August 28, 2025 • 42 mins
TMR mixers, also known as feed mixers, are essential tools for livestock farmers, offering numerous benefits that enhance the health and productivity of animals and offer cost saving by improving feed efficiency. With so many different types of mixers, which is right for your operation. In this podcast we discuss the types of feed mixers, and which types work best for which situations. In this podcast we are going to discuss what to consider when choosing a cattle feed mixer and why those factors are important.
To help us better understand what to look for we have Joel Schelling, Sales and Marketing Specialist at Post Equipment and parent company of Herd Boss Feeders. and Dan Koonan, a sales specialist.
Contact Information:
Joel Schelling: jschelling@postequip.com | Phone: 712-476-4500
Post Equipment: https://postequip.com/ | Herd Boss Feeders: https://herdbossfeeders.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
If you're looking to improve yourlivestock performance and make your
(00:03):
operation more efficient,you're in the right place.
Today, we're diving deep into the worldof TMR mixers, also known as feed mixers.
We'll explain how these units increaseproductivity and provide better
animal nutrition and health.
Then we'll walk you through the keydifferences between mixers and provide
a straightforward buyer's guide to helpyou select the right unit with confidence.
(00:24):
Today on small business talks.
In this podcast,we're going to look at what to consider
when choosing a cattle feed mixer,also known as a total mixed ration mixer,
and why those factors are important.
To help us better understand what to lookfor, we have Joel Scaling,
(00:48):
sales and marketing specialistat Post Equipment,
the parent company of Herd Boss Feeders,and Dan Coonan, a sales specialist.
Joel, Dan, welcome to the podcast.
Good to be here.
Hello.
Let's start off for our listenersby explaining what a cattle
feed mixer is and who uses them.
(01:09):
Well,one thing I'd like to tell you, Neil, is
we sell mixers to people that feed sheep,people that feed cows,
stock cows, dairy cows.
They start with a calf at 400 pounds.
They feed them all the way to fat.
(01:29):
We We call that a calf to finish ration.
We also start guys with 1,000
pounders and feed them to fat.
That's more of a finish ration.
Then we feed light fluffyloats for the stock cows.
In the dairy rations, they're moreof a silage and total mixed rations.
(01:54):
All of them are total mix rations.
They're just different densities,different weights,
different It depends how big of thefeed lot is or the ranch is
or the cow-calf operation.
Maybe guys, 50 cows allthe way to 5,000 cows.
It's a lot of varietiesis what a mixer wagon.
(02:16):
We've also sold them to landscapecompanies for mixing
mulch and stuff like that.
They're using a lot of different areas.
I even sold a mixer to a guyin Pennsylvania that mixed
table scraps at a Boy Scout camp.
I'm from Pennsylvania,so I'm almost scared to ask what city.
(02:40):
We'll stop there.
I probably don't want to know.
Okay, so what are the subcategories ofTMRs or total mixed ration mixers?
What are the types of?
Mainly, you got your vertical.
(03:01):
It's more of a round tub.
There's different shapesof them, of course.
There's a lot of verticalmixers on the market.
Mainly, you got your verticaland your horizontal type mixers.
So your vertical is pushing the feed upand your horizontal is pushing
(03:21):
it forward and backward.
There are three differenttypes of horizontal.
The real mixerIt's got two augers in it and it's got
a reel that pushes it toward the augers.
And then you got your auger mixers whereyou either have a three
auger or a four auger.
(03:41):
The bottom one is two augers or one auger.
Then the top is two augers.
So the bottom ones are pushing the feedtoward the door, and the top ones are
taking the feed away from the door.
So that's where you get your mixfrom because you're getting your
transition in your mix that way.
And then the last horizontalis more of a ribbon mixer.
(04:06):
It's more of a slow,gentle forward motion.
I'd say that that'd be basically yourthree types of horizontal mixers.
What type of vertical mixers are there?
You mentioned that was the shape.
You got the shape, you got a flatsidewall, horizontal or vertical.
(04:30):
You have a flat sidewall vertical, andthen you have a sloped sidewall vertical.
There's basically two different types,I would say, of verticals, that your
flat sidewall and your slope sidewall.
What's the reasoning why youwould choose one over the other?
I would say that's goingto depend on the user.
The flat one is generally moreof a shorter mixer for loading height,
(04:55):
et cetera,where the slope one gets a little taller
because you have narrow the floorup in the bottom to get your slope.
I would say it's going to be reallydepend on the user and his application.
Okay.
How about- Does it matter at allon the density of the ration, Dan?
Do you see that at all?
We have found out or we do see thata sloped sidewall is going to take less
(05:20):
horsepower than a straight sidewall.
A straight sidewall with a dense ration isgoing to take a lot of power,
whereas a slope sidewall with a denseration is take significantly less
horsepower on that heavy ration.
How about a verticalover a horizontal mixer?
(05:41):
When would you use a verticaland when would you use a horizontal?
That really varies on the user,the load size,
and the type of feed they're putting in.
But if you're going to do a lot of fluffyrations that
(06:02):
or you want to hold a lot of fluffy heavyor a lot of fluffy rations that
a lot of pounds, you might say,then you use a vertical.
I just had a guy the other day,he tried a vertical,
but as The loads weren't big enough to getto the top of the auger.
It wasn't an advantage for him at all
(06:23):
to go to a vertical because he could not
get the top of the auger all the way full.
So feed, if you put it on the auger,the feed would just stay there.
It wouldn't mix because it wouldn'tget it to the top of the auger.
So I would say, if you're going to do a...
Where a vertical really shines is you'redoing big loads, fluffy rations, or just
(06:48):
big loads, you would go to a vertical.
Horizontals work awesome.
The disadvantage to the horizontalis some guys will overfill.
When you overfill a horizontal,they do that mix.
They just start bear rolling.
I may have cut you off.
I wanted you to discuss.
You were talking about sizingthe mixer to your operation.
(07:10):
Could you walk us throughhow you go about doing that?
When you have When you havea guy that says, Okay, I feed...
Here's where it gets tricky is.
You got the guy that feeds 3,000 head ofcattle, and he feeds all the same ration.
(07:30):
Well, you give him a big wagonbigger than what he had just per se.
You give him a big wagon,and he's got all the same rations,
so he's never changing rations.
Now you got a guy that feeds 3,000 He hassmall calves, he has small calves.
He has fat ration, he has regular calves,then he has a few stock cows on the side.
(07:52):
That's where it gets tricky becausesometimes he could use
a horizontal end of vertical.
Vertical for his big loads,a horizontal for his small calf loads.
That guy has to decidewhat's going to fit him the best.
Usually, that's where a demo comesin where we bring a wagon to him and say,
(08:15):
All right, does this one fityou or does this one fit you?
You decide because you're going to use it.
I'm not going to feed with it every day,so you have to decide that.
Does tractor power play into any of those?Yes.
In the vertical world, a verticalis going to take more horsepower.
You have 155 horsepower tractor, well,probably you're not going
(08:39):
to want a 900-qubit-foot wagon.
You're probably going to wanta 600-qubit-foot wagon.
Even at that, some guys will say, Well,I'm not saving any loads,
seeing any benefits if I go to a vertical.
I'm going to say it's a horizontal.
I'm going to use a little less fuel.
I'm not going to fill it as full.
But that's the big For this trick,you cannot fill a horizontal
(09:03):
over full because they won't mix.
What are some of the key featuresthat are important to consider and why?
One would be horizontal Reel mixer,
usually all you need is a slide tray.
A slide tray unloadsthe feed into the bump.
(09:23):
Where a vertical, you need a traywith a chain conveyor in it.
As you're unloading it, you have a chain.
On a heavy ration, those chains stretch.
