Welcome to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions! In this special episode of our Meet the Team series, host Scott Zehr sits down with Dr. Larry Roth, Agrarian’s “resident geek” and a cornerstone of our technical team. As Vice President of Nutrition, Dr. Roth is a key contributor to our mission of improving livestock health and performance.
With humor, insights, and stories from the field, Scott and Dr. Roth discuss the power of mentorship, the importance of teaching others, and the connections that make B2B sales truly people-to-people. Tune in for an engaging conversation that showcases the heart of Agrarian’s team and mission!
🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!
Scott Zehr
Hey everybody. Welcome to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. I am your host, Scott Zehr. And I am glad to be doing this episode again as part of our meet the team series here at Agrarian. So today I’m going to be joined by Dr. Larry Roth, a regular on our regularly scheduled podcasts.
So this meet the team at Agrarian series, Dr. Roth, really, when I thought about this there was a conversation I had with Mark Carpenter in the very first episode of Ruminate This, where we talked about essentially the men and women within an organization that make it happen. And you know, this concept of B2B sales, business to business sales, I understand the terminology but I hate that term. Because it’s people that do business with people.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
And if they happen to work for different businesses, different organizations, sure, it’s B2B. Part of our core values you know, we have Relational, Integrity, Strategic and Excellence. And so this meet the team with Agrarian series is really trying to work off of that relational value that we share here at Agrarian and bringing this to a person to person level.
And that’s something that you feel pretty strongly about as I’ve heard you mention a number of times throughout the years that you’ve been with the company. It’s about relationships. And so Larry, I would like to get to know you a little better today and, I might even share a couple of stories from my days that I’ve spent on the road with Dr. Roth if we, as we’ve driven around the Northeast here. But I promise I won’t tell anything too embarrassing.
Dr. Larry Roth
Okay. I appreciate that.
Scott Zehr
Cause pretty much all of the embarrassing stories happen to Jeff Hostetter when he’s with us. So I’ll get into those when Jeff’s on here.
Dr. Larry Roth
Okay.
Scott Zehr
So Dr. Roth I guess the, the first question I would ask you is who is Dr. Larry Roth?
Dr. Larry Roth
Well, I’m originally from the state of Wyoming, grew up in the cow calf business. Bachelor’s University of Wyoming, Master’s Texas A&M, PhD at Nebraska. So I’ve got kind of an Aggie background, Cornhusker background. I went to Nebraska back in the last century when it was Acidosis U. So I’ve got this big emphasis on rumen pH as being so central to animal health and making use of a good diet.
So I always come back to what’s the condition of the rumen. That’s what makes these animals unique. I’ve had the pleasure of having some fantastic mentors in my career that have influenced me quite a bit. And they have driven home to me the importance of relationships. So I always talk about I’m the resident geek here at Agrarian. And most tech people are not so relationship oriented. But I think that really comes down to what are we wanting to convey, are we wanting to help people to develop.
Because it’s, you know, it’s an old cliche, Scott, people don’t care what you know, until they know that you care. And I think early on in my career, I didn’t understand that. Again, I was going out there as a nerdy geek and one of my early mentors Frank Hargit. Frank worked with Frank and the commercial cattle feeding business. He was a rep for at that time, Decox. And Frank was not a cattle person per se. But he was a people person. And he taught me so much about sales and about relationship. And I think Scott, you’ve heard many stories of things that, that Frank has taught me.
Scott Zehr
I have. Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
Probably the first big mentor that I had in my life and it is okay to say big because he was about six foot six was Dr. Bill Ellis at Texas A&M. And as a young grad student, I’d go into Dr. Ellis and I’d say, I’ve got this problem or that problem. What do I do? Might be in the lab with assays, might be statistics. And Dr. Ellis would always come back and say, what’s your objective?
That wasn’t the answer that I was wanting, okay? But I think that that is so important when we’re going out to do a research study, we’re going out to make a sales call, we have to be thinking, what is our objective? I think that that follows through with our relationships with so many different things.
Scott Zehr
Well, I think personally and professionally too. Right?
Dr. Larry Roth
Absolutely.
