Guests: Dr. José Santos, University of Florida; Dr. Jeff Firkins, The Ohio State University; Dr. Bill Weiss, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University; Dr. Jimena Laporta, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Jim Aldrich, CSA Animal Nutrition; Dr. Tom Overton, Cornell University; Dr. Mark Hanigan, Virginia Tech University; Martin Bengtsson, Balchem; Dr. Barry Bradford, Michigan State University; Dr. Turner Swartz, South Dakota State University; Dr. Adam Lock, Michigan State University; Dr. Goeff Dahl, University of Florida Balchem’s Bourbon & Brainiacs event took place at the Frazier History Museum during the 2025 ADSA annual meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. This bonus episode features a rotating slate of guests throughout the entirety of the episode.
Guests: Dr. José Santos, University of Florida; Dr. Jeff Firkins, The Ohio State University; Dr. Bill Weiss, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University; Dr. Jimena Laporta, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Jim Aldrich, CSA Animal Nutrition; Dr. Tom Overton, Cornell University; Dr. Mark Hanigan, Virginia Tech University; Martin Bengtsson, Balchem; Dr. Barry Bradford, Michigan State University; Dr. Turner Swartz, South Dakota State University; Dr. Adam Lock, Michigan State University; Dr. Goeff Dahl, University of Florida
Balchem’s Bourbon & Brainiacs event took place at the Frazier History Museum during the 2025 ADSA annual meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. This bonus episode features a rotating slate of guests throughout the entirety of the episode.
The episode begins with guests talking about how many ADSA meetings they’ve attended and some of their favorite locations. Quebec City travel nightmares, side trips to the Grand Canyon, and university host sites with dorms featuring no air conditioning were highlighted. (0:08)
The group talks about the impact scientific meetings have on graduate students and how important the social and networking aspects are in the development of students’ careers. (9:44)
Formative moments in your career can be forged at ADSA meetings. Learning to step back and talk about the big picture of your work can be pivotal. Other panelists share their experiences in making the final decision on where to attend graduate school based on their experiences at ADSA meetings. (19:48)
Martin Bengtsson, Balchem’s Executive Vice President, CFO and Animal Nutrition and Health General Manager joins the panel. He talks about his background and Balchem’s investment in animal nutrition research. He asks the panel what they’d like to see a company like Balchem do more of to have a bigger impact and be more helpful to the industry. (22:49)
A new wave of guests arrive. Topics include coaching quiz bowl and dairy challenge teams, softball games, rooftop lawn bowling and how one can go from being an up-and-comer to being one of the big names at ADSA to being a retiree. (36:24)
Panelists share some of the events at this year’s ADSA meeting they’re excited to attend, including a symposium about feed additives for methane inhibition in conjunction with the Journal of Dairy Science and an applied nutrition series geared toward field nutritionists. (42:06)
Please subscribe and share with your industry friends to invite more people to join us at the Real Science Exchange virtual pub table.
If you want one of our Real Science Exchange t-shirts, screenshot your rating, review, or subscription, and email a picture to anh.marketing@balchem.com. Include your size and mailing address, and we’ll mail you a shirt.
Scott Sorrell (00:08):
So we was just talking about one of the things we wanna do is just celebrate the ADSA and the fact that, uh, I, I personally have been coming to these over the last 30 years. I haven't been to all of them. And, and I find each and every one of 'em just a little bit special and some unique things happen at each one. And so I kind of wanted to kind of talk to you guys. Bill, I don't know how many you've been to Yeah. All but one. You and Jeff All but one. I missed
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:31):
One since my
Scott Sorrell (00:32):
Last, during your whole Wow. And going back to
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:36):
1981 was my first
Scott Sorrell (00:38):
One. And where was that? Was
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:39):
In Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Scott Sorrell (00:42):
Wow.
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:43):
Master's student.
Scott Sorrell (00:44):
So I haven't been one to one down there. Yeah. It was hot
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:47):
So
Scott Sorrell (00:49):
Over those years, what's been your favorite? Well, the two, maybe it can be the favorite content. It could be the favorite location.
Dr. Bill Weiss (00:57):
The two I remember most is the first one. I, I can tell you what I wore, given a talk. Is
Scott Sorrell (01:02):
That right?
Dr. Bill Weiss (01:03):
It's my first talk ever. What
Scott Sorrell (01:04):
Did you wear
Dr. Bill Weiss (01:04):
There? I wore a brown pants, brown jacket,
Scott Sorrell (01:40):
City. Newark is not.
Dr. Bill Weiss (01:41):
And you drove down, I don't know how long it was, four or five, six hours.
Scott Sorrell (01:45):
I think it was seven each way.
Dr. Bill Weiss (01:47):
Picked me up at one in the morning at the airport, drove me back. I slept a little while. I'm assuming you slept a few hours. And then we went to the symposium. And that's the, I I never told you how much I appreciate you doing
Scott Sorrell (02:01):
That. It was, listen, that was, it was
Dr. Bill Weiss (02:02):
Very meaningful.
Scott Sorrell (02:03):
Honestly, Bill, that was a blessing to me. Right. I, I had, uh, Bill Weiss to me for 14 hours in a car. Right. And I would not shut up. I was asking him. It
Dr. Bill Weiss (02:11):
Was fine. I, I questions. That's what I remember. I remember that one.
Dr. Bill Weiss (02:14):
It's really only seven, right? Just seemed like 14. That's
Scott Sorrell (02:18):
True.
Dr. Bill Weiss (02:33):
Yeah. And I appreciate that too. Yeah. Thank you, Scott.
Scott Sorrell (02:35):
Yeah. Um, what about you, Jeff? What, what would you say your favorite one was? Well,
Dr. Jeff Firkins (02:40):
I would have to say it was in 2003 when my family came out to Arizona and we all went to the Grand Canyon.
Scott Sorrell (02:46):
Oh, nice. Tucson
Dr. Jeff Firkins (02:48):
Was really nice. You know, ADSA is very family oriented. Yeah. You see a lot of kids here. And my kids are all grown up now, but, you know, that was really special. I really loved it. Yeah. I, I, I guess I got my maybe my first award there too, so
Scott Sorrell (03:01):
That now that always helps. Yeah.
Dr. Jeff Firkins (03:04):
Helped to pay for the vacation to bring them out.
Scott Sorrell (03:05):
So when was that one? I, I missed that one. I think it was
Dr. Jeff Firkins (03:08):
2003. I don't remember, but I remember hot 2004 maybe. 2004. Yeah. 2004 Phoenix.
Dr. José Santos (03:15):
Yeah.
Dr. Jeff Firkins (03:15):
Yeah. The Harry Potter book came out though.
Scott Sorrell (03:31):
You know, I've got a great, uh, Harry Potter memory. I, I was, uh, living in, uh, New Jersey at the time. I had just went to work for Balkin. This was 14 years ago. My family was back in Illinois for a year before we got the house sold. And so I started reading, uh, Harry Potter with my, my young, uh, my oldest son at the time. And that's what we'd do. We'd talk every night. We'd get on the phone and talk about what we read on Harry Potter. So we read the books together. It's kind of special that you, you brought that up. But it's part of my memory bank as well. Uh, Jimena, uh, how many have you been to and and, and what's your favorite?