When you're stretching that chain,you're taking the life out of it.
On a reel, you have allyour chains in the back.
(09:45):
You have a shaft that comes from the PTO,the chains go in the back.
You have all those moving chains in theback, turning your augers in your reel.
I say to some guys, Well,if you like your slide tray,
you're exchanging your slide tray for yourchains in the back where you
don't have that with a vertical.
The reel is very low horsepower, likewe said, very gentle moving in the feed.
(10:11):
Yeah, so that would beadvantage, disadvantage.
What do you find are common mistakespeople make and how can you
avoid making those mistakes?
Number one would be on a horizontal,as we mentioned it already, overfilling.
Number two would be,because if you overfill the mixer,
(10:32):
number one,you put extra stress on the chains,
you put extra stress on your augers,the back auger plug that
drives the bottom auger.
We've seen that breakbecause of overloading.
You put stress, your chains.
We've seen chains breakbecause of overloading,
because there's nowhere for the feed to goon a horizontal mixer except the ring.
(10:57):
Where a vertical, if you overfill it,it goes out to top.
That would be a mistake.
Another thing, another mistake peoplemake, and nowadays with your performance
beef, you have your iPad,so you can log into your iPad
and you can change the way you load.
Very important thing ishow you load your mixer.
(11:18):
A horizontal may loaddifferent than a vertical.
So in a vertical,you put your fluffy stuff in first
and your heavy stuff in last.
Or a horizontal, you may doit in a different battery.
That does make a differenceon the mix and your mix stat.
It sounds like somebody should probablyknow what amount they're dealing with.
(11:40):
Are they dealing with a small amount,a large amount,
or should know some capacities to helppick the right mixer
is what it sounds like.
Yeah.
What about poor discharge location?
So your discharge, a lot of guys run themon the front or the verticals
(12:01):
are all on the front.
There are a few people that havea discharge of a vertical on the back
because they back intothe loading alley or into the
free-staw barn in the dairies,so they back up, and then they can get all
the way to the back wall and then unload.
The front one is most popularbecause you can see it.
(12:25):
Most guys on the vertical side,about 70% of them on the right-hand side
because all your control'son the tractor on the right.
On the trucks, it's left, of course,because your driver's side,
so you're on the left, you're loadingon the left-hand side on the trucks.
(12:46):
Discharges on somewagons are back further.
They do that because if on a real mixer,
they try to get the discharge as close as
far as the wagon as possible,but they still have to have an auger,
something that kicks the feedback toward the door.
On a real mixer, the bottom auger has oneflight that kicks the feed back
(13:10):
toward the doors for cleanup.
Some guys put the door the other towardthe back, but then you can't
see it as good for unloading.
But there is a method to that,Madras, as well.
What makes a mixer worth the investment?
Is it longevity?
Is it local service?
Parts availability?
(13:31):
What are important things thatthey should consider?
I would say, number one,back to what we talked about before,
make sure you get a mixerthat fits your operation.
I've had it so many times in the pastyears that a guy calls,
since I bought this mixer off an auction,don't work with a two.
(13:55):
Okay?
Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, you bought a You go and you'retrying to feed an elephant.
I like your reference.I like your reference.
You got to do your homework and yourresearch and figure out what
(14:16):
fits your operation best.
Next is, yes, parts, service.
Another thing is, a guy buys a...
I've seen this a lot, too.
A guy buys a wagon off a farm sale or offwherever, don't do his homework,
comes home, scale don't work,drives over to post and says,
(14:36):
I need this scale fixed.
Well, this scale is 30 yearsold and we can't fix it.
Now all of a sudden,this cheap wagon he bought
is going to cost him doublebecause he has to put a whole new scale
system on it because it's obsolete.
That's a big thing.
Vertical mixers, horizontal mixers.
(14:59):
Some guys buy a horizontal and
add back in 20 years ago said you could do
square bails in it, which you can,but they're small squares.
I've had guys dump a half a square bail,a big square, then it's horizontal.
You're calling 911 post becauseall of a sudden you have a mess.
(15:25):
Just doing the homework,doing some investigation on what is
going to fit your operation best.
What should somebody beware of whenthey're buying a used mixer?
Number one is,I know where all the weak spots are.
We've been doing it for years.
On a vertical mixer,you always check the corners at the bottom
(15:46):
where it curves towardthe door or in the back.
You always check those corners.
Now we have an ultrasound machineto test how thin the metal is.
That's where the metal isgoing to wear down there.
I I can do it with a plier,with just a CT player.
You do the sound test.
(16:07):
As you tap up, you hear it get thicker,and as you tap down,
you hear it get thinner.
That makes you know that,yeah, it's getting thin.
Usually, there's a holethere, it's bulged out.
Then when you know it's thin,that'd be on the vertical side.
Then you need a liner.
What I recommend is doing a stainlesssteel liner because it lasts longer.
(16:30):
It lasts twice as long as a mild one.
Another thing iswhen a guy calls and says his mixer ain't
mixing,well, on a vertical,
the number one thing I go to is the plowblade or the kicker plate, they call it,
and that's on the bottom of the mixer,on the bottom of the auger.
It's a plate.
(16:50):
Some are different than others,but that plate has to be a quarter inch
from the sidewall on theflat part of the mixer.
On the flat side, not on any curves,on the flat side, quarter inch
from the sidewall, and the leadingedge has to be that far out, too.
We'll build them up,make sure they're good again.
Knives are a big thing.
(17:10):
If you're buying a used mixer and allthe knives are shot, it's $1,500.
If it's a character plateshot, it's $2, $300.
If the side walls, if you need linersin it, you could be talking $10,000.
If the augers are more,you can be talking...
It depends on on the size of the mixer,you can be talking 5-15 grand.
(17:35):
You can spend a lot of money in a hurry.
No, that makes sense.
I'm at that stage in my lifewhere you get what you pay for.
Youget the right tool for the job is the way
I'm at with all the thingsthat I work with.
It's fun selling to dairies.
It's really fun selling to them becausethere you can see your results every day.
(18:01):
You bring a brand new vertical to a dairy.
Most dairies are on verticals.
There's a few that are on horizontal.
Most of them are on verticals.
You bring a brand new vertical to dairy.
You let them use it a week.
You come back the next week and he says,Yeah, I think I better buy it
because my milk went up three pounds.
Well, a dairy cow digests.
(18:23):
The digestive system on a dairy cow isso sensitive that when they eat a good
product, they can produce more milk.
They get paid on their components,on their butter fat and whatever else.
They really see the results on a good
or a new mixer or a rebuilt mixer.
(18:46):
The results come quickly.
It goes back to the benefits of the TMRthat you talked about earlier, Dan, is
all the ingredients that you're puttingin there, you know exactly the weight.
When you're As a smaller producer, youmight just put a hay bale in a hay ring.
Well, you're looking at 10 to 15%loss on your hay.
(19:09):
As commodities get more expensive,it puts you in the driver's seat of,
I know I'm putting X amountof this in my ration, X, X, X.
With the different systems that they havenow, it can put that price right out or
bill it out if you're a custom feed guy.
It gets that product to a certain length.
(19:32):
It gets that product to a certain length,it makes it all more
digestible for beef or dairy cattle.
That's interesting you bring that upbecause I was going to ask,
how can the right mix or improvefeed efficiency or cattle health?
It sounds like you prettymuch already answered that.
Do people understand that relationshipbetween the feed mixer and efficiency
and the increasing the productionfor the cattle or the livestock
(19:58):
or the cattle health?
Or is that something they findout more or less afterwards?
I'd say on the dairy side,they understand it 100%.
On the beef side, there's so much.
There's so many variables on the beefside, weather, yard conditions, bedding,
all that stuff where it'snot as easy to pinpoint.
