"Do things better" and "Do better things", a couple of phrases that sound great in the ear but sometimes we take them as something very trite. But that is not the case with Feedlot Health Management Services (Feedlot Health), a company that takes these phrases very seriously and makes them a central part of its core business.

1. FH: Synonym of innovation and efficiency
in feedlots and cattle operations
Okotoks, Alberta, Canadá
Por: Ronald Vega, Bionutrix S.A.

2. A new way of doing things
"Do things better" and "Do better things", a couple of phrases that
sound great in the ear but sometimes we take them as something very
trite. But that is not the case with Feedlot Health Management Services
(Feedlot Health), a company that takes these phrases very seriously and
makes them a central part of its core business.
Thanks to the intervention of my good friend Jorge Simroth, Ph.D., consultant of the firm,
we were able to visit this private consulting company of the beef and dairy industry, located
on the outskirts of Okotoks, South of the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Just by entering
the offices - a stable converted into a modern facility - and the way the staff receives us, we
realize that this company is something different. Already installed in a pleasant meeting
room, we were attended by Dr. Matt May, Ph.D., Partner and Production Consultant of FH.
An excellent professional, who with broad mastery of the issues proceeded to give us a brief
review of the history of the company, its development and its scope to date.
Founded in 1983 by its Executive Director, Dr. Kee Jim, Feedlot Health turned 36 years of age
providing comprehensive animal health management programs, production consulting
services and individual animal production and nutrition registration systems supported by
its computer software data systems. Dr. May tells us, it was Dr. Jim, who had the vision to
take advantage of the window of opportunity that was presented at that time, given the
shortage of feedlot operations in the state of Alberta. He also told us that the typical
relationship between a veterinarian and his client is often based on simple transactions,
according to the needs and emergencies of the moment. So, when the client's operation had
no problem, the veterinarian does not have a good day financially speaking. "One of the
things that Dr. Jim did from the beginning was to establish a method by which the payment
or compensation related to the number of animals in the operation." Although he mentions
that there may be some other variants to establish the payment, such as the location (travel
distance and times) and the status of the initial situation of the farm, among others.
Dr. May mentions, that they look for a win-win relationship with the client, where both
together seek the success of the operations, and where Feedlot Health is proactively and
integrated into decision making and creation of production strategies and preventive health
protocols. This way of working has currently led Feedlot Health to be monitoring around 4
million animals a year, both in Canada and outside of Canada.
Most of Canadian clients working with Feedlot Health are from the southern region of
Alberta, as expected, given the demographics of livestock in Canada. However, they have

3. clients in other states of the country, as well as in the United States, Mexico and Brazil,
without excluding other countries in Asia and Africa in the future.
They currently have a highly professional and qualified staff, with about 38 consultants and
65 people in the area of technical and administrative support, all working in an interrelated
manner and as a true work team. "The team members have different roles and
responsibilities," said Dr. Ryan Rademacher, who accompanied us to visit a customer's
feedyard, and added "when team members are not in the field, they are back in the office
doing other things, such as data analysis, or in research or monitoring tasks. "
THE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS
"We are a knowledge-based company," said Dr. May. We have four main pillars that support
what we do and one of those is to continue research and development. We are really focused
on applied research. As new products or technologies are available, we try to be the industry
leader in making large-scale tests to determine the impact of these technologies and what it
means in economic terms for
customers. We have established
protocols, and at the time a new
technology gives us a good result, it
becomes the new protocol to follow. "
Feedlot Health uses the information
that is generated in universities and
research centers to create hypotheses
about what should be done, but the
company then tests those hypotheses
in a commercial operation, which
leads to a cost-benefit analysis to determine the best option to advance. "I would dare to
ensure that we are one of the few, if not the only company that uses this approach in the
world," says Dr. May.
Another of the pillars is the collection of information and data analysis. "From the
beginning, Dr. Jim realized that if he wanted to help his customers effectively, he needed to
gather individual information about the animals," says Dr. May. Therefore, since 1985, for
the first time in Canada, it began to collect individual information on animals in
computerized form. With that objective, Feedlot Health developed its own software, for the
exclusive use of its customers. The evolution from those first years continues to advance
exponentially, both with improvements in technology and with advanced research methods.

4. Dr. May added, “the data is collected on independent servers at the sites of each of our
clients, but they are transferred to our central
Feedlot Health office overnight, so that our team
can really be connected to monitor each of the
activities and processes in which we are involved.
During the morning hours our technicians receive
the reports to perform the respective analyzes,
recommendations and actions to follow. We started
as a veterinary company, but we have expanded
that to other aspects of animal production and
nutrition. He also mentioned that in Feedlot
Health, “we handle a more comprehensive and
immediate approach based on the knowledge of
each particular livestock operation day by day. We
have taken our veterinarians and nutritionists and
made them a complete team. In this way, we do our
best to make sure that we are highly integrated into
the customer's system every day and constantly; We
interact with them, either through phone calls, virtual conferences, emails, or site visits. We
are always in touch so that what has to be done can be executed.”
As for future goals, Dr. May states that they not only want Feedlot Health to maintain and
increase the level of service and value provided to their existing customers, but that they are
interested in growing the business and that happens as they greater growth is achieved in
the US and in other latitudes. "Our growth potential here in western Canada is limited, it is
for this reason that we are looking for opportunities to expand to other geographical areas in
Mexico, Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa.
"We are fortunate to have an excellent team of specialists and high-level professionals and
maintain a group of people who are very trained and passionate about what they do," adds
Dr. May. An innovative company like Feedlot Health is at the forefront of providing
information, research and supervision forthe sector it serves, to benefit the beef and milk
industry at the highest level, both in Canada and beyond.
Our thanks to Dr. Matt May for the time
spent and the presentation of the company
made at the Feedlot Health Management
Services headquarters; as well as Dr. Ryan
Rademacher, who accompanied us to a
feedlot, typical of the Alberta area, where we
closed this interesting visit. Finally, again
our thanks to Dr. Jorge Simroth, for his
support and coordination of visits.