Ani-Logics Update

On this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan talks with Tim Neuman from Ani-Logics about all their new products. Tim kicks off the show by explaining his new role in the company as the Director of Operation and how it's different than his old job as the resident wildlife biologist. Tim talks about the growth the company has gone through since the last time he was on the podcast. Tim breaks down the different categories of products that they offer had how the benefit a deers health. Mineral, attractants, feed, and food plot seed are all products that Ani-logics offers. Tons of great information on this episode, enjoy!  

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Hunting Gear podcast. I'm your host, Dan Johnson, and today on this episode, we're gonna be talking with Tim Newman of analogs. Now, if you don't know what analog. Is it is a mineral feed attractant company, and this is outside of your [00:01:00] typical hunting gear type products.

We're not talking about broadheads or camo. We're talking about supplements and mineral and things deer consume or, even food plot seed, right? We didn't really get too much into food plot seed today. We talk about their product line, how they introduce new products, and how they know what becomes popular and things like that.

And actually Tim is a wildlife biologist, so he. Has a good insight of what makes deer healthy and how they tie that into their product line. So there's several products in there that actually do benefit deer's health. They've take, they've done studies, liver studies, and you're gonna hear all about that today.

So it's a really good episode. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. Before we get into today's episode, though I gotta do the commercials and if you're looking for a saddle, you gotta go check out tethered website. Tethered is a saddle company that makes badass equipment. I've played [00:02:00] around with it this first year.

I, I tagged out fairly quickly this year, so I didn't get to hunt out of a saddle as much as I would like. So this year I'll be going on a couple out of. Whitetail hunts where I will be taking advantage of a saddle big time and running gun style and being mobile. And really that's what hunting out of a saddle is all about.

It lightens the load. It allows you to become extremely mobile. So tethered offers, platforms, saddles climbing sticks, saddle hunting accessories, and has some of the best knowledge base on their website and YouTube channel. In regards to anything saddle. So if you're looking to become a better saddle hunter, go check out some of their content tethered nation.com.

Go check it out. Tons of great info coming out of there. And then the next on the list is HuntStand. If you wanna be more present in the woods or present, like with your mind, just thinking about deer hunting more, and the more time you spend [00:03:00] thinking about deer hunting the. Prepared you will be for the upcoming season, right?

So the day before the hunt, you don't really have to do too much thinking about it because you've been present in hunting and looking at the ground and eess scouting and journaling your data that you found, when scouting pre-season and when shed hunting and collecting information from the previous year.

It's all really all these little reference points and the reference points tell a. Data tells the story of where deer tend to travel, where a specific bucks core area is, and you can document all of that on HuntStand. On top of that, HuntStand has awesome up-to-date satellite imagery and in my opinion, compared to some of the other other hunting apps out there, it offers probably the best satellite imagery as far as being able to zoom in on detail.

On the new farm that I got this year, I was able to zoom in all the way on specific [00:04:00] trails going through c r p. And that told me, Hey, deer are coming out of this spot right here. And that's where I set up . And it allows you to just get into the details on top of that. HuntStand has just introduced their new pro whitetail platform.

It's a little bit of an upgrade, but it offers so much more functionality for the hardcore whitetail hunter. Go check it out. huntstand.com. And the last but not least, tact cam if you are looking for a, an action camera to mount to your bow or your shotgun. And Turkey season's right around the corner and I've seen some pretty cool footage.

Guys Turkey hunting with a Tcam. Tcam has just introduced their new 6.0 version, and on this 6.0 version, it has image stabilization. It has an LCD screen, and it has the ability to record in 4k. And so what this allows you to do, really crisp, really clean footage that you [00:05:00] can take back. And hell, if a lot of guys are documenting their hunts now on YouTube or just sharing it with.

Friends, families, kids, things like that. So go check out tact cam's website and check out the 6.0 man. So there we go. Those are the commercials. Huge. Shout out to all the partners of this podcast. Huge shout. Shout out to Tim for taking time. Huge shout out to all of you for taking time outta your day to download and listen, please go to iTunes, leave a five star review.

That really helps me on the hunting. Side of things, please subscribe to not only this podcast, but there's so much more content@sportsmansempire.com where all of our podcasts are held. Go check that out. And last but not least, I say this on the Nine Finger Chronicles side, but I don't necessarily say it hear a lot, but it's all about life is all about good vibes.

Good vibes in, good vibes out. And let's get to today's.

All right on the Hunting Gear Podcast [00:06:00] with me today, Mr. Tim Newman of analogs. Tim, man, it's been a while. 

[00:06:05] Tim Neuman: It has. Long time. No, no talk on podcast. 

[00:06:08] Dan Johnson: I know. And a lot has changed and we will get into that here with your role at analogs, what you do and especially the company as a whole.

But before we get into all that, we gotta talk about probably what's the most important thing, and then how was your 2022 hunting? . 

[00:06:27] Tim Neuman: I knew you were gonna ask that. And it was a rough one for me. I did get some meat in the freezer. I got two doughs. Awesome. So I'm set there. I got my good, free range nutrients and protein, but I missed a buck on October 27th.

That is probably one of the biggest bucks in southwest Minnesota. Dang probab. Probably a one 60. He's a. . He's got eight points on his left and he's just four on his right, but he's got a double main beam and like a 10 inch brow tie. Yeah. And I had this deer at what I later found out was 38 [00:07:00] yards and I made the rookie mistake of not ranging him before the shot, and I thought he was 30 and I sailed it right underneath him.

Oh man. 