(20:21):
But if you do the basic thingsthe best you can,
I would say for mixing-wise and what Joelis saying about
particle length and all that stuff,it does matter in the beef yard.
We just can't pinpoint it as quick.
Yeah, you'll probably find it at the end.
(20:43):
But it's Especially with the commodityprices the way they are,
the cattle prices the way they are,I think more and more producers,
they're becoming aware.
Prices are what?
340, 350 a pound for some of these
feeders, even more expensive.
(21:05):
You're pretty careful what you putin and what you're going to get out.
If you get at the end of your rotation of,say, your background in cattle, right?
And I punched in my break even,and it's going to be 2.
6 pounds per day is what my goal is.
And yet we should make money.
And you get to the end and you only made,you only got 2.
(21:27):
5.Or if you did a ration, you got 2.
8, that's profitautomatically in your pocket.
So it's really striving to be efficient,
buying your feed products correctly,
mixing them correctly,and I think Dan touched on this earlier,
too, is just your mixer maintenance, howyou're auger flighting, your plow blades,
(21:53):
it's stuff that producersso easily forget to look at.
They hop in the tractor seat and off theyand that's something they need to pay
attention to because it correlates rightto their inputs and what
they're going to get out.No, that makes complete sense.
In fact, I think you've just also answeredthe previous question about
(22:14):
being an investment.
This isn't just a piece of equipment.
This is actually something integral to theentire operation is what it sounds like.
Let me ask you both,and you can both answer this,
how does daily maintenanceaffect the life of a mixer?
Well, for one, on the The critical side
and the horizontal side, both, the knife.
(22:35):
If you have knives that the bolts are woreoff, so the bolt heads get wore
off and that knife will fall off.
On the horizontal,it's not probably as critical because
the knife usually falls offand hopefully the magnet catches it.
Well, if it don't,it ends up in the feedbunk.
(22:55):
Cow isn't going to eat that knife soquick, but you're going to have hardware
Other issues or hardwarechances of getting hardware.
On the vertical side,your bolts for your knife.
I have seen them fall off.
The knife fall off and get stuckunderneath the auger and bust
(23:16):
the planetary, snapped the shaftright off in the planetary.
Yeah, you're talking what would have been,just say the knives aren't shot,
but more than like if the bolts arefalling out, the knives are shot already.
You're talking $1,000 fix versus a $10,000fix now that the planetary is out.
That's very important.
(23:36):
I've seen it over the course of the years.
I've seen it a lot or morethan what I've cared to.
Easy fix.
Another thing is maintenanceon the vertical side.
You have to change oilin your planetaries.
If you don't, I've seenthem where they turn sludgy.
(23:56):
The biggest thing ona planetary is the heat.
If you're on them 12 hours a day,they get warm, so the oil gets sludgy.
Then if you don't change it,you cause planetary failure.
Another thing on preventative maintenance,
Once a week is greasing your mixer or
(24:18):
however many hours it's recommended.
One thing that gets bypassed a lot,and I didn't realize it when I started
here either, but school hard knots isAlways grease the sliding
part on your PTO.
Where you grease the PTO where it slides,when you're greasing your wagon,
(24:41):
always make sure...
Well, there's some guys are like,Well, there's no greaser.
Well, slide it apart,put grease or marble oil or something
in there so that youdon't have friction there.
I can always tell when I'm turningwith my feed wagon that my slider
needs to be greased because easy.
I can feel the friction.
(25:02):
Whether you have a CVPTO or whether youdon't, I always recommend you greasing
that joint, either sliding it apart or ifthere's a grease circuit in there,
use the grease circuit.
On a horizontal,look in the ear box, look at your chains
when you grease it,when you do inspections.
(25:25):
Don't just wait for...
I had a guy call me one day.
He's like, Yeah,boy, I just looked in the back of my wagon
and I haven't opened it in a whilebecause there's greaseers on the outside.
So when you're greasing it,open the back, too.
Well, I hadn't looked at it in a while.It was full of feed.
There's bearing out in there and itwas pushing the feet into the gear box.
(25:47):
That can make a major issuewhere stuff gets dry fast.
Always look in your back.
It's a piece of equipmentthat you use every day.
It's very important,But it gets neglected because you use it
every day and you think it should be good.
It don't hurtto either have somebody lift you up
(26:10):
with a loader bucket and lookin there or with a vertical,
open the door or crawl in.
It does not hurt to do that whenyou grease it or whatever.
To crawl in there, look at your wagon,check it over, make sure your plow
blade tolerances are good, all that stuff.
I could tell you stories upon stories whenI go look at trades,
(26:32):
a horizontal mixer by the door,that's where it's the thinnest.
It's always thin by the door.
If you look there,if you don't have a stainless piece
by the door, that's where it'sgoing to have a hole at first.
I'm like, There's a hole here.
There is none.Yeah, there is.
Oh, there is a hole there.
(26:52):
Just had it last winter.
Looked at a guy's beer wagon.
He opened the door for me.It was a feed truck.
I That flighting is bent over by the door.
No, it's not.
That flighting is good yet.
He looks in.
Oh, it is bent over.
I never noticed that.
I've been called out where mixers don'tmix, horizontals, and there's
(27:16):
two tires in the bottom auger.
It's not going to mix as goodwith two tires in the bottom auger.
From a cattle feeder myself,it is a piece of equipment that gets used
every day, and you probably don't lookin it enough because you thought you just
did last week, but it'susually two or three weeks ago.
Yeah.No, that's good advice.
That really is.I'm going to put myself in that category.
(27:40):
I won't quote a percentage,but I know it's very high
of the amount of producers that donot look in their mixer ever.
It doesn't happen.
Their auger cap will fall off theirvertical auger and it's full of feed
and it's just sitting there rotting outand They wouldn't know the difference.
(28:03):
From my standpoint,it's not intentional because,
like I said, I do it too pretty quick.
It happens.
Let me ask you this,and this is to both of you.
If somebody Nobody's new to this or maybethe first time they're looking,
or maybe it's just been a long time sincethey've purchased one,
if they're not sure what they need,what would you suggest they do to prepare
(28:27):
to go out and say, You know what?
I'm going to look at feed mixer?
I would say, I really try to find someonethat's going to ask you questions.
Ifeel our belief here at Post Equipment and
Herd Boss is there's no one size fits all.
There's no model that fits all.
(28:47):
And I hear it so many times just aroundthe country and world that,
Well, this is what they sold me.
Well, I get that becausethat's all they had to offer.
They don't have the different models,they don't have the different styles.
It's understanding what the producer'sgoals are, what's the door
height in his barns.
(29:08):
Just go through thoroughly insteadof just, This is what I have on the lot,
this is what I'm going to sell you.
Yeah, that's something I thinkpost-equipment and as I heard boss do very
well, but find that personinstead of just getting sold a mixer.
That makes a lot of sensebecause like we said,
(29:28):
it's obviously an It's somethingthat directly impacts your operation,
and it's worth taking a look at.
I think that and just the thing of lookinginside every once in a while and realizing
it wasn't last week,it was several weeks ago when you did.
Probably two A year ago, a guy came in,he had a 300 cubic foot mixer, and he was
(29:50):
one of the guys I was telling you about.
He's 600 head, and he feedsthree or four different rations.
He had a 300 cubic foot on him,and he wanted to go a little bigger.
He had it in his head.
He was just going to come buy onethat day, but he didn't really like
what we had on the lot for used.
He didn't think we hada nice enough one for him.
(30:12):
This guy buys a differentmixer every 20 years.
I mean, this is a veryimportant purchase to him.
We looked around, walked around,talk prices, and looked at verticals,
and he took one.He said, Well, what if I just buy one?
I said, I want you to try it and makesure it fits your operation first.
