Running a profitable business is anything but easy in today’s world, especially an agribusiness. If you do things right, you will succeed. If not, profitability—or lack thereof—can make you fail. You can try to control it or it 

can control you. And for many mid to large ranching operations, profitability can be one of their biggest challenges. The good news? The team at family-owned Rio Nutrition can partner with you to help improve your bottom line.

Rio Nutrition found its start 15 years ago in a small garage, in a very small town. Founded by an insignificant person in southwest Minnesota, it has grown exponentially to becoming a leading provider of cutting-edge nutrition products to the beef cow industry across North America.

Customer Service at Its Core

Rio Nutrition’s team is very committed to doing the right thing for each customer, including understanding and helping them overcome challenges that they are experiencing.

Evolving from product offerings of a single digestion ingredient in its recipes, today Rio Nutrition boasts a 16-component digestion powerhouse in every formula in its product base.  Over its 15-year-history, Rio replaced the sulfates and oxides in every recipe with a 100% protected trace mineral. Today, Rio Nutrition offers a full range of lick tubs and bagged loose minerals; highly concentrated with a low consumption and a strong focus on improving digestion.

While the company offers exceptional products, at the core of Rio Nutrition is its commitment and passion for partnering with their customers. This commitment was first exuded by Trevor Greenfield at the grassroots level when the company was first founded, and continues to flow right through the company until present day, resulting in a team that is dedicated to helping each and every customer meet their specific visions for their ranches.

“We still carry those same business values that we had at our beginning throughout the company and this includes the personal trust relationships we have with our customers,” Greenfield says. “We treat customers as individuals. We’re not peddling products. We are helping ranchers achieve what they are trying to achieve.”

Greenfield and his entire team at Rio Nutrition understand that there is something common to each customer’s goals: quite simply, profitability.

“In the early days of Rio Nutrition, we were very focused on the cost per head per day of our products. While that is still important and we continually want to help our customers save money, we are focused extensively on the profitability of each rancher’s business,” Greenfield says. “Yes, our products can help you save money, but more importantly, we can help you make money and help you improve the margin of your business. “

That is where the partnership mentality comes into Rio Nutrition’s business model—they ensure they align with each ranch, embracing their unique goals and the challenges they are facing, and work together to impact their bottom line.

“I started this business with a passion that has not gone away,” Greenfield says. “In that one-car garage where I started this company, I used to say, ‘If I can’t earn your business, I don’t deserve it.’ Many years later, we are still saying the same thing.”

More important than cost-effectiveness for the rancher, Greenfield and his team work with ranchers to help them improve conception rates, improve weaning weights ensuring more marketable pounds, and help ensure maximum utilization of forages that the rancher has available. “This is how we can positively impact the profitability of a ranch,” Greenfield says. “We are in the business of helping the profitability and sustainability of North America’s ranchers, and naturally we love what we do.”

“There’s not a week goes by that results don’t come pouring in—from conception rates to calving results to our service, consumption guarantee, and our delivery,” Greenfield says. “We enjoy sharing this feedback with our customers and potential customers – what people like them are actually experiencing with our company.” Over the years Rio Nutrition’s business has become far reaching—with customers dotting the landscape from Montana to Alberta, from Wyoming to South Dakota…and all across North America. 

New University Study Findings – Making Mediocre Hay into Good Hay with Nutrizorb

With the ever increasing awareness of this new concept gaining traction in the industry, the company was recently approached by Dr. Alfredo DiConstanzo, a professor of beef cattle management at the University of Minnesota, who was interested in studying the viability of the company’s Nutrizorb product. Simply put, Nutrizorb helps unlock the forages so the cattle can absorb far more nutrients. There are 16 key ingredients in the recipe, all designed for effective improved forage breakdown and increased nutrient extraction. As Greenfield explains, Nutrizorb is a digestive powerhouse that helps cows better utilize what they consume.

This exhaustive study by the University of Minnesota was performed by Dr. DiConstanzo to determine the effect that Nutrizorb has on digestibility on forages and grain.

After the study was completed, Greenfield spoke with DiConstanzo on the telephone in what he describes as an electric conversation! DiConstanzo said that he has done studies on many, many products to date but nothing has come close to the consistent effects of Nutrizorb, Greenfield relays. He further stated that product improves the TDN value of your forage and it can help ranchers do more with less. He said Nutrizorb can help you make early lactation hay (post calving hay) out of late gestation hay, which means we can make good hay out of mediocre or poor hay.

In the study, Dr. DiConstanzo established the cost difference between the poor hay and the better hay as $18 per ton, which translates to about a penny on a per pound basis. This proved that the value Nutrizorb delivers equates to 29 cents in making a 56% TDN product function  like a 59% TDN product. “So I can jump the quality of my hay from 56 to 59 by using Nutrizorb.” Says DiConstanzo, “Nutrizorb changes the dynamics of digestion.” Nutrizorb is not available as a single stand-alone ingredient, but rather is included in every tub and loose mineral Rio offers.

This study has proven the science behind what we are doing – that is, whether the market is tough or whether the market is good, it is always a good idea, especially in the ranching business, to get more out what you’ve got. That’s what Nutrizorb is doing.

Rio Nutrition’s core message to ranchers that there are ways to get more out of existing resources and to run more efficiently by making little tweaks that deliver big results.

Progressive Ranching

Rio Nutrition is passionate about partnering with mid to large sized progressive ranching operations with 500 plus head of cattle —ranchers who are eager to continually improve their profitability while staying on the cutting edge of the industry. Rio Nutrition ships direct to the ranch in full loads, half loads, and even encourages neighbors sharing loads when need be. Rio uses truck drivers who are passionate about what they do and who love to get out into ranch country. And the best news for ranchers is that delivery is free.

“We invite ranchers to reach out to Rio Nutrition in view of increasing conception rates, getting  more caught in the first cycle so you have more pounds to market in the fall, and get more out of your forages,” Greenfield says. “All of these things are tangible things we can do to help the profitability of a rancher’s business. They’re things we can control.”