Scott Sorrell (04:14):
The economics of feeding? ReaShure Precision Release Choline. ReaShure is fed during the transition period. And because it's fed for such a short period of time, it costs just $15 per cow. And yet the benefits will continue to generate income Throughout the year. Cows fed reassure produce five pounds more colostrum, which pays for your reassure investment on the very first day of lactation cows. Fed Reassure also produce five pounds more milk per day every day. That means after the first day, every day is payday, invest in ReaShure during the transition period and recoup your investment on the very first day of lactation after that. You got it. Payday.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (05:02):
Well, in 1981, I wasn't born.
Dr. Bill Weiss (05:05):
Thank you.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (05:06):
Let's start there. My first one was actually also as a master's student, and it was in 2010. And that was in Denver, um, Colorado. That was my first one. And again, that was the, probably the most memorable, because for me it was amazing. It was coming from my country, Ottawa. I was a master's student just starting. And to me, seeing all of this was just amazing. Yeah. So it was very impressive.
Scott Sorrell (05:33):
I was talking to Jeff Elliott earlier today and, and that, uh, that one was his favorite as well. Yeah.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (05:38):
I really liked that one. Yeah. Yeah. But I didn't miss one. I didn't miss any since. Well, the ones that were virtual, but yeah. COVID, I've been going 15 years.
Scott Sorrell (05:49):
Yeah. Jose, your favorite?
Dr. José Santos (05:52):
Uh, there's two. One is like Jimena said. Uh, my very first one is 1994 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I think was the last one in the convention. Or it was the first one after, uh, or one of the, the first in a convention center that was not a university type of, uh, Cornell 1995. Yeah. That's memorable. That's memorable with the hot weather. No air conditioning. Yeah, exactly. So, because at the time, information didn't move as fast as it is today. So you go to a meeting, there's a lot of novelty, particularly for a master's student. So everything was new to me. So that was memorable. There's another event, another episode that was memorable to me on that one. Uh, but the venue, the one that I will never forget is the one before Jeff's favorite place, it was Quebec City. Oh, that was fun. That's my favorite. That fun. That was a fun, wonderful. That was my favorite
Scott Sorrell (06:47):
Great venue. Beautiful weather. That was amazing food. Yep. Yeah. No, I,
Dr. José Santos (06:52):
Being in downtown Quebec in that citadel and I really enjoyed that. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (06:56):
We should go back. I don't know why. Yeah.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (06:59):
There was another one in Arizona. I think it was 2012, I think that was my third one. And I, I remember going to the Grand Canyon too, and I have
Dr. José Santos (07:08):
That's impressive.
Scott Sorrell (07:09):
So you weren't at the ADSA, you were at the Grand
Dr. Jimena Laporta (07:12):
Actually, well actually I was still back in Otay. I was a master student then. And so we, we do this big trip, right? So we stay for a few more days and explore. And that was really, really nice coming from there.
Scott Sorrell (07:26):
Jose, you mentioned something right? And some of the early ones, these were actually held on campus, right? Is that right? And, and people stayed in dorms as opposed to hotels. And
Dr. José Santos (07:36):
So quite an experience, uh, in Corvallis and an air conditioned dorms, it was like really hot, 99% humidity, 34 degrees Celsius are 90. And the dorm had no windows and no air, air conditioning, no fans, no nothing. You would wake up at night, jump in the shower, and then go back to bed. Wow. And then jump in the shower.
Scott Sorrell (08:01):
So when did we stop doing that? I've not been the one like that. Good.
Dr. José Santos (08:05):
Maybe. Well, for Cornell were the last one. One Cornell, I think was the last one. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Scott Sorrell (08:11):
So when was that?
Dr. José Santos (08:13):
Was it 1995? 95. Nine
Scott Sorrell (08:15):
Five. Okay. Interesting. So we've been doing podcasts at the A DSA now for about, I don't know, four or five years. And we tried to do these student, um, highlights and, uh, we did one, two years ago with Mariano. Yeah. Um, and she sent me the clip the other
Dr. José Santos (08:36):
Day.
Scott Sorrell (08:38):
Is that something or what
Dr. José Santos (08:39):
It is? I have my phone here.
Scott Sorrell (08:41):
So at the, you know, at the end, one of my, my final questions is, so you're getting ready to graduate. What do you, what do you think you wanna do for the rest of your, you know, career? What, what, what, what's your next step? And she looks at me and she goes, go to work for Alchem. Yeah,
Dr. Jimena Laporta (09:00):
She could see it.
Scott Sorrell (09:02):
And I said, done deal. Well, she'll start, she'll start working for Alchem. I think it's in August. Oh, wow. Amazing. So that's really, really cool. But yeah, no, we, we love, uh, highlighting the students and we're gonna do it again, uh, this year. And who knows, maybe there's, uh, more Alchem employees there, or maybe a Purina employee. But anyway, there, it's, it's amazing the quality of the students anymore going through these universities. I was not one of them when I
Dr. José Santos (09:38):
But you can have both. Yeah. You can enjoy and also
Scott Sorrell (09:40):
Learn, I guess.
Dr. José Santos (09:41):
So yeah.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (09:44):
You can, I think the social part is so important. Not only networking and industry connections and this Right. But the social part. Seeing, seeing, you know, students that were grad students with you years ago, or, you know, people from other countries that come. I think it's very important that the social aspect, it's part of science, right? Yeah. So I think, um, A DSA, it's about that too.
Dr. José Santos (10:08):
And, and when you are a student, I remember when I came to my first A DSA, uh, years before, when I was second year vet student, bill Cher came to where I went to school. And I remember sitting there and just listening to him. Then I came to A DSA and I was brave enough to go there and talk to him. So yeah, you have access to people that you never thought you would talk to them. Yeah. So that is, uh, wonderful for particularly the young people, eh, yeah.
Scott Sorrell (10:35):
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned, you mentioned students. Uh, another story I have is, so Turner Schwartz, he's here tonight. And, uh, we had him on one of the, the interviews as well. And now he's, he's a professor. I think there's at least two here tonight that, that we had in a student spotlight that are now professors for other universities, which is kind of cool.
Dr. Bill Weiss (10:59):
Can I say something serious?
Scott Sorrell (11:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Bill Weiss (11:02):
Don't, thank you. Risk maybe being included.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (11:39):
To add to that. I, I mean, I spend a lot of time with my students prepping them, right. Like, you do a 15 minute talk, but there's a lot of that goes into that. So every time you see a talk, you're like, no. They spend a lot of time practicing and too much. Too much. Yeah. It's like, go get some work done,
Dr. José Santos (11:57):
And they, they're gonna be fine. They have to control the nerves. Yes. Yes. My very first A DSA was in Minneapolis, and I memorize every single, every word. It was two by two slides. I go there and I see Don Palmquist, who was merciless. He was merciless at the time. You know, I, I really enjoyed that because people were not afraid of asking hard questions. Today is there's too much political correctness. Yeah. He asked question. And then there was, uh, uh, Dale Bowman, Don Palmquist, uh, what's his name? Uh, did a lot of post absorptive work grain process in, uh, North Carolina State. Went to USDA.
