As we look across any industry, or even life in general, we see many new inventions that save time or that allow us to do more with our existing time. Smartphones, video conferencing, online shopping and home delivery all allow us to do more with less time. Agriculture has benefitted from many time-saving inventions as well. Several years ago, I wrote a blog about how BioBarrels^®, 48 row corn planters, GPS and net wrap save farmers and ranchers precious time. They all allow one person to do much more than they could on their own 10 or 20 years ago.

CRYSTALYX^® has had the BioBarrel advantage for the last 14 years. Self-fed supplements save you time, labor and fuel by design. The BioBarrel further reduces time spent and fuel used by eliminating the need to retrieve empty steel barrels or plastic tubs. Additionally, empty plastic tubs oftentimes end up in stock dams, creek bottoms, ravines or fence lines, making their retrieval even more time-consuming and irritating.

For the past six years, the CRYSTALYX BioBarrel has been coated with our most recently patented improvement: Weatherall^® coating. The Weatherall coating on the outside of the BioBarrel greatly improves its strength and weatherability — especially its ability to shed rain. If you have not tried the CRYSTALYX Weatherall BioBarrel in the last few years, I would encourage you to try it again, as it is much improved.

There are more advantages to the Weatherall BioBarrel than just saving time and money. The fact that the sides of the BioBarrel degrade as the product is consumed is advantageous for several reasons. Customers often remark how easy it is to tell how much of the block is left from a distance — whereas with steel barrels and plastic tubs, you have to walk up to the tub and look in to make that determination. Picture yourself not having to open gates, get out of the truck in inclement weather or bounce across corn stalks just to look inside a tub to see how much product is left. It is critical that cattle do not run out of supplement, and the BioBarrel makes that much easier to accomplish.

Young calves have easy access to the block as the sides of the BioBarrel disappear. While we generally tend to supplement the mother cow directly with CRYSTALYX, which allows the calf to benefit indirectly from her improved nutrition, consumption of CRYSTALYX by the calf greatly improves its plane of nutrition pre-weaning. 

All of the ingredients in the Weatherall BioBarrel are renewable, and a renewable yet biodegradable container is a great benefit to the environment, especially compared to empty plastic tubs that may not all get recycled and end up in a landfill instead.

Looking at how agriculture has progressed over the last generation, we have seen any number of innovations that allow us to do much more with our time. Many of these innovations were necessary, as today’s farmers and ranchers need to operate more acres or total animals than their parents and grandparents did just to make a similar living. Just take a look at your cell phone, your tractors, your baler, your planter and especially your beef cattle supplement. Have they changed in the last 10 to 20 years? If they haven’t, you’re probably missing out on some recent innovations that could save you significant dollars in your operating costs — and in the case of the Weatherall BioBarrel, they might also be better for the environment.      

With CRYSTALYX, Performance is Served™, and it is best served in a Weatherall BioBarrel. CRYSTALYX Brand Supplements are available to your herd 24/7 and are an excellent way to supply vitamins, minerals and fly control while also increasing the utilization of your forage. On top of all of this, they require a minimal input of time, labor, equipment and delivery costs. All things considered, CRYSTALYX and the BioBarrel will often give you the lowest cost per hear per day while still producing optimal results in your herd.