Tim Craig found out just how important Fescue-lyx^® is to his own cattle program when he sold a group of bred heifers last fall.

He’d decided to give a competing block a trial last summer, dividing the group of 115 heifers into roughly two. He put the 50-or so Red Angus-Red Limousine cross heifers on the competitor’s product and the Black Angus cross cattle on Fescue-lyx. Bulls ran with both groups all summer.

While he expected to have a few open heifers, he was shocked to discover—when the group was sold—that 30 of the heifers on the competitor’s product were open compared to a nearly 100 percent conception rate on the Fescue-lyx^® fed cattle.

The Gravette, Arkansas, cattle producer figures that experiment cost him $100 to $200 per head. “That’s how I know Fescue-lyx^® works,” Craig said. “There is no comparison to Fescue-lyx.^®”

Craig has to be convinced a product will work before he’ll try to sell it to his customers at Farmers Supply and Service in Gravette. He’s carried CRYSTALYX^® products for over nine years. Fescue-lyx^® and Sheep-lyx^® are his two highest selling products.

Cost per day, not price of the barrel, is how Craig sells the product. “If you’re concerned with the upfront cost, there’s no reason for me to be wasting my time. But, if you’re concerned with what your cattle cost per day, then we can talk.”

Having livestock of his own also helps showcase the benefits of feeding CRYSTALYX^® products. Craig keeps Fescue-lyx^® out for his cattle year round, even though the animals consume less in the spring when the grass is greening up. “I’m guaranteed a calf crop every 11 or 12 months,” he says. He’s also seen an improvement in weaning weights.

Many of the cattle herds on Fescue-lyx^® are pastured along paved roads where other producers can see the benefits of a self-serve feeding system. Craig also stacks all the returns by the dock door where customers are forced to drive. “We keep it in front of them.”
But it was his daughter’s 4-H lamb that spread the word about Sheep-lyx. Many local sheep producers didn’t think that scrawny lamb would even make weight, let alone win classes by the end of summer. But when it did, those same wanted to know what Tim’s daughter was feeding her lamb.

“That boosted our sales of both Sheep-lyx^® and show feed,” he says.