56: Shaping the Future of Transition Cow Health

Most dairies focus on calcium deficiency during the transition period, but what if that’s just a symptom, not the root cause? In this episode of Ruminate This, Mark Carpenter, CEO of Agrarian Solutions, shares why the real enemy is inflammation and how the company made the bold move to walk away from its popular calcium bolus in favor of a more complete, integrity-driven solution.

Grounded in Dr. Lance Baumgard’s research and broader industry discussions, this conversation challenges the status quo, moving beyond quick fixes to strategies that protect cow health, support producers, and redefine progress in the dairy industry. The inflammation-first approach isn’t just theory, it’s the future.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everyone, welcome to Ruminate This with the Grade Solutions. Join us as we explore ruminant nutrition and the impact of mycotoxins. Here we challenge your curiosity and explore new industry insights and research to optimize your herd's health and performance. All right, hey, welcome everybody to another edition of Ruminate This with the Grand Solutions. I'm your host, Scott Zare, and today I'm pretty excited to have this conversation. So, you know, in dairy, we've got this talent almost for making things work. You know, the old saying, like it'll work with duct tape and baler twine. So the rations got holes, the cows are fighting inflammation, but hey, there's still milk in the tank. So, Mark, we just keep pushing feed. And that's the status quo that we've all lived. Patching symptoms instead of fixing root causes. But in my mind, here's kind of some of the truth. Good enough isn't good enough anymore. We don't really need another shiny jug on the shelf. We need solutions that actually move the needle. And that's why I'm fired up about today's conversation because at Agrarian, we had a product that was selling, growing, and performing, and we're actually going to walk away from it. That's not business as usual, in my opinion. Mark, that's leadership. So why that resonates with me personally is because my whole why is about challenging what's comfortable. I honestly believe that's why I exist on this planet. Poking holes in the way it's always been done, and being that sometimes annoying voice saying, What if we actually fix the problem? That's what it means to be an agent of change. And today with Agrarian's CalStar Complete, we get to dig into what it looks like when integrity, strategy, and science all come together. And that's why I'm excited to have this conversation. And joining me is Mark Carpenter, the CEO of Agrarian Solutions, a company that's been leading the charge in integrity-driven innovation for dairy producers. And he's here to share why Agrarian made this bold choice to step away from a successful product and how CowStart Complete is setting a new standard for transition cow care. Mark, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Thanks, Scott. Glad to be with you today.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

So, you know, I teased a couple things in that opener that we're going to dive into a little bit. But if you could, from your perspective as a leader of this organization, why CowStart Complete? The audience, you know, a couple weeks ago they heard Dr. Roth and John Lawler from Anchor Life talk about Cal Start Complete, the data behind it, the research behind it. But why as a company, why why this product, why now?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Well, great question. And actually, I think you you hit it dead on in your opening statements and monologue, Scott. You and I have visited just you know casually about you know all the things that we believe to be true and make decisions and actions on them. And that's what we know at the time, right? But you know, if you think of all the things that have been, you know, fact at one point and then disproven later, you know, there's endless of them, right? I mean, it's you know, the world was believed to be flat one time, right? So with the cow start complete, the opportunity to have a to introduce a product to our producers that really gets to the root of the problem and actually is a fix, right? A solution, which is in our core, is to provide solutions rather than just treating symptoms. Now, we can argue that there is a lot of industries out there and a lot of sectors that just really hope that no one ever looks to find solutions because they're so successful providing you know opportunities to just deal with symptoms. But quite honestly, at Agrarian Solutions, we really, really just want to be a leader in the space that's bringing proven, researched, trusted products that have results that are really getting to the root problems, the root cause of the issues that producers are having, to allow them to really let their operations, their animals operate really as efficiently as they're designed to do. And the benefits of doing so are far and wide, Scott. We can go down many different rabbit holes with that. But yeah, really excited about this product. And hopefully everybody got an opportunity to listen to Dr. Roth and John Lowler that about the science and the research behind it. It is really the next level generation of transition treatment. So really excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