Scott Zehr
Yeah
Dr. Larry Roth
Then another team mentor in my life Mr. Dennis Nunn. Dennis is probably one of the best people I know at developing relationships. And when I first started working with Dennis and he may be listening to this at some point, Dennis started asking questions.
And I was trying to figure out if he was CIA or FBI, or if he thought I was one of those. But Dennis’ point is, everybody has something in common. You just gotta figure out what that is. And once you understand that you have that thing in common, the rest is just details. Because then you’ve got that bond.
I’ve worked with Dennis all over the United States. I’ve worked with him in a number of foreign countries. And it didn’t matter where we went, Dennis always put that emphasis on developing relationships. And that’s where I think Dennis and I worked together well as a team.
I was over here from the tech standpoint. He was from the relationship standpoint and we’d work from both ends and end up in the middle and usually it ended up being successful. So Scott, I think that that’s kind of a transition I’ve made in my career from, it’s all about the technical stuff to it’s all about the relationships.
Scott Zehr
I think Larry, looking at it from that perspective of your role here at Agrarian as the tech person, that kind of thing. You know, and I look at my role at Agrarian where I get to do this, but also manage some sales across a number of States and, and relationships with nutritionists and dairymen and so on.
I look at you as my number one resource, right? So if I get a question on a farm, I mean, certainly I can call you and have you talk to the dairyman. We’ve done that before. There’s times where you’ve came out and we’ve, went and we’ve talked to nutritionists together.
But what you have done a great job of, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it, is teaching me the things that I need to know in the field to be successful having conversations with these folks. And for me, I, owe you a big thank you for that because it’s not everybody’s willing to invest that kind of time in someone. And, and that I see out of you.
Dr. Larry Roth
Well, let me make a comment on that. My undergraduate was in ag education. And I still see myself as a teacher. I’m not teaching high school students. And thank God we’re not teaching junior high students. I’m working with adults. And my role, Scott, is to make myself not need it. To work with you, work with our colleagues to where you don’t need to call me. That’s what my role has to be. It’s to, shall we say, pour myself into others to help in that development.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah. And from my perspective, you’re doing it. You’re doing that. And I, think it’s I have put you on that list of people in my professional career, especially and there’s about four of his on that list where I, kind of tell people, you know, I’ve, probably had the best education I never had to pay for from these three or four people. And in fact, in every case so far, I got paid to, got paid to learn it. So, you know…
Dr. Larry Roth
But you know what, Scott, that’s the perspective that all of us should have. We’ve all benefited from mentors.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
The question becomes, are we going to return that favor?
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And mentor and develop others.
Scott Zehr
You, you’ve heard me talk about the sponge effect on a different platform that you and I sometimes do some trainings on for a distributor. And, I was asked this question and I feel pretty strongly about the sponge effect. So I was asked this question a number of years ago when I worked for a different company. We were at a training, and the question was, what’s your superpower?
Dr. Larry Roth
Okay.
Scott Zehr
And we’re kind of going around the room and it got to be my turn. I said, I think I’m a bit of a sponge. And I remember Joel Mergler looking at me and he goes, “Uh, that fits actually quite well.” And, I truly believe that, you know, it’s whether it’s a servant mentality that I think my parents instilled in me. That same servant mentality that I think is a big part of the culture here at Agrarian.
If you soak all that stuff in and don’t empty that sponge, one, you’re not going to retain it. It doesn’t stick. If you learn something and put it into practice, it actually will stick with you. And also if you learn something and don’t share it with somebody else it’s not very fulfilling.
It’s the old analogy of, I used to joke with this guy I used to work with when I was 15 years old at the cattle auction barn. You know, he probably didn’t have you know, he, he was in his seventies at the time and retired. And I am sure he had a nice little nest egg to retire on and stuff like that, but he wasn’t a millionaire by any chance, but he was a tight son of a gun, Larry. Let me tell you.
nd I used to joke with Cliff and say, you know, Cliff, your money is just like a manure pile, it’s no good unless you spread it. So, you know, oftentimes I’d ask him for, you know, Hey, just spread some my way. But I, I really feel like, you know, that same analogy and the sponge effect and your approach with working with us at Agrarian that you do a great job of that.
Dr. Larry Roth
Well, thank you.