(30:33):
He said, Well, it won't just work.
I said, Well, I'm a little bit worriedwith the size of loads you have and as big
as this vertical is that it might notdo what you wanted to do.
He ended up taking it home and doingeverything that we talked about.
Would it work?Yes.
(30:54):
Would it fit his operation?Yes.
Was he happy with it?Not 100%.
The horizontal fit him a little bit betterfor his operation.
I found him a really nice horizontalthat he could mix with, hopefully,
for another 10, 20 years.
Joel, we We've talked for a coupleof years now, often on different subjects.
(31:18):
I just wanted you to address someof the things that I've seen the people
question about things, is about, let'stalk about feed mixers in themselves.
Now, the herd boss line is USmanufactured, correct?
Correct.Yeah.
That is not true of allfeed mixers, is it?
No.They're made all over the world.
(31:40):
We were in a meeting a while back,and I remember somebody made the comment
that they said,The thing we like about the herd boss is
you can leave them outand they can take the rain.
They don't rust out in a year.
That was a direct quote.
One, talk about the construction andthe quality of the that you manufacture.
(32:01):
Two, do most people park it outsideor do they park it in the garage?
Yeah, part of it is understanding
the conditions that they're going into.
There's wear that feeds movingaround every single day.
(32:21):
So your wall thickness,different areas where you put stainless
steel like Dan mentioned earlier,the stainless steel liner,
that conveyor, too, with a dairy ration oreven a phelar, they can be acidic
with what distillers, grains or silage.
(32:41):
If it's just a mild steel,thinner conveyor, they will
deteriorate more quickly.
So we've just seen different things,what we've learned,
where to beef them up andadd the strong points.
So So our walls are a thicker metal,
(33:04):
a high wear resistant type of steel is
used and stainless in the correct areas.
But even on theframe in the axles and tires.
We did a suspension system.
So it works well if you're feeding outin a pasture or dirt lots,
(33:26):
it's just a little bit more forgiving.
So justThose are the items that we tweaked and it
adds for longevity,which equates to value.
Well, I think you both said that.
Dan, you mentioned the oneguy he buys every 20 years.
I You can buy a car every 10 years.
That's a long time.
(33:50):
It's interesting on how you look at it.
You touched on it earlier.
You asked the question,how do you look at it as an investment?
I guess that's how we approach the marketis,
I was visiting with a customer andhis initial comment was,
Man, that's a high price.
(34:12):
Then we went through it a little bit moreand His mixer is lasting
in four years and it's shot.
The walls are wore out, and it's done.
Her boss is going to last you 10or more in that same situation.
So if you start start looking at thosefigures, and it came out to be
(34:33):
he was actually going to pay three timesmore with sticking with his current brand
versus paying the upfront cost initially.
And then he can plan around it, too,which is to me,
is a benefit to the producer becauseyou're dealing with a commodity market.
Cattle can be here, cattle can be down$9 the next day or who knows what.
(34:56):
It fluctuates.
So if you can plan that investment, Hey,I know I'm going to get
X amount of yours out of this mixer,you can figure that in your business.
You don't have these unexpected cost of,Oh, am My conveyor shot
or I need to replace that.
(35:17):
Well, that's five grand.
Those are just those little ticketitems that keep popping up that.
They're unforeseen costs,I guess I'm going to call it.
What does it cost a producer if This piece
of equipment is not able to do its job.
How much does that cost in theiroperations if everything stops and they
(35:40):
don't have something to feed the cattle?
Oh, that's a lot of money.
For that aspect, we haveloners and all that stuff.
We have pretty much everythingso that a guy can keep running.
To answer your question in a standpoint,
(36:03):
just say you live 20 miles from town
and you're a dairy operationand you don't have a spare.
The wagon breaks and it's When yourepair that you have to bring it to town.
By the time you diagnose a problem,you get an hour spent.
By the time you call post equipmentand find a loner,
(36:25):
because it's Sunday morning,everybody's in church, you find a loner.
You got another hour spent.
You get to town, get back home,so you've lost four hours.
A cow's ruminal and a cow's production.
C cattle love repetition.
They're repetition type.
They like to be fed on time.
They like to have the same amountof betting and whatever else.
(36:50):
The dairy, I can't put a number on it,but you lost four hours of production.
Now you're four hours behind.
Your wife's mad becausehe didn't go to church.
Your wife's mad becausehe missed Sunday dinner.
The list goes on and on whereif you had that loner,
(37:12):
it's going to take you 2 hoursto get it for your backup, but you save 2
hours by not driving to town, et cetera.
I wish I had a number.
I bet I could figure out a formula.
I bet there is a formula out there everyhour that a cow is not fed,
(37:32):
it loses milk production.
Dan, Joe, I want to thank you very muchfor all the information
you've shared with us.
I think it's some really enlighteningthings that people in the industry really
need to consider and takea look at on that.
What I'd like to do is each give youa minute to give some final thoughts
or anything you'd like to wrap up with.
(37:53):
One thing I didn't touch on isvertical versus horizontal.
Is vertical You can grind hay bales,you can grind round bales, square bales.
That's nice for if your haygrinder don'tshow up or you don't have a haygrinder,
some dairy guys use balage,so they're using a vertical for that.
(38:16):
Again, when you're buying a wagon,like Joel stated, ask questions,
do your homework, look at literature,find the right person.
Find somebody that cares about yourbusiness, cares about
what you're going to do with your machine,and look on egg talk,
(38:40):
whatever, on different things.
Don't just let them sell you somethingbecause that's what
they have on their lot.Do your homework.
Know your machine, too.
When you get it home,read the orders manual.
Most of them sit in a little black, too.
All their life, well, 99% of peopledon't read the order's manual.
(39:02):
I might be just as guilty,but try to learn your equipment.
It'll save you money in the long run,save you time in the long run.
If you grease it right,maintaining the chains right and all
that stuff, it'll definitelyjust save you money.
Joel, do you have anything to add?
Yeah, the point of just looking yourequipment over will save
(39:24):
you a lot in the long run.
We were talking about the wall thicknessof your mixer, stuff of that nature.
There's people that have run them untilthey're practically falling off the floor.
You laugh.It happens.
It's a real thing.
I'm sure it does.
I'm sure it does.
Yeah, Yeah, you sell linersfor every make and model.
(39:48):
You add a liner kit in thereand you're good to go for a bit.
It saves a lot of money.
So yeah, just keepan eye on your equipment.
Understand it, and don't just buy thefirst mixer you come across, I guess.
(40:08):
Try to understand what it willdo for you and how it will work.
And to Dan's point earlier,don't be afraid to ask for a demo.
Try it before you buy it.
Now, I'm going to adda seamless plug in here.
They can also go to your website and alsotake a look at some of the details
on the different types of mixers as well.
(40:28):
Maybe we want to give some informationabout how people can
get in touch with you.
If it's a visit POS equipment,just go to www.
Postequip.Com.
If you want to view the herd boss line,go to herdbossfeeters.
Com.
Either one will show what we have,or you can reach out to us
(40:53):
by phone 712-476-4,500.
We'll also put that information the shownotes so that if somebody looks at this,
they'll see links to the website,and also they'll have the phone
numbers on there as well.
Perfect.
Dan, Joel, thanks very much.
It's been really informative and it's alsobeen entertaining just to Here
(41:15):
are some of the stories.
I think we can all relateto a lot of the stories.
But no, seriously,I think it's very helpful because I'm very
pro, you'll hear across all the pockets,I'm very pro about American-made equipment
and also getting the out to people becauseto me it's important to help our country
and help our businesses and our farmingoperations here in the United States.
(41:39):
So again, thank you, gentlemen, both.