You know, I guess another question I have for you, Mark, is we talk a lot internally, and I'll try not to come across as too much of a homer, but we do spend a lot of time talking about our core values, like it comes up seemingly a lot, you know, rise, integrity, strategic excellence. I view this move with Calstar Complete in a couple different ways. But the first thing that I look at when y'all introduced the product and we got to sit down and look at the research supporting the product, but also as Sean Lawler pointed out in episode 54, we took a look at research that supports why cows need more than calcium, you know. So talk to me from the aspect of in my opinion, that's like the definition of excellence. If you're willing to take take a look at something that honestly is is just unheard of in our industry. We're not really who's talking about transition care. No, we're talking about giving a calcium bolus because that's what we did, you know, growing up on a farm. And you know, to one of your points earlier, I grew up on a dairy, and 30 years ago you gave every cow a bottle of calcium, right? We've we we've moved on as we've learned more, but just I guess bring my question back around, like the excellence part of this decision.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, so you're you're exactly right. Everybody knows that that calcium is absolutely essential, right? I mean, you need to have calcium, there are periods of deficiency in those calcium, you need to get that calcium in the animal. So that that's not disputable, right? So, but as we learn more, right, is how long does it need to really be in the system? You know, what's the burn rate? What's the retention rate? I mean, what's the release rate? You know, what what is as physiologically when you really start looking at the importance of the why that you talk about all the time, right? So we can't dispute calcium as important, but but why is it really important? And when is it important? When is it optimally throughout the bloodstream and the time at an elevated level within the animal to help them through the transition, right? Because it's not just one minute in time, one hour in time, there is a transition. It's called a transition specifically because the animal is in a transition and that takes some time. But you're exactly right. So as we we learn more and as we question the status quo and just say, you know, are we doing the right thing as an industry? Is this the best way to do it? Is the best approach? What do we know? What do we don't know? And digging into the research behind the why and the efficacy of this approach and this technology, and really asking the big question of the why, right? So, what is the underlying reasons that it's needed and what is the optimal way to deliver that and sustain that in the animal system for the transition period? You know, it's not disputed that we know something more today, right? And so challenges the status quo of not the fact that an animal needs calcium, but how is that calcium then administered? How long does it stay in the system? How is it released, and to support them through that whole transition period? And with the results of that, it's really undisputable that there is a different way to approach this treatment to absolutely yield better results, better performance, and really help that animal to be optimal through that transition. And so I guess the excellence part of that is, you know, you talked about, and maybe you'll come back to that, but I mean, we do it's CA3, right? We, a grad agrarian, we have a very successful bullus, a calcium bullus. There's a lot of calcium boluses out there in the marketplace, Scott. As you know, you do a quick search on them, and I think I, you know, you I can't even come up with how many of them, right? And they're fine, right? If that's what you're looking for, is inexpensive calcium that can be delivered, you know, operationally through a bullus, part of your management and your process. But and I think the CA3, you know, while it was a calcium product, it is a calcium product. I mean, even in that, you know, we decided that the type of calcium that we would use, which gave us an opportunity for a non-caustic type approach, you know, which certainly has benefits as well. But at the end of the day, the hard look at ourselves and of the industry is now that we know and we have, you know, studied the research and the observations, and now we know something more and different that can benefit the animal and ultimately the producer. And so I think the the excellence, the integrity side of that as a company, as agrarian solutions, is if we absolutely know there is a better way, it is our duty to actually have that conversation and not just sit quiet and clip coupons on a product that you know that is wildly successful. It's had double-digit growth over the last couple of years since we launched this, Scott. So maybe I am crazy. Maybe in episode 100 and something, we will look back and say, Mark, you really messed this one up. But I don't believe so. I think we're putting a highly researched proven product with exceptional ROI for our producers out there that is really going to take better consideration of this transition period for their animal, which is a win-win for everybody. So feel really good about the position we're taking here.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