Dr. Bill Weiss (12:36):
Oh, uh,
Dr. José Santos (12:37):
Yeah. You guys know him? I worked with Chris Reynolds. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Bill Weiss (12:41):
And he married a person at, at North Carolina. Oh.
Dr. José Santos (12:46):
Uh, beef cattle worked. Yeah. Uh,
Dr. Bill Weiss (12:48):
I know who you mean.
Dr. José Santos (12:49):
I just second, so they're sitting there. So I freeze. My English was still like caveman style.
Dr. Jimena Laporta (13:14):
Of an extra
Dr. José Santos (13:15):
Pressure,
Scott Sorrell (13:18):
You mentioned PowerPoints. Did you ever do, uh, overhead? Uh, not
Dr. Bill Weiss (13:22):
During the talk. I've used overhead in the class. Two by
Dr. José Santos (13:25):
Slides,
Dr. Bill Weiss (13:25):
But two by two slides.
Dr. José Santos (13:26):
We did two by two slides, huh? Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (13:28):
That's great.
Scott Sorrell (13:29):
Ah, we're joined here, uh, uh, Dr. Tom Overton and Dr. Jim Aldrich. Thank you very much for joining us guys. Just having a discussion about the ADSA. We're here celebrating the ADSA, the people that make it great. You guys are the, the, the people that make it great. Um, and, and, and we're just kinda having a conversation about some of the favorite, ADSAs that we've been to in the past. And, uh, you know, Bill's been to quite a few. Uh, one of his favorite was a recent one, but what are some of the, uh, venues that you've, you've been to Tom? So they, they were, they were saying earlier that, um, one, one of the worst was when they had it right on the Cornell campus. Now, were you there for that one?
Dr. Tom Overton (14:14):
I was there for that. I was a grad student at, at Illinois at the time. And I'm, I'm pretty sure that that was the final nail in the coffin for university hosted, uh, a DSA, uh, events. Um, it was about, it was about as hot there as it was here right. Today, but no air conditioning at all
Scott Sorrell (14:34):
Anywhere. That's what I heard Joses was saying. He had to get him to take a shower in the middle of the night.
Dr. Tom Overton (14:37):
Everywhere was spread out. There was nothing, nothing close to each other. People were sleeping in the dorm. They were sleeping in the dorms. Not air conditioned dorms. 'cause the other guy had like, no hotels at the
Dr. Jimena Laporta (14:46):
Time.
Dr. Tom Overton (14:51):
Yeah. So, so, yes. So I could say Cornell, uh, again, was definitely, so, so, I dunno if we should take credit for that, because we now have nicer facilities that we do these things in. I know we did, uh, a couple meetings after that at university campuses. I think we were at, uh, Guelph in Corvallis. But then after that, I think it was Denver, um, in 98.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (15:10):
And, and Corvallis was just as hot as Cornell was.
Dr. Tom Overton (15:14):
Uh, Corvallis was just as hot. That was record attempts. I remember a hundred and something degrees there in Corvallis.
Scott Sorrell (15:20):
So, and for those that are not watching on video and just listening to the audio, uh, we have Dr. Mark Hannigan just joined us. And that was his baritone voice that you just heard there. So, welcome, kicking,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (15:30):
Kicking bill out.
Scott Sorrell (15:32):
Dr. Tom Overton (15:52):
You know, I think, I think one of the things, and, and I, so I have a, a new PhD student this time. Uh, Kylie INE did her master, or I'm sorry, undergrad at Wisconsin. Madison Uhhuh
Scott Sorrell (16:11):
Is her year. You a student then? What's that? You was a grad student, right? A grad grad student. Yeah.
Dr. Tom Overton (16:15):
And, um, I just think my first one was at the Ohio State. Is
Scott Sorrell (16:19):
Is that right? I have not been to one at the Ohio State. I need to go. We need to go there. Yeah.
Dr. Tom Overton (16:23):
And so, you know, you remember those, right? Yeah. 'cause, uh, and, and you, you meet people that you've only read their papers, right. Stuff like that. And you still, you know, and I still remember, I had had a grad student a couple years ago working on calcium metabolism a few years ago, you know, meeting Jesse Goff at a dsa, right? Yeah. So, I mean, just people that you read about, things like that. I think those are, those make a lot of impression on, on, on students. And it's, it's kind still kinda a cool thing.
Scott Sorrell (16:49):
Yeah. So what, what's your favorite, what'd you say? And that could be anything, right? It could be the venue, it could be the city, it could be, you have a favorite story there, and I'd love to hear your favorite stories,
Dr. Tom Overton (17:02):
Yeah. I, the, uh, I think they're all, I don't know, they're all a little different. Yeah. Right. And I, I, so that, that may just be, I've been too, too many. Right? I'm having trouble pulling out, you know, what, what the favorite might be. But, you know, again, I think they're all, they're all a little different. Um, you know, I think they're, there are times when we get to spend time with our, our students, our research groups, you know, maybe a little differently than we do when we're back home. We get to obviously interact with, you know, with colleagues like you and, and Mark and Ximena and Jim, you know, looking around the room here. Right. You really get, once again, you guys,
Scott Sorrell (17:35):
Everybody's here. Tonight's
Dr. Tom Overton (17:37):
Kind of the who's who. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (17:38):
It's, it really is. There's
Dr. Tom Overton (17:39):
A lot of awesome, awesome scientists, people in the room, all just interacting here in this informal setting tonight. So it's really, it's really great. So thank you and Chem for doing
Scott Sorrell (17:48):
It. Yeah. You're very welcome. And, and you say it's the who's who, and it's the future, who's who? Right. It's, I mean, we are having a discussion about that. Some folks that's, uh, gone ahead and now are professors that were students here just not so many years ago. So it's, it's really cool to watch and really, really cool to be a part of it. Jim, welcome. Good to see you. Thanks.
Dr. Jim Aldrich (18:06):
Good. See you.
Scott Sorrell (18:08):
Do you have a favorite?
Dr. Jim Aldrich (18:09):
Well, actually my favorite memories were not the academic part. Uh, they used to have a golf tournament
Scott Sorrell (18:15):
Ah,
Dr. Jim Aldrich (18:15):
Okay. At most ADSAs. I don't know when that ended, but, uh, my good friend, Dr. Chris Canelli, yeah. Uh, who just recently retired Cargill, he and I paired up with, usually paired up with a couple other people, and we were, uh, we might have come in second or third. And so we were both students of Dr. Larry Mueller at Penn State. And because we competed reasonably well, they accused us of really not doing much when we were in grad school, but playing
Scott Sorrell (18:46):
Golf.
