. We don’t have to gather the pasture before we go to work because it’s sure dark at 3 o’clock in the morning.
It’s nice to try to make a difference. It’s always about the bottom line. Bottom line will be there if you take care of that animal and do it right. That’s the main thing.