If you guys haven't listened to episode 54, I want you to go back and listen because we have talked a little bit about the calcium side of things. But yeah, there's there's so much more behind Calstar Complete. We're not going to dive into all of that today, but again, go to episode 54 or email us podcast at agrsol.com, and we can get you all the information you need on that. You know, I think one of the big pivotal turning points, Mark, in this conversation of what is it the industry is looking for? What does it need? So if you go back, you know, over the last really over the last five to seven years, you go to a nutrition conference, and inevitably you're gonna have somebody, whether it's even Mike Overton at Cornell or Dr. Bumgard there talking about inflammation. And and I think what really helped me recognize that there was more that needed to be done, you know, we we spent a lot of time within agrarian talking about mycotoxins with our DTX product, right? And that's proving out to be a really good solution for combating inflammation derived from mycotoxins. But Dr. Baumgard put a slide up at a nutrition conference one year that I saw, and it challenged my status quo for sure. And I think it challenges a lot of people's. But essentially, you have things that cause inflammation at the top of the flow chart, and then all of these quote unquote diseases that we've thought were diseases all these years hypocalcemia, ketosis, mitritis. He asked the question what if they're not diseases? What if they're symptoms? Well, geez, when you think of it like that, right? So this conversation of inflammation, there's a whole ton of research being done on it. I mean, you can look up any popular dairy magazine or visit a nutrition conference, and it's all about inflammation as being a root cause. I guess I bring that up to frame created a tension, I think, within me internally that I, you know, have had obviously talked to Dr. Roth about, but I I noticed the tension growing internally at agrarian, constructive tension, right? This is this is where the industry is headed. Like we're growing up, Mark. If you wanted to treat a cow for inflammation, what'd you do? You went and grabbed some vanamine off the shelf. What is that doing in the grand scheme of things, right? It's gonna help her feel better for five minutes. So can you walk our listeners through from the company's perspective as you internalize all that information about you know this topic on inflammation and just how that helps shape some of these decisions?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Sure, Scott. The good thing, I mean, about agrarian, one of the things that I certainly appreciate about it, and I believe our employees and and our customers, our distributors that all work with us, I think really, really feel and really get the sense that we all walk the walk, we talk the talk. I mean, from our our support staff in Napine that's answering the phones to yourself or our nutritionists and PhDs that are out on the field and doing technical analysis and supporting, is really successful agriculture is in our core, right? We talk about having products, whether it's it's calf paste or like the CalStar Complete or our DTX mycotoxin mitigation product. The purpose behind it is we all really have a strong desire and appreciation for the agriculture sector, the agriculture community, the men and women that work so hard to create secure food source and deliver protein for the world, right? And so, you know, it sounds crazy sometimes, but even at some of our meetings and stuff kind of sidebar, we're talking about how we are a little piece of this great big ecosystem that's far bigger than one of the SKUs or products that we have on the shelf. A lot of it is is at our core as an organization. We're constantly trying to do what is right, right? And we believe if you're doing what's right, you're being completely honest out there, you're bringing the best solutions, and not just because we said so, those solutions are highly proven, lots of observations, backed with research, independent trials. If we put the agrarian logo on it and we bring it to the market, you can know what's gone behind that to be that it's proven, it's tried, it's true, it's researched, and you can trust it. And I think that integrity that our company has and has for the last 26 years, and and every one of our people that are on the ground that interface with our customers and our distributors and suppliers and everything really get a sense that it's in the core of every person that's in the organization. And when that translates to the market, right, it becomes pretty pure, Scott. And you know, I want to go down, get you know, kind of get emotional about the why, if you will, but it's uniquely special, you know, it's not a paycheck, although wildly important for everybody, right? To to cover their bills, but but it's really a it's a purpose, and that is what's really, really special. And as that translates, you know, into our product development, our approach to trying to find a new way, a different way, a better way, continuing to analyze what we're doing to ask the questions is it the right way? Is it doing exactly the best for the producer given all the new information that we continue to develop? And so it's it's become part of who we are. And so not afraid to make the change. We're learning every day, too. Got our ears on the ground, we listened to the feedback. And like you just mentioned, you know, Cornell, I mean, that was really an interesting conversation, too, and and kind of thought process the challenge, you know, is it a disease or is it a symptom? And I think we're gaining, you know, certainly more confidence, Scott, that a lot of things that we may have believed loosely that we can define as this bucket over here may in fact really be a result or a symptom of an underlying issue over here. And inflammation, I think there's it's been proven time and time again, Scott, that inflammation is the root cause of a lot of things, a lot of challenges, whether we put them into buckets of disease or we put them into buckets of symptoms. Either way, they're challenges, and those challenges are preventing the animal from reaching their potential and operating as efficiently as they should. And so getting back to the challenging the why. Yes, we can treat the symptoms, but now that we know more, let's back it up a little bit and really get to the root cause and address the issue that is highly likely to be leading that animal to the challenges that come afterwards. So attack inflammation, it's the bullseye.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