Dr. Jim Aldrich (18:46):
Yeah. They had two, two really nice courses. And we did take advantage of that with Dr. Mike Lamore also, by the way. He's the, yeah. Um, so that's my, that's one of my really good memories. Kind of wish they would resurrect that activity. Um, but the best venue that I remember is Montreal. Okay. It just seemed like, you know, certain setups where you're trying to jump from session to session to see certain, um, topics, and you'd miss 'em because you had to walk half a mile to the other side of the convention center to find, to find them. Montreal seemed to be just set up beautiful. And plus, um, I did, I spent a year at McGill University in Montreal. Okay. A long time ago. So I got to revisit the city.
Scott Sorrell (19:31):
Yeah. Nice. Canada's it's kind of a theme so far. So we've had, uh, one of the favorites was now Montreal. We had, uh, Quebec City, uh, which was my favorite idea. That was great.
Dr. Tom Overton (19:41):
Quebec City was a wonderful place.
Scott Sorrell (19:42):
Be was good too. It's beautiful. Just a beautiful week. What, what, 98 degrees out there,
Dr. Tom Overton (19:48):
Yeah. So, so the, I think the other thing happens at ADSA meetings is, is I'm going back to my grad school days again, right. Is you have these formative moments in your career. Right. These moments that make you kind of, and mine happened to be with somebody near and dear to you, Dr. Rick Gruer.
Scott Sorrell (20:01):
Oh, sure.
Dr. Tom Overton (20:02):
And when Rick was at, uh, Wisconsin Madison, I was in graduate school working with Jim Drake Lee. And, uh, we were in a bar. It may have actually been in Oregon, I'm not sure. It might have been. Yeah, it might have been Oregon. And, uh, and you know, Jim introduced me to Rick. I think I'd met Rick before. Right. But Jim introduced me and then, uh, and you know, Rick asked me what I was working on, and of course I launched into the nuts and bolts of what I was doing. Right. And he goes, well, hasn't that been done before? And then he, he goes, well, what was your hypothesis? And that was a, that was a real moment for me because it realized I had to start with kind of the big picture when I talked about what I did, not just simply drill into the weeds. Yeah. Um, and so, you know, we've laughed about that since that time. Right. Yeah. I mean, we get one of those moments where Yeah. You kind of, kind of remember. And every now and then I'll, I'll catch one of my students kind of digging into the, you know, diving into the weeds and it's like, you know,
Scott Sorrell (20:54):
What's your hypothesis?
Dr. Tom Overton (20:54):
Yeah. Time. I don't do it quite like that, but I, but I do do, alright, let's back up here. Yeah. And, uh, talk about it. But yeah, we, we have those, those moments where we meet those that Yeah, we mostly knew through their work.
Scott Sorrell (21:04):
Yeah. Well, there's been a lot of great ones. Yeah. A lot of great ones here tonight. Uh, mark, any any favorite stories you have?
Dr. Mark Hannigan (21:12):
I've got a ton of them.
Scott Sorrell (21:15):
Getting, you can tell
Dr. Mark Hannigan (21:17):
Well, I'll have to choose then.
Scott Sorrell (22:03):
Nice. Nice. So if any of you guys had the bourbons over there yet, uh, done the tasting, you've done it. I, one, I don't have. You just had the one. Okay. You're
Martin Bengtsson (22:11):
Just starting
Scott Sorrell (22:12):
We, we did the tasting just a little while ago, and, uh, so yeah, I was just kind of curious if you guys had a, a favorite yet? What do you got there, Jim? That's, uh, rye. That's Angel. Angel, yeah. Angel. Angel Vy at Rye. That's, it's kind of sweet. Kind of an after dinner. Kind of a bourbon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. Good. We've just been joined by Martin Bankston. Martin, uh, maybe, uh, should let you tell you about yourself, but he's the CFO of Balchem. So guys, we've got, uh, the CFO of Balchem. I want some really tough questions for him, if you don't mind,
Martin Bengtsson (22:49):
Is my, my first ADSA. I've been the CFO for the company for the last six or seven years. So I've looked at, I've recognized your names, but more from the perspective of supporting your, either your university or the studies and the research you're doing. And I hear our animal team talking about you guys. So I've followed you from, from afar for a number of years. Um, and then for the last year, uh, I was moved into also support the animal division in terms of just making sure we're investing enough that we're hiring enough people in the right areas.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (23:22):
No, we're under, we're under pricing and we need more. And
Martin Bengtsson (23:26):
And, and, uh, just me, it's, it's such a fascinating space. So I'm not an animal background person. I'm a typical economics finance growing up in Europe, coming over to the US for university, getting some of that good education that you have over here, uh, and then staying here, sort of the land of opportunities type of story. Um, but it's such a fascinating space, the animal space, because there's so much room for science. And when you look across, I mean, it's, there's always room for, for science, but this is a space where if you, particularly on the dairy side, right, uh, where there's so much further penetration, everyone I talk to has a slightly different view of what's the right way, what's the wrong way, what should come next? What do you do? And that too tells me that there's a lot more work to do to figure out the facts.
Martin Bengtsson (24:16):
If everyone knew exactly all the facts, it would be a pretty good alignment around what works, what doesn't, how does it work, what should you do, et cetera. So I find that an interesting space to invest as a company and, and allocate resources, do resource, uh, support you guys. And, and then if you take a, a step back as a company, we're about 60% human nutrition as a company. And then we have animal nutrition as the second largest segment of, of Alchem. And our mantra is really to make the world a healthier place, right? And make it more sustainable, make it more efficient. Uh, and a lot of the work you guys do fits so well into that of just making it more efficient, more sustainable. How do we continue to feed the world with what we have? We're not gonna have more land, you know, we're not gonna have necessarily more cows out there. Just need 'em to be really productive, really efficient, and how do you do that? Right? And that's sort of where we're putting our money and our resources behind. So it's then, as a cfo, it's a really fascinating space. Uh, and I learned from, you know, the, the people around me, uh, and I'm not an expert. I just ask a lot of questions and try to apply some common sense to what we do next. So that's kind of a little bit my background, and I just
Dr. Tom Overton (25:34):
Do my best. That's great. Right? And you bring fresh eyes, fresh perspective, right? Things like that. You know, I, you can probably sense this is a pretty small community at the end of the day, right? The dairy science community is not a big community. And, and certainly Balkin has been engaged for a long time, you know, not just on the research, right? But all the, all these podcasts and podcasts and activities and things like that. So always trying to have some presence out there, which is great.
Martin Bengtsson (25:57):
It is. And I
Dr. Jim Aldrich (25:58):
Even think, I don't know who came up with these podcasts for Ball Cam, but they've been a tremendous hit, you know, and you got a library now of, remember I was somebody very smart. Remember that podcast that Tom did, you know what? He talked about transition cows. Let's go back and look at that. 'cause he just mentioned certain things that were, you know, of interest to us. So it's really, really been great for the industry. Yeah. I think it further education and Alcam is also, um, very much involved in research, right? Yeah. Just not just product testing, but metabolism of choline and, and methionine and Yeah. And, you know, helping us understand the whole background that not not just, you know, feed choline for ketosis, basically. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, you've gone beyond that.