Thank you, Neil.Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Well, that wraps up anotherepisode of Small Business Talks.
But before we end, we'd like to thank youfor listening to our podcast and hope you
found it both informativeand entertaining.
We only ask that you click the likeand subscribe button so that we can
(42:00):
bring more episodes and storiesfrom America's small businesses.
Our mission is to give small businessesa platform to share their expertise
and experience so that other smallbusinesses can benefit
from their knowledge.Thank you.
If you're looking to improve yourlivestock performance and make your
(00:03):
operation more efficient,you're in the right place.
Today, we're diving deep into the worldof TMR mixers, also known as feed mixers.
We'll explain how these units increaseproductivity and provide better
animal nutrition and health.
Then we'll walk you through the keydifferences between mixers and provide
a straightforward buyer's guide to helpyou select the right unit with confidence.
(00:24):
Today on small business talks.
In this podcast,we're going to look at what to consider
when choosing a cattle feed mixer,also known as a total mixed ration mixer,
and why those factors are important.
To help us better understand what to lookfor, we have Joel Scaling,
(00:48):
sales and marketing specialistat Post Equipment,
the parent company of Herd Boss Feeders,and Dan Coonan, a sales specialist.
Joel, Dan, welcome to the podcast.
Good to be here.
Hello.
Let's start off for our listenersby explaining what a cattle
feed mixer is and who uses them.
(01:09):
Well,one thing I'd like to tell you, Neil, is
we sell mixers to people that feed sheep,people that feed cows,
stock cows, dairy cows.
They start with a calf at 400 pounds.
They feed them all the way to fat.
(01:29):
We We call that a calf to finish ration.
We also start guys with 1,000
pounders and feed them to fat.
That's more of a finish ration.
Then we feed light fluffyloats for the stock cows.
In the dairy rations, they're moreof a silage and total mixed rations.
(01:54):
All of them are total mix rations.
They're just different densities,different weights,
different It depends how big of thefeed lot is or the ranch is
or the cow-calf operation.
Maybe guys, 50 cows allthe way to 5,000 cows.
It's a lot of varietiesis what a mixer wagon.
(02:16):
We've also sold them to landscapecompanies for mixing
mulch and stuff like that.
They're using a lot of different areas.
I even sold a mixer to a guyin Pennsylvania that mixed
table scraps at a Boy Scout camp.
I'm from Pennsylvania,so I'm almost scared to ask what city.
(02:40):
We'll stop there.
I probably don't want to know.
Okay, so what are the subcategories ofTMRs or total mixed ration mixers?
What are the types of?
Mainly, you got your vertical.
(03:01):
It's more of a round tub.
There's different shapesof them, of course.
There's a lot of verticalmixers on the market.
Mainly, you got your verticaland your horizontal type mixers.
So your vertical is pushing the feed upand your horizontal is pushing
(03:21):
it forward and backward.
There are three differenttypes of horizontal.
The real mixerIt's got two augers in it and it's got
a reel that pushes it toward the augers.
And then you got your auger mixers whereyou either have a three
auger or a four auger.
(03:41):
The bottom one is two augers or one auger.
Then the top is two augers.
So the bottom ones are pushing the feedtoward the door, and the top ones are
taking the feed away from the door.
So that's where you get your mixfrom because you're getting your
transition in your mix that way.
And then the last horizontalis more of a ribbon mixer.
(04:06):
It's more of a slow,gentle forward motion.
I'd say that that'd be basically yourthree types of horizontal mixers.
What type of vertical mixers are there?
You mentioned that was the shape.
You got the shape, you got a flatsidewall, horizontal or vertical.
(04:30):
You have a flat sidewall vertical, andthen you have a sloped sidewall vertical.
There's basically two different types,I would say, of verticals, that your
flat sidewall and your slope sidewall.
What's the reasoning why youwould choose one over the other?
I would say that's goingto depend on the user.
The flat one is generally moreof a shorter mixer for loading height,
(04:55):
et cetera,where the slope one gets a little taller
because you have narrow the floorup in the bottom to get your slope.
I would say it's going to be reallydepend on the user and his application.
Okay.
How about- Does it matter at allon the density of the ration, Dan?
Do you see that at all?
We have found out or we do see thata sloped sidewall is going to take less
(05:20):
horsepower than a straight sidewall.
A straight sidewall with a dense ration isgoing to take a lot of power,
whereas a slope sidewall with a denseration is take significantly less
horsepower on that heavy ration.
How about a verticalover a horizontal mixer?
(05:41):
When would you use a verticaland when would you use a horizontal?
That really varies on the user,the load size,
and the type of feed they're putting in.
But if you're going to do a lot of fluffyrations that
(06:02):
or you want to hold a lot of fluffy heavyor a lot of fluffy rations that
a lot of pounds, you might say,then you use a vertical.
I just had a guy the other day,he tried a vertical,
but as The loads weren't big enough to getto the top of the auger.
It wasn't an advantage for him at all
(06:23):
to go to a vertical because he could not
get the top of the auger all the way full.
So feed, if you put it on the auger,the feed would just stay there.
It wouldn't mix because it wouldn'tget it to the top of the auger.
So I would say, if you're going to do a...
Where a vertical really shines is you'redoing big loads, fluffy rations, or just
(06:48):
big loads, you would go to a vertical.
Horizontals work awesome.
The disadvantage to the horizontalis some guys will overfill.
When you overfill a horizontal,they do that mix.
They just start bear rolling.
I may have cut you off.
I wanted you to discuss.
You were talking about sizingthe mixer to your operation.
(07:10):
Could you walk us throughhow you go about doing that?
When you have When you havea guy that says, Okay, I feed...
Here's where it gets tricky is.
You got the guy that feeds 3,000 head ofcattle, and he feeds all the same ration.
(07:30):
Well, you give him a big wagonbigger than what he had just per se.
You give him a big wagon,and he's got all the same rations,
so he's never changing rations.
Now you got a guy that feeds 3,000 He hassmall calves, he has small calves.
He has fat ration, he has regular calves,then he has a few stock cows on the side.
(07:52):
That's where it gets tricky becausesometimes he could use
a horizontal end of vertical.
Vertical for his big loads,a horizontal for his small calf loads.
That guy has to decidewhat's going to fit him the best.
Usually, that's where a demo comesin where we bring a wagon to him and say,
(08:15):
All right, does this one fityou or does this one fit you?
You decide because you're going to use it.
I'm not going to feed with it every day,so you have to decide that.
Does tractor power play into any of those?Yes.
In the vertical world, a verticalis going to take more horsepower.
You have 155 horsepower tractor, well,probably you're not going
(08:39):
to want a 900-qubit-foot wagon.
You're probably going to wanta 600-qubit-foot wagon.
Even at that, some guys will say, Well,I'm not saving any loads,
seeing any benefits if I go to a vertical.
I'm going to say it's a horizontal.
I'm going to use a little less fuel.
I'm not going to fill it as full.
But that's the big For this trick,you cannot fill a horizontal
(09:03):
over full because they won't mix.
What are some of the key featuresthat are important to consider and why?
One would be horizontal Reel mixer,
usually all you need is a slide tray.
A slide tray unloadsthe feed into the bump.
(09:23):
Where a vertical, you need a traywith a chain conveyor in it.
As you're unloading it, you have a chain.
On a heavy ration, those chains stretch.
When you're stretching that chain,you're taking the life out of it.
On a reel, you have allyour chains in the back.
(09:45):
You have a shaft that comes from the PTO,the chains go in the back.
You have all those moving chains in theback, turning your augers in your reel.
I say to some guys, Well,if you like your slide tray,
you're exchanging your slide tray for yourchains in the back where you
don't have that with a vertical.
The reel is very low horsepower, likewe said, very gentle moving in the feed.