I want to just kind of touch on something you talked about, and that was how we take this relationship with agriculture personally, right? I think it's an interesting thing. You know, we we talk about we want to be relational. And what does relational mean? It means, you know, being a good person. Like taking, I think in one of our previous podcasts we recorded, I told you I hate the term business to business sales. Like I get it, but let's put the people back in business, right? And you want to do business with people. And you made another comment that reminded me of something. I I try not to talk about my uh personal side hustles outside of agrarian on this platform too much, but with with our maple syrup, so people laugh at this, but it's ironic the crossover between agrarian and my philosophy when I put maple syrup in a bottle and put my name on it. Like we taste test it at least three times before it hits a bottle. My kids taste test it, and my six-year-old daughter will give me a two thumbs up or a two thumbs down. And like honestly, we will not I will not put that syrup in a bottle if I wouldn't feed it to my family because it's a personal thing. But it's it's funny how I get to live that same life at Agrarian because I've used all these products that we carry on my own cattle. We have other people in the company that own own animals and use the products on their animals. Like we're not going to put something out there that we don't believe in, and I think that's just such a cool testimony that yes, there's science, there's research, there's case studies, but it's also personal. And the reason it's personal is because we actually give a crap about agriculture, right? You know, and it's I'm not saying other people don't, I haven't worked for any other nutrition sector company, so I can't, but it really is. And and I think that's just something that to me is is a special thing that if you want to do business with a company, great. If you want to do business with people, here we are. So I want to bring up you referenced CA3. I teased it in the beginning. Boy, I if you could have seen the looks on everybody's faces the day that you all introduced CalStar Complete to the team internally. I know it was like a moment in time for me. I know where I was. I was actually in a hotel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma, carving out some time to be on this call that Larry said I can't miss. And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Like, we're gonna bring another calcium product to market when we have CA3. Like, we have the research on CA3. We know unequivocally that CA3 will bring ionized calcium levels in the cow's blood up to a level where it needs to be for the first 24 hours. There's traction behind the product, it's moving. Like, what's the catch here, folks? And I think that initial shock value, and and I got to I love the people watching, so I'm like looking at Chad and I'm looking at Dan and I'm looking at Jeff and just watching their reactions to all this, but then you start putting it together. It begged a question to me, and again, I I don't want to ask you to speak for a specific company, but it begged a question to me how many other companies out there invest into a product? Have sales on the product, have great feedback, customer-driven testimonials. We're not asking for it, but we hear it from customers, right? And then say, oh no, we're gonna do this. And and there's even there's even been some other products that have never seen the light of day that we've worked on that we've invested in, right? But then they die. And I I just again I'm not trying to throw doubt on any other company, but it really struck me to think about the level of integrity that the leadership team and everybody else in the ground has, but especially the leadership team, because we put money into CA3 and it had returns, don't get me wrong, but we've also put money into other products that had zero return, had negative return because we never sold it.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Yep. Okay, we never brought it to the market.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