Martin Bengtsson (26:46):
And what would you like, what would you guys like to see a company like Balkam do more of? I mean, are things that immediately come to mind where you think we could have a bigger impact in the industry and be more helpful?
Dr. Mark Hannigan (26:57):
Well, you know, I think just following up on Jim's comments, I mean, you have invested in some basic idea, you know, product, not products, but, um, you know, basic science stuff. I mean, you, you've invested in our group for quite a number of years and, uh, that leads to more new knowledge, right? If you don't, at some point you run out of things to leverage in the marketplace, you can't like pick up a piece of knowledge that's already there and then get it to the market if you're already tapped everything out. And so I think that's the, probably the horizon is okay, there's, there's still information left on the table that you could probably take and, and market, but there's also gonna have to have more investment in basic research as well.
Dr. Tom Overton (27:40):
Not Kim used to do it. I'm not sure if you guys do it anymore, more of a solicit open solicitation of Yeah. Uh, propo, you know, and that would be maybe a way for you guys, for you to generate, I, or, you know, figure out what the ideas are that are out there, right? And then where you might want us, I don't recall seeing that here in
Scott Sorrell (27:56):
The, we haven't, we, I think we only did that two or three years, but that was a good program when we got some good research started out of that. Yeah. Um, we, we should revisit that again. Yeah.
Martin Bengtsson (28:06):
Because that, that, that may bring it a little more cutting edge on what's on the horizon and what you guys are thinking about for the future.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (28:13):
Well, and you can still target 'em, you know, it's okay. It has to be in this area, you know, and open it up and see who, who has the best idea.
Martin Bengtsson (28:19):
Yeah, I like that idea.
Scott Sorrell (28:21):
Yeah, we did. It was a grant that we, we put out there and we, we, I, I forget how many we got. We got a lot, uh, of research ideas back in and some that we still need to do, honestly. I mean, there's just so many good ones. Yeah. And, and all in all areas that would impact us. So No, that's a, that'd be a good idea.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (28:39):
The advantage of that too is that, you know, of course the environment is very unstable at the moment, but generally we can take and, you know, we can leverage that. You know, we get preliminary data, get A-U-S-D-A grant, drive it, you know, so you get, you get a doubling or a tripling or maybe a quadrupling of your money, a bit of a, in that area. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I can't say that's gonna happen the next year or two.
Martin Bengtsson (29:02):
Yeah. That being said though, I mean, Balam, as you know, is, is more in it for the long term, right? We're not a company that's in and out and back and forth. We're sort of in it for the long term. I mean, we've been around for over 50 years. Uh, we actually, the company was founded around Microencapsulation. That was actually the foundation of, of the company, uh, going back. So we've always been here. We're we're still here and we're still being, you know, successful in what we do. So I think we can almost assume that we will be here for the next 20, 30, 50 years. So we do, we can afford to take a little bit more of a long term perspective as some of these other things.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (29:39):
Well, and certainly you don't wanna put all your eggs in one basket, but, you know, one, one egg in a high risk basket and a couple in the middle and, you
Scott Sorrell (29:46):
Know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Martin, one of the questions we've been asking everybody is, is what is your expectant get out of, uh, this year's a DS and what are you looking forward to most?
Martin Bengtsson (29:57):
The, well, for me personally, it's actually meeting a lot of the people, uh, since I have less experience in this industry than you have. And I don't know all the players, and I haven't really had a chance to hear, you know, meet them and, and hear what they're about and, and so on. So for me personally, that's a big thing coming here. Uh, other, it's, it's really also hearing about where the science is at and, and what's new and upcoming for, I'm more looking forward than, than the past, right? So I'm trying to pick up on the ideas and what's coming next, and how do we get involved in that, and how do we support that? And how do we help, you know, ourselves and the industry being successful. So I'm trying to pick up what's next. Um, and, and you know, I was, I was questioning some folks up here, your answer, well, what would you really like to feed? But you, you're not feeding it today because it's either not really available or it's too expensive, or you sort of, but you're sort of have this feeling that I'd love to do it if I could. It's just not really commercially available at the moment. And ideas like that, so that we know also where to put some of our internal r and d money of what to be ready for. Um, so looking for, for ideas, essentially of, of what's next.
Scott Sorrell (31:15):
Any ideas?
Dr. Mark Hannigan (31:18):
Well, I mean, you've, again, you've put quite a bit of money into our group, and, and part of that's been direct to that, you know, testing and screening for, you know, for your products, but also you've, all the way along from the very beginning, you, we said, okay, we need amino acid X protected 'cause we need to do a big enough trial and we can't infuse all this stink stuff. And you've always been willing to come forward and do that. And I know that as a cost for you that, that we don't see directly, you know? And so, you know, I think those kind of projects, you know, make a big impact because, you know, there's only, I can only do like six or eight cows in fusions. Okay. I can't get, I can't do all 10 amino acids and figure them all out that way. I have to have some way to, to do it easier and more rapidly. And your guys' effort has, you know, provided that for
Martin Bengtsson (32:05):
Us. Absolutely. And I know you have some important work coming up actually as well. Well,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (32:11):
We, like, we always would tell you, we have important work. So
Martin Bengtsson (32:17):
Next year.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (32:17):
I'll tell you, we revisit that next year, and then you can see
Martin Bengtsson (32:19):
How important. Yeah. I, I, I will tell you, as a finance background, there is usually a right or a wrong answer to any question if you come from a finance background, because it, it tends to be math, right? And there's, there's a right and there's a wrong, and you can usually measure it, calculate it, and there's an answer. Um, and things are a little different in this world because sometimes just the ability to truly measure the results is, is so challenging, right? And there's so many variables of how do you control all the variables so that, you know, when you change one, what was the real impact? And obviously we're, we're trying to do some of that work here coming up. Uh, and, and for someone like me, that can be a bit frustrating because you sort of wanna control the variables. That's how you operated in your background. And here you can't do that. So you try to just eliminate as many as you can and support work that makes it more factual and, and more measurable. Because we sort of do think that if we could properly measure things, then we could do better work, come up with better products and be more successful. So that, that's a little bit
Dr. Mark Hannigan (33:22):
The background. That's been a, that's a challenge in animal science. I mean, we still largely use a lot of the old techniques that we used to use. We've got all these omic things that we're still trying to figure out how do we sort through all of this stuff, you know, and see if it makes sense. But no one really wants to fund development of techniques. It's laborious, it's time consuming, it's expensive, and you get done. You don't really have this sexy paper to go publish. Okay?