(10:11):
Yeah, so that would beadvantage, disadvantage.
What do you find are common mistakespeople make and how can you
avoid making those mistakes?
Number one would be on a horizontal,as we mentioned it already, overfilling.
Number two would be,because if you overfill the mixer,
(10:32):
number one,you put extra stress on the chains,
you put extra stress on your augers,the back auger plug that
drives the bottom auger.
We've seen that breakbecause of overloading.
You put stress, your chains.
We've seen chains breakbecause of overloading,
because there's nowhere for the feed to goon a horizontal mixer except the ring.
(10:57):
Where a vertical, if you overfill it,it goes out to top.
That would be a mistake.
Another thing, another mistake peoplemake, and nowadays with your performance
beef, you have your iPad,so you can log into your iPad
and you can change the way you load.
Very important thing ishow you load your mixer.
(11:18):
A horizontal may loaddifferent than a vertical.
So in a vertical,you put your fluffy stuff in first
and your heavy stuff in last.
Or a horizontal, you may doit in a different battery.
That does make a differenceon the mix and your mix stat.
It sounds like somebody should probablyknow what amount they're dealing with.
(11:40):
Are they dealing with a small amount,a large amount,
or should know some capacities to helppick the right mixer
is what it sounds like.
Yeah.
What about poor discharge location?
So your discharge, a lot of guys run themon the front or the verticals
(12:01):
are all on the front.
There are a few people that havea discharge of a vertical on the back
because they back intothe loading alley or into the
free-staw barn in the dairies,so they back up, and then they can get all
the way to the back wall and then unload.
The front one is most popularbecause you can see it.
(12:25):
Most guys on the vertical side,about 70% of them on the right-hand side
because all your control'son the tractor on the right.
On the trucks, it's left, of course,because your driver's side,
so you're on the left, you're loadingon the left-hand side on the trucks.
(12:46):
Discharges on somewagons are back further.
They do that because if on a real mixer,
they try to get the discharge as close as
far as the wagon as possible,but they still have to have an auger,
something that kicks the feedback toward the door.
On a real mixer, the bottom auger has oneflight that kicks the feed back
(13:10):
toward the doors for cleanup.
Some guys put the door the other towardthe back, but then you can't
see it as good for unloading.
But there is a method to that,Madras, as well.
What makes a mixer worth the investment?
Is it longevity?
Is it local service?
Parts availability?
(13:31):
What are important things thatthey should consider?
I would say, number one,back to what we talked about before,
make sure you get a mixerthat fits your operation.
I've had it so many times in the pastyears that a guy calls,
since I bought this mixer off an auction,don't work with a two.
(13:55):
Okay?
Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, you bought a You go and you'retrying to feed an elephant.
I like your reference.I like your reference.
You got to do your homework and yourresearch and figure out what
(14:16):
fits your operation best.
Next is, yes, parts, service.
Another thing is, a guy buys a...
I've seen this a lot, too.
A guy buys a wagon off a farm sale or offwherever, don't do his homework,
comes home, scale don't work,drives over to post and says,
(14:36):
I need this scale fixed.
Well, this scale is 30 yearsold and we can't fix it.
Now all of a sudden,this cheap wagon he bought
is going to cost him doublebecause he has to put a whole new scale
system on it because it's obsolete.
That's a big thing.
Vertical mixers, horizontal mixers.
(14:59):
Some guys buy a horizontal and
add back in 20 years ago said you could do
square bails in it, which you can,but they're small squares.
I've had guys dump a half a square bail,a big square, then it's horizontal.
You're calling 911 post becauseall of a sudden you have a mess.
(15:25):
Just doing the homework,doing some investigation on what is
going to fit your operation best.
What should somebody beware of whenthey're buying a used mixer?
Number one is,I know where all the weak spots are.
We've been doing it for years.
On a vertical mixer,you always check the corners at the bottom
(15:46):
where it curves towardthe door or in the back.
You always check those corners.
Now we have an ultrasound machineto test how thin the metal is.
That's where the metal isgoing to wear down there.
I I can do it with a plier,with just a CT player.
You do the sound test.
(16:07):
As you tap up, you hear it get thicker,and as you tap down,
you hear it get thinner.
That makes you know that,yeah, it's getting thin.
Usually, there's a holethere, it's bulged out.
Then when you know it's thin,that'd be on the vertical side.
Then you need a liner.
What I recommend is doing a stainlesssteel liner because it lasts longer.
(16:30):
It lasts twice as long as a mild one.
Another thing iswhen a guy calls and says his mixer ain't
mixing,well, on a vertical,
the number one thing I go to is the plowblade or the kicker plate, they call it,
and that's on the bottom of the mixer,on the bottom of the auger.
It's a plate.
(16:50):
Some are different than others,but that plate has to be a quarter inch
from the sidewall on theflat part of the mixer.
On the flat side, not on any curves,on the flat side, quarter inch
from the sidewall, and the leadingedge has to be that far out, too.
We'll build them up,make sure they're good again.
Knives are a big thing.
(17:10):
If you're buying a used mixer and allthe knives are shot, it's $1,500.
If it's a character plateshot, it's $2, $300.
If the side walls, if you need linersin it, you could be talking $10,000.
If the augers are more,you can be talking...
It depends on on the size of the mixer,you can be talking 5-15 grand.
(17:35):
You can spend a lot of money in a hurry.
No, that makes sense.
I'm at that stage in my lifewhere you get what you pay for.
Youget the right tool for the job is the way
I'm at with all the thingsthat I work with.
It's fun selling to dairies.
It's really fun selling to them becausethere you can see your results every day.
(18:01):
You bring a brand new vertical to a dairy.
Most dairies are on verticals.
There's a few that are on horizontal.
Most of them are on verticals.
You bring a brand new vertical to dairy.
You let them use it a week.
You come back the next week and he says,Yeah, I think I better buy it
because my milk went up three pounds.
Well, a dairy cow digests.
(18:23):
The digestive system on a dairy cow isso sensitive that when they eat a good
product, they can produce more milk.
They get paid on their components,on their butter fat and whatever else.
They really see the results on a good
or a new mixer or a rebuilt mixer.
(18:46):
The results come quickly.
It goes back to the benefits of the TMRthat you talked about earlier, Dan, is
all the ingredients that you're puttingin there, you know exactly the weight.
When you're As a smaller producer, youmight just put a hay bale in a hay ring.
Well, you're looking at 10 to 15%loss on your hay.
(19:09):
As commodities get more expensive,it puts you in the driver's seat of,
I know I'm putting X amountof this in my ration, X, X, X.
With the different systems that they havenow, it can put that price right out or
bill it out if you're a custom feed guy.
It gets that product to a certain length.
(19:32):
It gets that product to a certain length,it makes it all more
digestible for beef or dairy cattle.
That's interesting you bring that upbecause I was going to ask,
how can the right mix or improvefeed efficiency or cattle health?
It sounds like you prettymuch already answered that.
Do people understand that relationshipbetween the feed mixer and efficiency
and the increasing the productionfor the cattle or the livestock
(19:58):
or the cattle health?
Or is that something they findout more or less afterwards?
I'd say on the dairy side,they understand it 100%.
On the beef side, there's so much.
There's so many variables on the beefside, weather, yard conditions, bedding,
all that stuff where it'snot as easy to pinpoint.
(20:21):
But if you do the basic thingsthe best you can,
I would say for mixing-wise and what Joelis saying about
particle length and all that stuff,it does matter in the beef yard.
We just can't pinpoint it as quick.
Yeah, you'll probably find it at the end.
(20:43):
But it's Especially with the commodityprices the way they are,
the cattle prices the way they are,I think more and more producers,
they're becoming aware.
Prices are what?