How do you walk away from that? Like, how how do you and I'm I'm just thinking about it from my own business, like, and I've had to do this on on some of my other stuff, but man, it just begs that question how many other companies are willing to do that? Uh that's I don't know if you should answer that, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Well, and I don't know, right? I mean, I I would hope that I would hope that here we are in 2025, right? 50 years ago, you can get away with doing something and just it was because you said it was, but you know, with AI and Google and Yahoo and everything, I mean, people can do their own research too and make more informed decisions of what's real and what's not. And I would really hate to believe that there is a company that that is out there that would knowingly bring something that's less than par to the market and and build around that with marketing. So uh I think consumers and professionals will call out those instances. Now, marketing is powerful for sure, Scott. I mean, you know, you remember the pet rock with the two little jiggly eyes on it, right? So I still laugh about that all day long. So, but you're exactly right. And I think one of the unique things is agrarian is a private company, right? Which is one. So we don't have equity investors or partners that may not even be in the industry that have, you know, a stake in our company, that feel like they demand a return on their money and and they would, you know, maybe force a less than optimal decision, you know, just for the sake of a return. We are not. And as you know, Scott, I mean, on our board of directors, we brought two active producers onto our board of directors to give us that that industry feedback too and help guide us as leadership of the organization as well. We're relational, as you said. It's one of our rise, it's our, it's the beginning of our thing. And you talked about how bring people back to the conversation. So, you know, sure there's a lot of great dot-com e-commerce stuff, but I mean, agriculture today is still a people business. People still do business with people. And quite honestly, if we're not in front of our producers, in front of our clients, in front of the nutritionists, you know, listening and hearing about how are we doing, what are the challenges that you're facing that, you know, may not be addressed, not just by us, but by by anything that's available on the market. And it really allows us an opportunity to really stay true to what we do. It's a long game for agrarian. You know, we think about 10 years from now, we think about 20 years from now, we think about 25 years from now. And that was kind of the you know, our uh a year ago when we kind of all got together as a group, it was, you know, well, let's talk about the next 25. And I think that's that's absolutely unique because I mean, both of us have worked other places too, and you go into your strategic planning, and it's well, what about three years? What about five years? And that's where it stops, right? So it's how can we do something that has a result right now? And what I really appreciate about our approach is we're looking 25, right? And who do we really want to be? Where do we want to, you know, really position ourselves? How do we want to be viewed by our clients and our customers and our support? And I'm really, really proud that I believe that in my mind and from the feedback that I get is is agraria is absolutely super easy to do business with, that everybody takes the time to listen. In fact, listens more than talks. And quite honestly, and I've seen it with my own eyes, is sometimes, you know, when we're brought in to be part of that consulting group, if we don't have the right solution, we're the first to say, you know what, appreciate the invitation to come in, but you know, we may not be the best solution for this. And, you know, maybe you want to look here, here, here, and here. Um, and that's unique too, because you know, quite honestly, we don't want to be transactional, we want to be relational, and so you know, the big one on the CA3, and I remember that call because we were like, well, let's see what the team thinks of this, right? After we've been pushing it so hard, and it's a good product, it is a good product, it really is. It's got a place, and like I said, it's had double-digit growth year over year since we launched it. But quite honestly, it's not the best solution, and and and we'll be honest, I think it was a better mouse trap.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

I really do think it was a better mouse trap. You had you had three forms of calcium, you had some good extended release, a ton of vitamin D3 to help the cow mobilize that calcium, but it it didn't treat the root of the problem, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:56

It was a better product to treat the symptom.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

So, as we know now, I mean, we know that there's a better way, we know that there's a better approach to that. Let's be fair. Some producers out there will still just want cheap calcium, and this won't be the product for them. Arguably, CA3 was not the product for them either. But for producers that really want to make sure that they're getting to the root cause, they can use a product that's backed by research, that's proven, that has an incredible ROI, right? From a production standpoint, a repro standpoint, and goes on and on and on, right? And so I tease you to go back to the last episode and with the PhDs and listen to that.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