Scott Sorrell (34:34):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (34:36):
I mean, if you, if you want data that has plus or minus 25% air, no problem. We can generate that
Scott Sorrell (34:42):
Well, not having the right, uh, uh, assays leads you to the wrong conclusions. Right? It, it's like having
Dr. Mark Hannigan (34:48):
A, you, you missed stuff. You, you
Scott Sorrell (34:50):
Know, you having a map, uh, wanting to navigate New York and having a map of Philadelphia, it's giving you the wrong answer. It's gonna lead you astray. So, good conversations. Dr. Turner Swartz is joining us as is, uh, Dr. Barry Bradford. Guys, welcome. Uh, we're celebrating the ADSA here at the, uh, the Bourbon and brainiacs. So it looks like we got a full house out there.
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:12):
You ran outta brainiacs
Scott Sorrell (35:15):
Plenty of brainiacs. I'm just worried about the bourbon
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:22):
Nope. I started with an old fashioned, okay.
Scott Sorrell (35:24):
That's, that's not a bad
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:26):
Start work up to straight bourbon.
Scott Sorrell (35:28):
Wasn't a Brandy Old Fashioned then?
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:30):
No, no. I think they used Old Forester.
Scott Sorrell (35:33):
Okay. So
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:33):
Just, you know, you don't want to take a hundred, $200 bourbon to mix in an old, old fashioned,
Scott Sorrell (35:39):
Uh, you know, I've, I don't know if I've ever had an old fashioned, but a lot of the people that come on the podcast, that's what they, they end up having. So, uh, Turner, what do you have in there?
Dr. Turner Swartz (35:47):
Oh, this is just rum and coat
Scott Sorrell (35:49):
Rum and coat rum. You're a bourbon. And granny, actually,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (35:52):
It's like that much rum and that much
Scott Sorrell (35:54):
We should have had that. Turner
Dr. Barry Bradford (35:56):
Thinks for himself,
Scott Sorrell (35:59):
We should have rules for something.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (36:00):
He thinks he's in the Caribbean.
Scott Sorrell (36:04):
Uh, talking a lot about, uh, you know, what, what makes the ADSA special, uh, for, for each of you guys and what some favorite stories and, and, and those kinds of things. Turner, I know when I first met you, you were a student here, and now you're a professor. And so do you have a favorite A DSA that you've been to?
Dr. Turner Swartz (36:24):
Um, well, my first ADSA would've been in 2009. Um, but my favorite would probably be 2017. I was a PhD student at Virginia Tech, and I was coaching our quiz ball team, and they actually won the contest. Wow. Nice. So that probably would've been my favorite, particularly because I was on the quiz ball team as an undergrad, and we won the contest, and then I got to beat my Alma Ma group.
Scott Sorrell (36:49):
Okay.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (37:00):
We do. Okay. We can't, we can't beat Cornell very often,
Scott Sorrell (37:07):
Tom, are you involved in coaching those? I am
Dr. Tom Overton (37:08):
Not. I have nothing to do with it. So
Dr. Mark Hannigan (37:11):
I think that on, on Dairy Challenge, they've had a, a woman that's a, you know, more of an economist, and now we have the same, and I think we're actually doing better, I guess,
Scott Sorrell (37:19):
Yeah. I think that makes a big difference. Right? They're looking
Dr. Mark Hannigan (37:21):
At that. Everyone does all the other stuff. Whoever can do the economics correctly, that's the team that wins. Yeah,
Scott Sorrell (37:27):
Yeah. Yeah. It kind of depends on who the judges are, right? If you've got a bunch of industry folks, they wanna see the economics. So, Barry, how many, how many a essays have you been to?
Dr. Barry Bradford (37:39):
Probably 22 or 23, something like that. I came in 2001 for the first time as an undergrad.
Scott Sorrell (37:45):
Okay. Yep. And where was your first one?
Dr. Barry Bradford (37:47):
Indianapolis.
Scott Sorrell (37:49):
Okay. Yep. That's where I met Tom Overton at Indy. Okay. We've told that story a couple times. The legend grows each time the home run gets hit farther. Tom, he, as the,
Dr. Tom Overton (38:01):
As the bourbon glass gets full, it
Scott Sorrell (38:03):
Gets fuller. Did they, do they still play softball at these things? I, I see. They had a fun run. I don't think so, but
Dr. Barry Bradford (38:12):
Yeah, the fun run went away for a while, but somebody resurrected it the last few years, which is good. But no, I haven't, I don't think I've ever heard of a softball thing at these.
Scott Sorrell (38:20):
Yeah,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (38:21):
I think it was one Those was on campuses. Okay.
Scott Sorrell (38:23):
Yeah. Well tell about the home run you hit Tom. That
Dr. Tom Overton (38:26):
Was, that was one and done.
Scott Sorrell (38:28):
Dr. Tom Overton (38:29):
The only one in my life.
Scott Sorrell (38:31):
He strutted around the bases he should have seen. I don't think I, I don't think,
Dr. Tom Overton (38:34):
I don't think there
Dr. Mark Hannigan (38:35):
Are any strutting involved
Scott Sorrell (38:37):
Dr. Mark Hannigan (38:37):
Like a panicked, uh,
Scott Sorrell (38:39):
Panicked dash. Oh, no, that, that was a good, I, I remember those days. Uh, Barry, do you have a favorite? ADSA you've been to? Yeah,
Dr. Barry Bradford (38:49):
I can't remember if it was maybe 2005 or six, but it was in, uh, Minneapolis. Okay. And, uh, I don't know why it was my favorite other than I have a, a memory of, uh, one of the nights that week. The weather was just perfect. You know, we were a little farther north. It was a good week, and we found this bar that had lawn bowling on the roof. And, um, we did that for like two or three hours.
Scott Sorrell (39:11):
Oh, how you sat that one,
Dr. Barry Bradford (39:12):
You know, you get to really know people. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun. You're outdoors. So I, I forgot about that. That was one my favorite memories about that. Yeah. Mojito Oba and Greg Penner and some other good people. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (39:22):
Ah, cool. No, I remember that one. I was at that one I didn't remember. It was in Minneapolis.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (39:27):
So if we, if we loop back to the comments that were being made be before by Tom, you know, I, it was the same for me. You know, when you go to meetings, you see all these big name people and, and you know that you've been reading their papers, and all of a sudden you see, okay, yeah, they're there, you know,
Scott Sorrell (40:01):
Know, it's like, you know, I think we're going through a phase like that now. Right. A lot of the big names of recently retired, getting ready to retire. There's
Dr. Mark Hannigan (40:09):
No one's coming.
Scott Sorrell (40:10):
Yeah. No, there are some great news coming.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (40:13):
Barry Barry's not ready to retire
Scott Sorrell (40:14):
Yet. No. He's one of the up and comers
Dr. Barry Bradford (40:16):
Some days I feel ready.
Scott Sorrell (40:16):
Him and Tom. No.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (40:18):
Oh, that, that, that means you got 20 years yet Turner's the up and comer sitting here.
Dr. Turner Swartz (40:22):
So I can remember when I saw Barry for the first time and I was like, I wanna work for that guy. And I regret it ever since.