340, 350 a pound for some of these
feeders, even more expensive.
(21:05):
You're pretty careful what you putin and what you're going to get out.
If you get at the end of your rotation of,say, your background in cattle, right?
And I punched in my break even,and it's going to be 2.
6 pounds per day is what my goal is.
And yet we should make money.
And you get to the end and you only made,you only got 2.
(21:27):
5.Or if you did a ration, you got 2.
8, that's profitautomatically in your pocket.
So it's really striving to be efficient,
buying your feed products correctly,
mixing them correctly,and I think Dan touched on this earlier,
too, is just your mixer maintenance, howyou're auger flighting, your plow blades,
(21:53):
it's stuff that producersso easily forget to look at.
They hop in the tractor seat and off theyand that's something they need to pay
attention to because it correlates rightto their inputs and what
they're going to get out.No, that makes complete sense.
In fact, I think you've just also answeredthe previous question about
(22:14):
being an investment.
This isn't just a piece of equipment.
This is actually something integral to theentire operation is what it sounds like.
Let me ask you both,and you can both answer this,
how does daily maintenanceaffect the life of a mixer?
Well, for one, on the The critical side
and the horizontal side, both, the knife.
(22:35):
If you have knives that the bolts are woreoff, so the bolt heads get wore
off and that knife will fall off.
On the horizontal,it's not probably as critical because
the knife usually falls offand hopefully the magnet catches it.
Well, if it don't,it ends up in the feedbunk.
(22:55):
Cow isn't going to eat that knife soquick, but you're going to have hardware
Other issues or hardwarechances of getting hardware.
On the vertical side,your bolts for your knife.
I have seen them fall off.
The knife fall off and get stuckunderneath the auger and bust
(23:16):
the planetary, snapped the shaftright off in the planetary.
Yeah, you're talking what would have been,just say the knives aren't shot,
but more than like if the bolts arefalling out, the knives are shot already.
You're talking $1,000 fix versus a $10,000fix now that the planetary is out.
That's very important.
(23:36):
I've seen it over the course of the years.
I've seen it a lot or morethan what I've cared to.
Easy fix.
Another thing is maintenanceon the vertical side.
You have to change oilin your planetaries.
If you don't, I've seenthem where they turn sludgy.
(23:56):
The biggest thing ona planetary is the heat.
If you're on them 12 hours a day,they get warm, so the oil gets sludgy.
Then if you don't change it,you cause planetary failure.
Another thing on preventative maintenance,
Once a week is greasing your mixer or
(24:18):
however many hours it's recommended.
One thing that gets bypassed a lot,and I didn't realize it when I started
here either, but school hard knots isAlways grease the sliding
part on your PTO.
Where you grease the PTO where it slides,when you're greasing your wagon,
(24:41):
always make sure...
Well, there's some guys are like,Well, there's no greaser.
Well, slide it apart,put grease or marble oil or something
in there so that youdon't have friction there.
I can always tell when I'm turningwith my feed wagon that my slider
needs to be greased because easy.
I can feel the friction.
(25:02):
Whether you have a CVPTO or whether youdon't, I always recommend you greasing
that joint, either sliding it apart or ifthere's a grease circuit in there,
use the grease circuit.
On a horizontal,look in the ear box, look at your chains
when you grease it,when you do inspections.
(25:25):
Don't just wait for...
I had a guy call me one day.
He's like, Yeah,boy, I just looked in the back of my wagon
and I haven't opened it in a whilebecause there's greaseers on the outside.
So when you're greasing it,open the back, too.
Well, I hadn't looked at it in a while.It was full of feed.
There's bearing out in there and itwas pushing the feet into the gear box.
(25:47):
That can make a major issuewhere stuff gets dry fast.
Always look in your back.
It's a piece of equipmentthat you use every day.
It's very important,But it gets neglected because you use it
every day and you think it should be good.
It don't hurtto either have somebody lift you up
(26:10):
with a loader bucket and lookin there or with a vertical,
open the door or crawl in.
It does not hurt to do that whenyou grease it or whatever.
To crawl in there, look at your wagon,check it over, make sure your plow
blade tolerances are good, all that stuff.
I could tell you stories upon stories whenI go look at trades,
(26:32):
a horizontal mixer by the door,that's where it's the thinnest.
It's always thin by the door.
If you look there,if you don't have a stainless piece
by the door, that's where it'sgoing to have a hole at first.
I'm like, There's a hole here.
There is none.Yeah, there is.
Oh, there is a hole there.
(26:52):
Just had it last winter.
Looked at a guy's beer wagon.
He opened the door for me.It was a feed truck.
I That flighting is bent over by the door.
No, it's not.
That flighting is good yet.
He looks in.
Oh, it is bent over.
I never noticed that.
I've been called out where mixers don'tmix, horizontals, and there's
(27:16):
two tires in the bottom auger.
It's not going to mix as goodwith two tires in the bottom auger.
From a cattle feeder myself,it is a piece of equipment that gets used
every day, and you probably don't lookin it enough because you thought you just
did last week, but it'susually two or three weeks ago.
Yeah.No, that's good advice.
That really is.I'm going to put myself in that category.
(27:40):
I won't quote a percentage,but I know it's very high
of the amount of producers that donot look in their mixer ever.
It doesn't happen.
Their auger cap will fall off theirvertical auger and it's full of feed
and it's just sitting there rotting outand They wouldn't know the difference.
(28:03):
From my standpoint,it's not intentional because,
like I said, I do it too pretty quick.
It happens.
Let me ask you this,and this is to both of you.
If somebody Nobody's new to this or maybethe first time they're looking,
or maybe it's just been a long time sincethey've purchased one,
if they're not sure what they need,what would you suggest they do to prepare
(28:27):
to go out and say, You know what?
I'm going to look at feed mixer?
I would say, I really try to find someonethat's going to ask you questions.
Ifeel our belief here at Post Equipment and
Herd Boss is there's no one size fits all.
There's no model that fits all.
(28:47):
And I hear it so many times just aroundthe country and world that,
Well, this is what they sold me.
Well, I get that becausethat's all they had to offer.
They don't have the different models,they don't have the different styles.
It's understanding what the producer'sgoals are, what's the door
height in his barns.
(29:08):
Just go through thoroughly insteadof just, This is what I have on the lot,
this is what I'm going to sell you.
Yeah, that's something I thinkpost-equipment and as I heard boss do very
well, but find that personinstead of just getting sold a mixer.
That makes a lot of sensebecause like we said,
(29:28):
it's obviously an It's somethingthat directly impacts your operation,
and it's worth taking a look at.
I think that and just the thing of lookinginside every once in a while and realizing
it wasn't last week,it was several weeks ago when you did.
Probably two A year ago, a guy came in,he had a 300 cubic foot mixer, and he was
(29:50):
one of the guys I was telling you about.
He's 600 head, and he feedsthree or four different rations.
He had a 300 cubic foot on him,and he wanted to go a little bigger.
He had it in his head.
He was just going to come buy onethat day, but he didn't really like
what we had on the lot for used.
He didn't think we hada nice enough one for him.
(30:12):
This guy buys a differentmixer every 20 years.
I mean, this is a veryimportant purchase to him.
We looked around, walked around,talk prices, and looked at verticals,
and he took one.He said, Well, what if I just buy one?
I said, I want you to try it and makesure it fits your operation first.
(30:33):
He said, Well, it won't just work.
I said, Well, I'm a little bit worriedwith the size of loads you have and as big
as this vertical is that it might notdo what you wanted to do.
He ended up taking it home and doingeverything that we talked about.
Would it work?Yes.
(30:54):
Would it fit his operation?Yes.
Was he happy with it?Not 100%.
The horizontal fit him a little bit betterfor his operation.