But nice, nice callback. You're like the pro on these podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

I'm following your lead, Scott. So, but any one of us, right? We won't continue to do something that we know is not the best, right? Even in our personal lives and our business lives. And if we want to walk the walk and talk the talk, which we do, and I think we prove over and over again, you know, as an organization, we know that there is a better way and a different way to think of this, a different approach that will truly benefit the animal. And ultimately, at the end of the day, the better the animal performs, the less challenges it has, the more we can support that animal through times of stress and transition and things like that. The benefits that come thereafter turn into profits for our producers. And that is our goal is to help others succeed and really feel good that this is a great tool in the toolbox, which is the next generation of transition management that is really going to help our producers be successful.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Absolutely. And again, if you're following along here, check it out agrarian solutions.com, Calstart Complete, and go back and listen to episode 54, like Mark just mentioned. Mark, in closing, here I want to ask you this question, and I promise the audience I didn't prep Mark for this question. Where do we go from here? Right? Like what's what's next? And I mean, you can take that as broadly as you want, but in my mind, when I look across our gamut of SKUs, as you would say, you know, DTX, it's a home run ball. Cal star complete. I know it's new, but my gosh, it's gonna be a home run ball.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

And well, Scott, if I get a big calf is awesome. I mean, it's one we need to talk more about and more about. It's one of those products that they're super proud of, that's super effective, that is just incredible, right? And easily mixed with milk replacer. I mean, it's fantastic. And the reality is these calves are worth so much money right now.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Oh gosh. You know, we have we have Holstein bull calves in New York selling for twelve hundred bucks. That's how bad it is.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Oh, it's yes, you know, and forget about the black hyded. Oh, seriously, seriously, and that's not going away anytime soon. I mean, the cow calf population, I think I just read yesterday, is it the lowest population since 1973? I mean, if you want to put that in perspective, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:06

So you might want to check the date because I think so I I just read something again the other day. It's the lowest population since the USDA has been recording the cowcat, and I think it's 63.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Okay, all right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

But yeah, I could be wrong. Somebody will fact check us, and it's been a long time, Scott.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Uh you know, put it that way. So uh before you and I, I'll say that, right? Um yeah, but it is. I said that that is a product that we need to, you know, here and now I think it's a that's a great solution for our producers right now to make sure these calves get started well and get good bigger and survive, right? I mean, I've had more conversations on what an acceptable death loss is, right? I mean, it was kind of, you know, again, what we always knew, right? It was well, you we're we're gonna have some challenges, it might be pneumonia, it might be that I mean, just some things, right? And now all of a sudden it's all of you know, it I want zero, right? Like I don't want to lose any, which nobody ever wanted to lose any, anyways, but there was some no, but it it was.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I mean, I my time at Premier doing consulting, right? Yeah, running these these inventory numbers, and it was like, okay, well, we're gonna build in 10 to 15 death loss because that's just you know, gonna that's just gonna happen. Again, if you come back to it, now I'm on this side of the industry. Why? What if we could get it to zero? What if I I think in episode 54 I made the comment like seven years ago working with Premier doing repro advising, that kind of stuff. I I would ask the question like actually, I would put the challenge out there to producers we need to be getting 50% of our cows pregnant on first service. And sometimes that was met with like, are you crazy? Like, that's not even seven years later, we have producers getting 55% of their herd pregnant or more with sorted semen on first service, right? What if that was 85%? What if instead of 150 days in milk to 85% of your herd pregnant? It was the new standard should be 85% of your herd pregnant on first service. Yeah, 100 days in milk. The trajectory change in profitability, cow longevity, you and I were talking about carbon output, like the just the efficiencies gained there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