Dr. Barry Bradford (40:33):
The feeling's. Mutual
Dr. Barry Bradford (40:37):
No, I remember though, like when I came as an undergrad and, uh, I was working in Don Bite's lab and, you know, I just remember, I, I wasn't like around him all the time, but when I was, it was like, man, like every person he walks past he's talking to, this is wild. And it's like, you know, that would never be me. And now it's kind of, and it's, that's what I really enjoy the most. Like, of course, you learn some new things, and of course I enjoy that, but especially with podcasts and stuff now, and yeah. The many different ways to get information, um, it's, it's not as exclusive a way to learn what's going on as it used to be. Right. But it's, the people still matters a lot. Right. And when you get into science, you can think this is all very empirical. This is, you know, it's just about the data. It's not, and, and I say that in a positive way, right? It's still about the people and the relationships, and that's how you come up with new ideas, interacting with people and collaborating. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (41:25):
We're gonna be doing a legacy series with, uh, uh, Don Bytes, uh, this week. Good. He's there, there's a symposia for him, and then we're gonna gonna get the whole group together and have a discussion. So, yeah. That's great. That'll be a lot of fun. I don't know that I've met him, but he's another one of those names. You
Dr. Mark Hannigan (41:41):
Wouldn't forget him if you met him.
Scott Sorrell (41:42):
Yeah. Is that
Dr. Barry Bradford (41:43):
Right? No, he doesn't do like a lot of industry conference speaking. I mean, his, his research was so broad. He'd do like rabbit cholesterol studies and, you know, so he wasn't as applied as some people. But, um, yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (41:56):
Good deal. So anything that you guys are looking forward to at this coming conference that, uh, you've got kind of starred that you're gonna go to?
Dr. Barry Bradford (42:06):
Well, one thing that I think is kind of neat is, uh, I know the journal specifically put together a special issue that came out in January and that they were planning to collaborate with the meeting and from the beginning. So they've got a, I don't think they've ever done this before, but they've, there's a whole special issue of JDS on, uh, feed additives for methane inhibition. And then they're having symposium linked to that issue. Okay. Um, which is kind of neat. So people had the time to already think through really carefully their topic and they had their paper written probably a year ago. Okay. And now they're gonna come talk about it. So I think that'll be kind of neat. And that's not my main forte, but I'm gonna try to see some of that, I think. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (42:43):
Yeah. There's a lot of money being spent on meth there Yeah. On mitigation these days. A lot of papers on that. Um, yeah. So I think we're gonna, we're gonna get a couple podcasts done on those as well. Yeah. Tom, anything you're looking forward
Dr. Tom Overton (42:56):
To? Yeah, I think for me it's, you know, about, you know, young, younger researchers there, groups and things like that. I mean, Turner's one of those, you know what, what he and his group are up to, uh, Jackie Borman from Purdue. I look at her across the room right here. So it's, um, it's always really interesting for me to, to get a sense for what they're thinking and they're up to with their, with their
Scott Sorrell (43:15):
Groups. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I just remember what I was gonna ask you guys before anybody here, uh, log some time at Wisconsin? No, I, I should have got it with, when, when Jima was here. One of the things is the Wisconsin breakfast, and I kind of wanna know what the history of that thing is. So what, we'll have to wait until we get something from Wisconsin here.
Dr. Tom Overton (43:37):
Well back, you know, I, I'm not from Wisconsin, but I know people from Wisconsin. Right. So
Dr. Barry Bradford (43:40):
He might have attended one or two
Dr. Tom Overton (43:41):
Of these. Yeah. One or two. Yeah. It's
Scott Sorrell (43:44):
Dr. Tom Overton (43:45):
You know, it's, it was always, again, from my recollection anyway, and this was something where, of course I had some, uh, fellow grad students who were from Wisconsin and did their undergrads at Wisconsin or other things there. And so, you know, I got pulled into the, pulled into that. And so, you know, back in the day it was, you know, people like, uh, Gruer and Normano and, and Randy Shaver, they would, they would basically find a bar and it was all very kind of word of mouth that, hey, the Wisconsin breakfast is gonna be, and always everybody was always like, Hey, where's, where's breakfast gonna be this year? And uh, it was,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (44:18):
It was almost like a speakeasy. You had to know somebody that knows somebody
Dr. Barry Bradford (44:21):
And at one point you couldn't even text it to people. Right. You had to actually talk to them. The
Dr. Tom Overton (44:25):
Barrier venture is pretty low, so as long as you knew where it was,
Dr. Mark Hannigan (44:29):
Well that was a big barrier, you
Dr. Tom Overton (44:30):
Know, so, so, but, uh, and, and again, I think, you know, it's a little more formalized now and things like that, but, uh, but again, it's still an interesting, interesting place that kind of brings people together. Just like your, just like your event does Yeah. Here
Scott Sorrell (44:43):
Tonight. So they stayed up for breakfast, is that the deal? That
Dr. Tom Overton (44:46):
Was, that was my understanding is that it went, it went until breakfast and therefore that was why it was called the
Dr. Mark Hannigan (44:51):
Wisconsin branch. There was a lot of bleary-eyed people the next morning.
Scott Sorrell (44:54):
Yeah. Yeah. That didn't show up till the conference.
Dr. Mark Hannigan (44:56):
They were late and they didn't look very good.
Scott Sorrell (45:00):
Very well, Adam. Good to see you sir. Welcome, uh, to the Real Science Exchange. The, uh, bourbon and Brainiac style, huh? Oh,
Dr. Adam Lock (45:08):
The bourbon at least. So,
Scott Sorrell (45:10):
Yeah. Have you had some bourbon so far? Yeah,
Dr. Adam Lock (45:11):
I've got an old fashioned right now.
Scott Sorrell (45:12):
You've got an old fashioned now. Have you, have you had a chance to, to taste all three of them over there?
Dr. Adam Lock (45:17):
That's next on the list.
Scott Sorrell (45:18):
That's next on the list. Alright. Should have gotten you after that. You might have been a little more, uh, talkative. Oh yeah.
Dr. Adam Lock (45:25):
It tends to happen that way.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (45:26):
Dr. Adam Lock (45:27):
I'm shy and reserved normally.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (45:30):
Scott Sorrell (45:33):
So what's in, what's in your old fashioned? Which one?
Dr. Adam Lock (45:36):
I don't know. The guy made it for me and I gave him the drinks ticket
Dr. Goeff Dahl (45:39):
So
Dr. Adam Lock (45:40):
He's very nice. Very nice. Yes,
Scott Sorrell (45:41):
They are. Yeah. Dr. Jeff Dahl's gonna be joining us here. Welcome. So, Hey Scott. It's, it, it's it cooler here than Florida.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (45:51):
It is actually warmer here,
Scott Sorrell (46:03):
Yeah.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (46:05):
It's hot out there. And even on the adjustment for, uh, humidity, it was three or four degrees worse here.
Scott Sorrell (46:12):
Yeah.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (46:13):
Which is unusual. Yeah.