I found him a really nice horizontalthat he could mix with, hopefully,
for another 10, 20 years.
Joel, we We've talked for a coupleof years now, often on different subjects.
(31:18):
I just wanted you to address someof the things that I've seen the people
question about things, is about, let'stalk about feed mixers in themselves.
Now, the herd boss line is USmanufactured, correct?
Correct.Yeah.
That is not true of allfeed mixers, is it?
No.They're made all over the world.
(31:40):
We were in a meeting a while back,and I remember somebody made the comment
that they said,The thing we like about the herd boss is
you can leave them outand they can take the rain.
They don't rust out in a year.
That was a direct quote.
One, talk about the construction andthe quality of the that you manufacture.
(32:01):
Two, do most people park it outsideor do they park it in the garage?
Yeah, part of it is understanding
the conditions that they're going into.
There's wear that feeds movingaround every single day.
(32:21):
So your wall thickness,different areas where you put stainless
steel like Dan mentioned earlier,the stainless steel liner,
that conveyor, too, with a dairy ration oreven a phelar, they can be acidic
with what distillers, grains or silage.
(32:41):
If it's just a mild steel,thinner conveyor, they will
deteriorate more quickly.
So we've just seen different things,what we've learned,
where to beef them up andadd the strong points.
So So our walls are a thicker metal,
(33:04):
a high wear resistant type of steel is
used and stainless in the correct areas.
But even on theframe in the axles and tires.
We did a suspension system.
So it works well if you're feeding outin a pasture or dirt lots,
(33:26):
it's just a little bit more forgiving.
So justThose are the items that we tweaked and it
adds for longevity,which equates to value.
Well, I think you both said that.
Dan, you mentioned the oneguy he buys every 20 years.
I You can buy a car every 10 years.
That's a long time.
(33:50):
It's interesting on how you look at it.
You touched on it earlier.
You asked the question,how do you look at it as an investment?
I guess that's how we approach the marketis,
I was visiting with a customer andhis initial comment was,
Man, that's a high price.
(34:12):
Then we went through it a little bit moreand His mixer is lasting
in four years and it's shot.
The walls are wore out, and it's done.
Her boss is going to last you 10or more in that same situation.
So if you start start looking at thosefigures, and it came out to be
(34:33):
he was actually going to pay three timesmore with sticking with his current brand
versus paying the upfront cost initially.
And then he can plan around it, too,which is to me,
is a benefit to the producer becauseyou're dealing with a commodity market.
Cattle can be here, cattle can be down$9 the next day or who knows what.
(34:56):
It fluctuates.
So if you can plan that investment, Hey,I know I'm going to get
X amount of yours out of this mixer,you can figure that in your business.
You don't have these unexpected cost of,Oh, am My conveyor shot
or I need to replace that.
(35:17):
Well, that's five grand.
Those are just those little ticketitems that keep popping up that.
They're unforeseen costs,I guess I'm going to call it.
What does it cost a producer if This piece
of equipment is not able to do its job.
How much does that cost in theiroperations if everything stops and they
(35:40):
don't have something to feed the cattle?
Oh, that's a lot of money.
For that aspect, we haveloners and all that stuff.
We have pretty much everythingso that a guy can keep running.
To answer your question in a standpoint,
(36:03):
just say you live 20 miles from town
and you're a dairy operationand you don't have a spare.
The wagon breaks and it's When yourepair that you have to bring it to town.
By the time you diagnose a problem,you get an hour spent.
By the time you call post equipmentand find a loner,
(36:25):
because it's Sunday morning,everybody's in church, you find a loner.
You got another hour spent.
You get to town, get back home,so you've lost four hours.
A cow's ruminal and a cow's production.
C cattle love repetition.
They're repetition type.
They like to be fed on time.
They like to have the same amountof betting and whatever else.
(36:50):
The dairy, I can't put a number on it,but you lost four hours of production.
Now you're four hours behind.
Your wife's mad becausehe didn't go to church.
Your wife's mad becausehe missed Sunday dinner.
The list goes on and on whereif you had that loner,
(37:12):
it's going to take you 2 hoursto get it for your backup, but you save 2
hours by not driving to town, et cetera.
I wish I had a number.
I bet I could figure out a formula.
I bet there is a formula out there everyhour that a cow is not fed,
(37:32):
it loses milk production.
Dan, Joe, I want to thank you very muchfor all the information
you've shared with us.
I think it's some really enlighteningthings that people in the industry really
need to consider and takea look at on that.
What I'd like to do is each give youa minute to give some final thoughts
or anything you'd like to wrap up with.
(37:53):
One thing I didn't touch on isvertical versus horizontal.
Is vertical You can grind hay bales,you can grind round bales, square bales.
That's nice for if your haygrinder don'tshow up or you don't have a haygrinder,
some dairy guys use balage,so they're using a vertical for that.
(38:16):
Again, when you're buying a wagon,like Joel stated, ask questions,
do your homework, look at literature,find the right person.
Find somebody that cares about yourbusiness, cares about
what you're going to do with your machine,and look on egg talk,
(38:40):
whatever, on different things.
Don't just let them sell you somethingbecause that's what
they have on their lot.Do your homework.
Know your machine, too.
When you get it home,read the orders manual.
Most of them sit in a little black, too.
All their life, well, 99% of peopledon't read the order's manual.
(39:02):
I might be just as guilty,but try to learn your equipment.
It'll save you money in the long run,save you time in the long run.
If you grease it right,maintaining the chains right and all
that stuff, it'll definitelyjust save you money.
Joel, do you have anything to add?
Yeah, the point of just looking yourequipment over will save
(39:24):
you a lot in the long run.
We were talking about the wall thicknessof your mixer, stuff of that nature.
There's people that have run them untilthey're practically falling off the floor.
You laugh.It happens.
It's a real thing.
I'm sure it does.
I'm sure it does.
Yeah, Yeah, you sell linersfor every make and model.
(39:48):
You add a liner kit in thereand you're good to go for a bit.
It saves a lot of money.
So yeah, just keepan eye on your equipment.
Understand it, and don't just buy thefirst mixer you come across, I guess.
(40:08):
Try to understand what it willdo for you and how it will work.
And to Dan's point earlier,don't be afraid to ask for a demo.
Try it before you buy it.
Now, I'm going to adda seamless plug in here.
They can also go to your website and alsotake a look at some of the details
on the different types of mixers as well.
(40:28):
Maybe we want to give some informationabout how people can
get in touch with you.
If it's a visit POS equipment,just go to www.
Postequip.Com.
If you want to view the herd boss line,go to herdbossfeeters.
Com.
Either one will show what we have,or you can reach out to us
(40:53):
by phone 712-476-4,500.
We'll also put that information the shownotes so that if somebody looks at this,
they'll see links to the website,and also they'll have the phone
numbers on there as well.
Perfect.
Dan, Joel, thanks very much.
It's been really informative and it's alsobeen entertaining just to Here
(41:15):
are some of the stories.
I think we can all relateto a lot of the stories.
But no, seriously,I think it's very helpful because I'm very
pro, you'll hear across all the pockets,I'm very pro about American-made equipment
and also getting the out to people becauseto me it's important to help our country
and help our businesses and our farmingoperations here in the United States.
(41:39):
So again, thank you, gentlemen, both.
Thank you, Neil.Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Well, that wraps up anotherepisode of Small Business Talks.
But before we end, we'd like to thank youfor listening to our podcast and hope you
found it both informativeand entertaining.
We only ask that you click the likeand subscribe button so that we can
(42:00):
bring more episodes and storiesfrom America's small businesses.
Our mission is to give small businessesa platform to share their expertise
and experience so that other smallbusinesses can benefit
from their knowledge.Thank you.
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