Scott Zehr
You know, so a little bit more about Dr. Roth. You also like to get your hands dirty with cattle. So tell us a little bit about what you do on your own farm.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. So my wife and I raised three kids here on a farm in south central Minnesota. We raise beef cattle. We buy calves. Currently buying beef on dairy calves, grow them through the winter pasture, and grain them through the summer, rotationally graze and sell them as freezer beef.
We do the same with pork, all the pork are all confined with layers, we have layers year round. Broilers, we do some maple syrup, certainly not at the scale where you are, but just enough that it becomes a sickness with us that you spend, you spend 11 months out of the year getting ready for that one month or so of it.
But I wake up every morning thinking about animal agriculture, be it my own animals or be it those of others. And I think that’s my calling is to help people be wise stewards of their land and their animals. And that’s what fits into our defend and protect thing. What can we do to help people defend and protect their animals so that they can provide for their own families?
Scott Zehr
Yeah, it’s exactly it. Yeah, on the, on the maple syrup front, when you first came on board here at Agrarian and we were visiting and you mentioned maple syrup, I knew right from that moment on, like, Hey, this guy’s all right. Now Larry, I did warn you a little bit, cause you were doing some maple syrup down and I think you, did you guys add some taps along the way of a few in the last three years?
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
And I made the comment to you and I, probably because I make it to everybody, I said, you know, once that steam gets into your skin and into your blood, you can’t get rid of it. And it is a sickness. It’s a pretty sweet sickness.
Dr. Larry Roth
That’s true.
Scott Zehr
But, and similar, to most, any other type of agriculture, Larry and I had this discussion for there’s not a lot of money to be made unless you’re one of the manufacturers that’s making the equipment.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah, I think that’s true.
Scott Zehr
Oh yeah. So, you know, you’ve mentioned some of the mentors and the impact that they’ve had on you throughout your professional career. From a personal standpoint and if you want to mention people by name, you can, you don’t have to. But maybe who were, some of the, the people throughout your life that helped you become the man you are today personally?
Dr. Larry Roth
Oh, wow. That’s a very interesting question. And haven’t spent so much of my life in school, I think it was professors that I have. You know, I mentioned my master’s professor at Texas A&M, Bill Ellis. The famous Terry Kloffenstein at Nebraska. And Terry would always challenge us, can you show me some data? And I think I’ve always kind of maintained that posture. If we’re going to go out and make some kind of statement, can I show the data to back that up?
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. No, I think of different people that I’ve met via through my church or whatnot, people who really walk the walk and, and live the faith. Cause at the end of the day, we don’t stay here. And at the end of the day you’re going to have an eternal address.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And, you’re either going up or you’re going down.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
That’s one of the two. And it’s for you to decide that. And the problem with that Scott is we don’t know when that day comes. We all think that we determine it, but we don’t.
Scott Zehr
Right.
Dr. Larry Roth
So we got to live our lives, not knowing who we’re going to be turning in that change of address for.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, yeah. You know, one of the things that I know that you do as, as part of a way to not just give back, but give your expression earlier was pouring yourself into others. You do some mission trip work each year out in India. Can you tell us a little bit about that organization and what you guys do there?
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. Let me back up. I’ve been involved with Christian Veterinary Mission since 1999. And yeah, Christian veterinary mission. I don’t know if there’s a theological issue here, but I haven’t found a Christian nutritionist mission. I don’t know if there’s something to be said there, but anyhow. So I found a Christian Veterinary Mission and I’m kind of the oaken nutritionist there, I guess you could say.
And I’ve gone with CVM to a number of different countries and recently I’ve been going to India and kind of found a bit of a home there with the people that I go and serve with. And there’s a gentleman there Dr. Benjamin, 78 years old, and I call him the GOAT veterinarian, greatest of all time.
Cause he’s got this ability to look at a cow, a goat, a dog, and figure out just like that, what the issue is and work to resolve it. Now I’m trying to work with him to help him understand some of these nutrition principles so that he doesn’t have to work so hard and that we make these animals healthy from a nutrition standpoint to make his life easier.
But he’s somebody that we just hit it off. And Scott, I think, you know, that I like a good cup of coffee and so does Dr. Benjamin. And we’ve found some places that we’ll just go have a nice cup of coffee and sit down and just visit. And again, it comes back to the people that we work with.