What if it is that what if is the big one, and it goes fair to saying is we're talking about you know, cow start complete and transitioning away from transitioning, I love that, away from C. But you know, so but because it was better, and and arguably DTX, you know, with our proprietary technology, is really has been a very unique, very effective, you know, wonderfully supported product from a micro taxing standpoint. You could easily ask the same question why in the world did we introduce liver benefits? Why, right? But again, it's it's as an organization, the product wasn't broke, but we saw an opportunity to make it even better, right? Challenge the status quo, challenge the status quo, introduce again, it's proven, highly researched, you know, technology that we've incorporated in that for the added benefits. And quite honestly, that's the other conversation, Scott, as we pump these really nutrient-rich diets into these animals, right? So they can perform. Liver stress is a known, right? I don't think anybody has really figured out exactly how and why and all the stuff behind it. But here is an opportunity for us to the efficiency of it, right? So it's not something else that a producer has to do. We incorporate that technology into a product that they're using, anyways, so we can complement the mycotoxic mitigation with the added benefit of liver health. There's another example of how a variant continues to push itself forward to meet the needs of the market. So we listen, we care, and we want to keep innovating. And again, I got to go back to it, it was highly researched, the high observations and trials. I mean, all the data was there and it performed in the wild. So I stand firmly good with feeling good that we were putting an even better product out in the marketplace.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

No, you you bring up the the Livox edition, and I believe Oh, it's probably an episode back in the 20s, episode 20 something. I'd have to really check. But Larry and I talked about that in essentially to challenge a status quo there. So we've thought this liver abscess issue for years is the direct result of fusobacteria causing issues getting through the small intestine and getting into the liver and causing liver abscesses. Well, if that's the case, you know, I just what if, right? Why do we see young animals with those same challenges? Young as in like calves. Yeah. So I always appreciate anything that challenges the status quo. That's kind of what I feel like I'm here to do anyway, and probably annoys you and Rob and some of the other people at times, but you haven't gotten rid of me yet. So I think I asked you the question, like, what's next? And I guess my challenge will be just to, you know, for the leadership here at Agrarian, just to keep trying to poke at the status quo. And I think that'll serve us well.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Well, I appreciate that, Scott. I think that's how what we're wired to do. So, you know, eyes wide open, ears wide open, and just listening, listening to our customers and the experts that support them and the industry and continue to scour the you know, plant actives is not new by any means, but uh but we're learning more and more about them, and there's more and more research behind them. So we'll continue to challenge the status quo, continue to challenge ourselves and continue to with if we've got something you need to hear, we're not gonna be afraid to ask it out loud and say it out loud and see what happens. But yeah, no, excited upward and onward, they say, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Absolutely. So, last question, if you could. What are two or three takeaways you'd like the listeners to just kind of think about as we part ways here?

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Well, sure. So one is hey, thank you, right? So if you're listening, hopefully that translates to is you've had an experience with Agrarian solution, either as a customer or a consultant for somebody that that is a customer, or maybe you're just curious and want to learn more. So we hope to continue to earn your trust and maintain your trust and bring innovative solutions that are are really solving problems with your animals as a producer or the animals that you help consult and guide for. And really excited about this Cal Start Complete. It is the next generation of transition management. Got to look at that episode 54 for sure. Research is incredible, ROI is amazing, lots of benefits that come out the other side for the animal themselves, but ultimately for the producer and their success. And just keep tuning in to the podcast here because I Scott loves the Ruminate This podcast. So keep supporting them. And Scott, I'm sure you do all the time. But if something's on your mind, you want to hear something, I mean, we will go out and we will find those that know about a topic and challenge them to come on and ask them some hard questions, or just spend some time being philosophical about an environment or an area. But certainly appreciate all that support and appreciate y'all turning in and continue to support ruminate this and challenge us to be the best company we can for you and the herds that you consult for.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Love it. All right. Well, hey, Mark, thank you for taking time out of your day this week to visit with us. And I'm sure we'll be talking again sometime soon. Let's see, it's it's been just over a year or so since you've joined us on the first episode, but I'll see if I can twist your arm again here in the future.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Okay, we've got a year to go.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Thank you, Mark.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

All right, thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Thank you for listening to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. Look for our next episode in two weeks.