Dr. Adam Lock (46:15):
Well, it's not, it's nineties in England right now. There's
Scott Sorrell (46:18):
Wave there. Is that right? Wow. No, I've, I've been looking for some heat. I didn't want it quite this hot, but in, in the Pocono Mountains, we've, we've still been in the thirties as early as two weeks ago. Shees, yeah. High thirties, but still that's just cold. That's just wrong. And I've been wanting spring and well, I miss spring over the summer. Well, you, you got it
Dr. Goeff Dahl (46:37):
Now buddy.
Scott Sorrell (46:40):
Uh, we're having a conversation today to just kind of celebrate the A DSA, all that it means to us. Uh, what has it meant to us? What's the future look like? And so, um, but you and Adam are kind of the, the two newcomers to, to the, uh, uh, forum here. Tell us about maybe some of your favorite, a DSAs that you've been to. Got any favorite stories Good, funny stories on maybe somebody that's here at the, uh, at the event.
Dr. Adam Lock (47:06):
Not here. My very first ADSA was 2002 in Quebec.
Scott Sorrell (47:11):
Okay.
Dr. Adam Lock (47:12):
It's probably one of my favorite. And
Scott Sorrell (47:13):
That's one of your first that
Dr. Adam Lock (47:14):
It was my first. Okay. First time to the US and Canada. So, but, uh, my friend George Mann and I were coming over for the conference and we worked out that if we shared at the Chateau Deac, we, it would be about the same cost if we had our own rooms at the conference, hotel. So we lived it up
Scott Sorrell (47:31):
Yeah. That
Dr. Adam Lock (47:31):
Week. And uh, it was a beautiful place.
Scott Sorrell (47:34):
Yeah. That's where we stayed as well. Yeah. That, that was, yeah. Yeah, it was good fun. I think that's one of the favorites. Yeah. I don't know. Do we know anybody that's, uh, on the committee? Maybe we can get back there sometime.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (47:44):
I think they looked at it when we looked at Ottawa. Yeah. You'd have to talk to the board.
Scott Sorrell (47:53):
Yeah.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (47:54):
Um, Quebec, you know, the limitation there was that it was a little more difficult to get to.
Scott Sorrell (48:00):
Yeah. Uh,
Dr. Goeff Dahl (48:02):
And even Ottawa, some people might have PTSD about travel. Uh, so
Scott Sorrell (48:11):
We had a discussion with Bill Weiss about that he was stuck in Newark
Dr. Adam Lock (48:21):
Catching up with people mostly. Yeah. People are not seen for a while, so
Scott Sorrell (48:25):
Everybody's here. I think everybody's here tonight. Yeah. No,
Dr. Adam Lock (48:27):
You got good, good turnout. It's a great
Scott Sorrell (48:28):
Place. Can't believe this. It's a great crowd.
Dr. Barry Bradford (48:30):
What about the new applied, uh, nutrition day? I mean, we should talk about that a little
Dr. Adam Lock (48:35):
Bit. Yeah, I mean that's, uh, something that Mike Vander Hass spearheaded as president this year, hoping to try and get more, um, applied or field nutritionist to come in. So they designed, uh, two sessions, the first session tomorrow morning's on High Lake soybeans that we just spoke about, and I think we'll do a podcast soon about, um, so they got three or four speakers coming into that. And then tomorrow afternoon it's one, uh, focused on milk fat on the applied side. So I'm speaking and, uh, van Amberg is speaking as well. And then Normand Spire is, uh, doing more of an economic outlook. So it'd be a lot of fun with, with Normand there as well. So
Scott Sorrell (49:12):
Do you have a feeling, do we know if we've gotten more, uh, consulting nutritionist to come in for that? Yeah,
Dr. Adam Lock (49:17):
I don't know. I'd have to ask Mike that. So yeah, I, I don't know, but I mean, it should be, I think it should be a fun session.
Scott Sorrell (49:23):
Yeah. Uh, either way.
Dr. Adam Lock (49:24):
So, um, there's a lot of good posters tomorrow morning. There's, uh, you know, of course I, I look at certain ones and other people look at other sessions, right. So, yeah. But um, yeah, that, I think that applied session, hopefully that is something that can continue.
Scott Sorrell (49:38):
I think it's one of those things, right? You gotta continue to do it for a while. So that just kinda gets a repetition. People know it's gonna happen. They start looking forward to it and, and, and to come, because that's one of the things we've noticed. I mean, this is a great, great, uh, forum for the ade academic world, but we don't get a lot of those practicing nutritionists that they really need to be here to, to be real honest with you. But it just doesn't seem like, uh, they wanna spend time here.
Dr. Adam Lock (50:05):
Yeah. Well, you'll see a lot of the new ideas, new insights a couple years earlier than, or maybe longer sometimes, particularly
Dr. Barry Bradford (50:12):
The consulting groups, if they have a couple people designated as, as the technical resource people. Yeah, for sure. They should be here, right? Yeah. The ROA on, that's clear, I think. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (50:21):
Yeah.
Dr. Goeff Dahl (50:22):
It's also interesting, the, uh, I would say that many of the grad students who are here tonight, right, are gonna be moving into some of those positions working with some of those groups and those companies. And so why is it that there would be a drop off, right? I think they find great value in coming to these meetings. So maybe that's something that we need to do more of now is emphasizing sort of that continuing education. And it's not just about, you know, getting CEUs from some organization, but it's about coming back and seeing where things are going from a scientific perspective and how that might fit into your portfolio.
Dr. Adam Lock (50:59):
And I think the other side of that is they might give us ideas Yeah. To look at as well. I mean, that's some of the, the most fun things I've done the last few years have been questions coming straight from the, from the field and that we didn't have answers for. So, you know, so,
Scott Sorrell (51:16):
Well listen, this has been, this has been enjoyable. This has been a lot of fun. I need some more bourbon. So I am gonna call, I'm gonna call la It's not gonna be last call. It's gonna be, uh, a bourbon call. And, uh, so I wanna want to thank you guys for joining us here tonight. It's been a lot of fun. Got a bunch of great people join us here. Hope you guys enjoyed it out there because I, I certainly have. I hope you learned something. I hope you had some fun and I hope to see you next time here at Real Science Exchange, where it's always happy hour and you're always among friends.
Speaker 14 (51:48):
We'd love to hear your comments or ideas for topics and guests. So please reach out via email@anh.marketing at balchem.com with any suggestions and we'll work hard to add them to the schedule. Don't forget to leave a five star rating on your way out. You can request your Real Science Exchange t-shirt in just a few easy steps, just like or subscribe to the Real Science Exchange. And send us a screenshot along with your address and t-shirt size to anh.marketing at balchem.com. Balchem’s real science lecture series of webinars takes place on the first Tuesday of every month with the top research and nutrition topics that will impact your business. We also include small ruminant, monogastric, and companion animal focused topics throughout the year. Visit balchem.com/realscience to see the upcoming topics and to register for future webinars. You can also access past webinars and search for the topics most important to you.