You know, when we get to the end of our careers and we’re not going to remember this sale that we made or that sale that we didn’t make, or how that research that he came out, what we’re going to remember is the people that we worked with.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And you, you made reference earlier to one of our good colleagues and laughs that we’ve had with him. And it’s things like that that we’re going to remember when it’s all set.
Scott Zehr
You know, I, I don’t rank Tim Hortons as a top three coffee on my list, but that memory of Tim Hortons of Jeff trying to steal the balloons inadvertently. Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
It’s a good, good point.
Dr. Larry Roth
Now, can you tell me what the sale call was before that? And the sales call afterwards?
Scott Zehr
I remember who we were there to talk to and who we talked to when that happened. Because he was still
Dr. Larry Roth
Cause I don’t.
Scott Zehr
He was still in the room. That’s how I remember it.
Dr. Larry Roth
Okay.
Scott Zehr
He hadn’t, like we had all gotten up to leave. And Jeff starts walking out with a great big old giant balloon under his arm. And I remember the nutritionist that we had coffee with was still in the room. That’s why I remember that meeting.
But to your point, if it wouldn’t be the fact that the guy was still in the room I don’t really remember a whole lot about that day, other than the balloon incident at Tim Horton’s. And we ate a really good beef on wex sandwich. And we had some pretty, pretty good Buffalo wings out and near Buffalo.
Dr. Larry Roth
It’s the people, it’s the people that you work with.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
It’s, it’s all about the relationships.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, yeah. You know, you mentioned a good cup of coffee. What’s your top five coffee spots across the country?
Dr. Larry Roth
Number one Not by bread alone, Green Bay, Wisconsin, German chocolate coffee. Number two Mayors and Michigan black cherry coffee. Man, we’ve had some good coffees there in New York. Here, where I live in south central Minnesota there’s a place about five miles from us, European roastery. And there’s many mornings when the wind is coming out of the Southwest, you can smell what they’re making. And they make a very good caramel punch, brownie coffee.
Scott Zehr
So you like the flavored coffees quite a bit. That’s what I’ve learned about you. I haven’t been able to break into it too far. Now I did, I know you like the maple French toast coffee that’s over here at one of the gas stations that I stopped to.
Dr. Larry Roth
Oh yes.
Scott Zehr
But I’m a sucker for a good dark roast coffee, that’s my go to. Yeah. Summer and I just got a, maple French toast the other day and split it.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. Excellent.
Scott Zehr
And I will say it was, it was pretty good.
Dr. Larry Roth
Excellent. Good.
Scott Zehr
It was pretty good. Larry you’ve had a lengthy collegiate career in academia with getting your PhD. You’ve been involved with research projects. You know, during those times and working with teams of people. You’ve now been in the professional space with a few different organizations and had to work in team settings.
You know you and I have been pretty blessed to be able to travel to many parts of this country. You know, I’ve gotten to go to a lot of places between Maine and Florida and you’ve been I know a lot, lot more around the country than I have, but, so many times when we get on an operation, it could be a cattle ranch, it could be a dairy farm where inevitably, even though we might be there to discuss nutrition related things, teamwork and people always seem to come into the conversation.
And maybe it’s, you know, maybe it’s something as almost seemingly innocent as we have three people that feed cows throughout the week. You know, a main guy and two relief guys kind of thing. And we see drop off and, how successful they are in getting a good TMR put in front of the cattle. Or, you know, I’ll use that one as the example. And so when I thought about doing this series, meet the team, the one question I really felt was important to ask everybody their perspective on was based around teamwork.
Because what I, what I see at Agrarian and I’ve, this is my second stop in my professional career and honestly, hopefully it’s the last stop I make. I guess Rob might have a little say in that or Mark Carpenter someday, but.
But I have seen in my four years going on, I came on board in September one of 2020 I have seen a transformation within this company just in those four years, to where I thought I was coming into a good team and I did. But I think the team has gotten a lot better within Agrarian and I think we’re pretty, pretty blessed to be working for this company. But, what would be your definition of a successful team, Larry?
