Agricultural businesses are frequently family-based, and Vitalix is no different. This family-owned company manufactures high quality natural feed supplements for cattle, equine, sheep and goats in the form of molasses-based lick tubs. The company was started in 1989 in Alliance, NE, and has since expanded to add manufacturing facilities in Quincy, WA, and Wilton, IA.
Owner Greg Olson became interested in starting the company when growing up. His family had a farm and ranch near Minden, NE, where he said they were using feed supplement tubs with their cattle. The product they were using was purchased from a company in Missouri, but the freight cost to get the product to Nebraska was becoming a limiting factor.
He said his family started talking with the company they were buying product from about making the product themselves. After reaching an agreement on what went into the tubs, Vitalix was started in Alliance. He noted there weren’t a lot of feed tub companies at the time. “We got into the market and started producing them because we saw the need.”
In June of this year the Alliance facility was devastated by a fire that completely destroyed the manufacturing plant and warehouse. That was after the company showed its resilience by recovering from a June 2016 tornado that severely damaged its warehouses.
Olson told WLJ that, immediately after the fire, production at the Washington and Iowa plants was increased to almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week so they could continue to meet customer needs. However, he knew continuing at that pace was not a viable option as the demand for product going into the winter would increase; rebuilding the Nebraska facility needed to happen—fast.
Olson explained that Vitalix wanted to remain in Alliance where it had been leasing buildings from the city on land near the airport. When approached about purchasing the property to rebuild, the city declined to sell, in part because the location near the airport is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which would have required additional government approval before a sale could take place.
“We wanted to own the property. For us to borrow millions of dollars to build warehouses on somebody else’s land is difficult,” Olson told WLJ. “We’ve been growing for 29 years and just kept adding on—now it’s all burned. We had good insurance but decided that to go back on leased property just didn’t make sense.”
He noted that the city of Alliance didn’t want the company to leave, but when Vitalix couldn’t find suitable land to buy, the search began to find a new location. Olson said he wanted to keep the company in western Nebraska or nearby largely because of the proximity to Western Sugar in Scottsbluff, NE, a sugar manufacturing plant that sells molasses to Vitalix.
Olson said they looked in eastern Wyoming before finding the warehouse and property in Sidney, NE, approximately 80 miles south of Alliance. Once home to the Cabela’s headquarters, Sidney had empty warehouse space due to the company being sold to Bass Pro in 2017.
Vitalix took possession of the building on Sept. 1, 2018 and by Oct. 2 manufactured the first tub in the new facility. “In 32 days, we moved into an empty building, put our equipment up and were making tubs. I feel almost like it was a miracle that we could get the equipment in and start producing that quickly,” said Olson.
As noted, Vitalix manufactures feed supplements for all types of livestock, but the cattle products are one of the largest selling products. And for cattle, Vitalix offers all-natural supplements for all stages of life.
Kelsy Culp, Vitalix district sales manager for the Eastern U.S., told WLJ, “We have primarily products for cattle, we have a specific horse tub, and tubs specifically for sheep and goats.”
Within the cattle line, Culp said they have both protein and mineral tubs, with a selling feature being that most products are all natural. She noted only three tub products contain urea.
Culp explained that the full line of products is designed for almost any scenario. Products are formulated to be used as self-feeding supplements with all types of roughages to increase feed efficiency and overall herd health. She said that, depending on the available forage in a given year or season, livestock producers can buy tubs with appropriate amounts of supplemental protein.
Vitalix is also formulated to control consumption, with a guarantee that cattle won’t overeat. Olson explained, “We don’t put any salt in it, or any limiting ingredients, but help control consumption by how hard we cook it. We cook it down to about 1 to 2 percent moisture.” He added, “The sugars that are in the molasses crystalize and make a really hard block. Cattle just lick the top off. It is so hard that they can’t bite it. They just lick on it, so we will control the consumption.”
Molasses is almost two-thirds of the product with protein coming primarily from soybean meal and sunflower meal. Olson noted that the company has also used dried distillers grains as a protein source, especially in the Iowa facility due to its location near ethanol plants.
Initially, Vitalix had livestock nutritionists on staff to help develop the right mix. In addition, the products have been used in feed tests at Kansas State University and Colorado State University. Olson said they have formulas that work on a region-type basis and don’t make any ranch-specific supplements, so they only use nutritionists occasionally at this point.
Although the supplements don’t often need nutritional adjustments at this point, Olson said tweaks are needed from time to time to account for changing sugar levels in the molasses. Some of those changes are made in the proprietary cooking process. Olson said that, instead of patenting the process, which would make the information public, they instead elect to limit access to the cooking room.
Olson told WLJ the biggest-selling tub is one that contains 21 percent protein. Culp noted that consumption is about a half to one-and-a-half pounds of product per day. She said a 20-pound tub should last about 10 days for every 20 cows.
Products are available as mentioned for all stages of life. Olson said calves will often start licking the tubs after watching the mama cows do the same. When weaning time comes, Vitalix also has a product for them that can be followed by tubs that will supplement calves through the winter, or until they move into the feedlot.
Vitalix also has products that help provide the right nutrition for cows and bulls during breeding season.
Olson told WLJ the company is poised for growth. He noted, “Twenty-nine years ago we didn’t have much money and didn’t anticipate growing this much, but we kept adding on. Now, we had an empty building and could design it and put in equipment just the way we wanted with a lot of room for growth.”
The new location at Sidney is also very close to I-80, which will aid in transportation. Olson noted they recently loaded nine semi-trailers with product. He said in Alliance there were days they loaded 20 semis in a day, and said he looks forward to that level of production in Sidney.
“Honestly it is very exciting,” Olson said. “I am really excited for what we have been able to accomplish. When the fire first hit … you get those calls at 2 a.m. and it is like a kick in the stomach. But honestly, we’re coming out of this and we will be better and stronger than we ever would have been otherwise.” — Rae Price,WLJeditor