Dr. Larry Roth
That’s a heavy question. I think a successful team is a group of people who are working together to accomplish a common objective or goal. We think about NFL team winning the Super Bowl, NBA team being league champions. They’re pulling together. And I think on that team, one of the key factors is each person recognizes their role.
Tom Brady, many people call him the goat quarterback of all time. God, I think he would have been a horrible center or horrible guard. And you know what? I don’t remember any of the centers or guards on any of those New England Patriot fan or teams. And I’m certainly not a Patriots fan by any means. But Tom Brady could not snap that ball to himself.
He needed an offensive line to protect him. And so, many people have said this saying, and Nick Saban, former coach at University of Alabama always said it, is getting the right people on the bus and then getting them in the right seats. And it’s the same for a college football team, NFL team, and it’s the same for any company.
Everybody has to understand their roles, accept that, and perform it.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And so I think that’s what makes a successful team. Number one, understand the goal and objective number two, understand their roles, accepting it, and then doing it. You know coach Bill Belichick had a famous saying on the sidelines, and it was, it was taped for many times saying this, just do your job.
And it was generally when some defensive player was not just doing their job. But if he would just do his job, the team would win. And I think that’s one of the things that we need to recognize is what’s our objective, what’s our role, and then just do our job.
Scott Zehr
So I would agree with that, Larry. And I think, for some people listening, I don’t want them to think that the term just do your job because you could actually hear how that could be a little bit as a negative too, right?
I don’t think having a successful team means having a group of people that put blinders on and just move forward, right? I think when you’re saying, when you yourself are saying, just do your job, it’s, know what your role is within the team and execute that.
Dr. Larry Roth
Exactly. Yep. Yep. And I, and I think you’re right,
Scott Zehr
But you have to be aware. Right. You have to be aware of what’s going on. you have to have, you know, the blinders taken off so you can, pick a teammate up if you need to or read and react to something coming at you, right? That maybe you’re not seeing.
Dr. Larry Roth
At the same time, every team member is relying upon a particular person to do something.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And when we try to get into a different role than what we’re supposed to be doing, normally things aren’t going to go well.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
I guess as life has gone on. Scott, I find building successful teams to be more and more interesting. Because I, I see successful farms, dairies, ranches, feedlots, where things just click. And others where it isn’t so much that the case. And so often it comes to understanding roles and fulfilling that role.
Scott Zehr
You know, Chad Christensen made a good point on the call I did with him for meet the team. And I think the last thing you just said there, a lot of that is transparency. So now, you can take transparency a number of different ways, but when I think of it in this kind of a conversation, this kind of a setting, it’s, you said it in terms of communicating the objective. Making sure, you know, everybody’s on the same page.
But you know I, I think that’s been a huge part of the culture at Agrarian over the last four years that I’ve experienced is, the transparency. I think we see that sometimes in other businesses whether it’s in agriculture or outside of agriculture, where, you know, maybe it’s because somebody has, and I’ll, be the first one to tell you. I had to go through this personally with my maple business for years, it was me and my dad.
And the last couple of years of, of when dad and I did it together, I kind of got to, I was kind of taking it and running with it. And then when I brought in my cousin as a partner and we expanded the business, boy, that was a whole new dynamic. We trusted each other enough to go into business together. But on, I realized one day we had a conversation and he made the comment to me, he said, well, Scott, I actually don’t even know what our financial situation is right now. Like I don’t have any of that stuff unless you decide to tell me.
And I sat back in my chair and I was like, that’s terrible. You know, you’re just as much of an owner of this as I am. And so for me, that was a personal experience lesson of the importance of, like you say, communicating the goal, the transparency of it through the, you know, from the leaders.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
And I think when we get on to dairy farms, when I look at some of the farms that I’ve visited and I’m using dairy, cause that’s where I predominantly spend my time I It’s been the lack of the communication of goals, objectives, transparency that has led to some of the decline in those teams.
So Larry, man, that was a really great conversation to have with you today. Appreciate you taking the time to do this and helping us here at Ruminate This, try to communicate to the world a little bit about who we are and what we stand for. And so with that, I want to thank you and those of you listening, we will see you all again soon. Have a great week.
Dr. Larry Roth
All right. All right. Thanks, Scott.