[00:07:10] Dan Johnson: That happened to 

[00:07:10] Tim Neuman: me this year too. It was one of those deals where I, he was, And I had to give him that ramp to get him to stop. And he lifted his head up, like he was fully alert. So I aimed bottom third thinking he was gonna duck a little bit. He didn't duck an inch. Yeah. And he would've taken that arrow like a champ.

Yeah. But . So it was basically a double miss because I aimed a little low and my yardage was off, so it sailed right underneath him. Yeah. And he lived to see another day. Yeah. So good news is though, what's keeping. From losing sleep. Is that deer's still alive? Oh baby. He is healthy. It's the middle of the winter right now, but he's looking fat and happy and I've been feeding him.

So I am really looking forward that this next year he keeps that double main beam, cuz you know, sometimes those oddities, they'll lose 'em. Yeah. And [00:08:00] sometimes they'll keep 'em. 

[00:08:03] Dan Johnson: But yeah, that's fine. Yeah. I tell you what man, that it could be really big. Don, make be a blessing that I missed you.

Yeah. Don't feel too bad because I, one of the first nights at this new farm that I had this beautiful, I'm gonna put 'em at three or four. All right. I later found out he was a three-year-old, just cuz I had more time to observe him. But it was a brand new farm. First time this buck ever showed up.

He looked like a four-year-old that night anyway. And so I had him at 28 yards and then he went around to Bush. And so here I am, like clipping into my D loop taking it off, trying to range him. And he doesn't, he's not, he's he's not walking a straight line. He's zig. . And so finally he stopped, I drew back.

, and I guessed exact same thing. I guessed him at about 30 and he was more like 36 or something like that. And so my arrow went right underneath of him. Two times. I got two shots at him. . So I [00:09:00] missed, I missed him two times. And so I'll admit one. One, miss. Two misses embarrassing.

, so I've pretty much shared an embarrassing short story in front of all these people. But the good thing about it is, yeah, that's the best of us. Yeah, just like yours, that deer made it through the season. I have trail camera pictures of him post, post hunting season here in Iowa and I'm looking forward to seeing what he turns into next year.

Man, hopefully your big boy drops the sheds on the properties that you hunt and you get a crack at him.

Yeah. 

[00:09:34] Tim Neuman: I already know the big side, the main beam side was found by a neighbor. Oh, okay. But he did let me get my hands on it, so I got to feel it. And, it's big. Yeah. Yeah. It was like just shy of 77 inches on that one side. That's 

[00:09:49] Dan Johnson: awesome. So that's 

[00:09:50] Tim Neuman: awesome. He's. Five and a half inch bases and like a 10 inch brow tie and this 11 inch extra main beam.

So 

[00:09:58] Dan Johnson: yeah, for sure. [00:10:00] Okay, there's always next season. Exactly. There's always next season. So let's talk a little bit about logics and what you're doing there. Now. The last time we talked, you were a wildlife biologist for the company. Talk to us about your new. And how life's changed for you and what you do in 

[00:10:21] Tim Neuman: analogs.

Okay. So when I started at analogs as the wildlife biologist basically my role was to focus on the health side of the equation and also the attraction. So I was doing things like trail cam studies. I put one, one product on one side of the frame and then another product on the other. And then I would count the number of deer that come into each.

And I would switch up locations. I would switch up the pile, so if there was an effect of a flavor that it was truly legitimate. So I would also manage the owner's properties, planting food plots and habitat management. And now I've been promoted to the [00:11:00] director of operations. So now I'm in charge of all the customer support staff.

I'm in charge of the warehouse staff. And then I also work closely with the marketing team. Keep this company on the forefront of everyone's minds when they're thinking about herd health and ways that they can maximize their property to benefit deer. Gotcha. Gotcha. When I started, we also, we had three products.

We had a granular mineral, we had one flavor of attractant and we had a protein feed. And now I think we're up to 87 different items. . So it's grown exponentially since I got on. And a lot of that is, through our flavor trials and like things that work good, there's a lot that didn't make it to the, there's a lot on the cutting room floor in terms of items, but if it doesn't work, we're not gonna put it out there.

[00:11:48] Dan Johnson: And so your whole. Do you miss the the job as the wildlife biologist, or do you get to still dive into that area of work?[00:12:00] 

[00:12:00] Tim Neuman: I miss being able to have the time that I did to focus on the deer. Like I, I used to know every single. At every site, and I could tell you which direction they were coming from.

And now, like I, I'm getting to my sites way less often, so now it's a longer soak. So I've got more pictures, to, to compile. And I used to do like a minute or 30 seconds between pictures. Now I'm running like five minutes between pictures because I know that I don't have the time in the day to go through that many pictures, so I'm like forcing myself to take in less data.

Yeah. So I get you. But it's still it there, there's still an impact of the data. It's just not as much, sample size as there used to be. But yeah I wish that my phone wouldn't ring as often as it does . Like people trying to get my freight business, Hey, do you need some truckload freight today?

And it's I don't wanna talk about freight. Yeah. I 

[00:12:53] Dan Johnson: wanna talk about big box man. cool. Everybody does. Yep. But you know what this has done is it's , it sounds like [00:13:00] it's just made you more in tune with the business side of things. 

[00:13:04] Tim Neuman: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. When I went to college and there was never a talk about margins or anything like that, it was just, Yeah.

Very technical based. Yeah. And now it's technical mixed with real life. Yeah. 

[00:13:17] Dan Johnson: Absolutely. All right. So you're in a new role, and this is perfect because the perfect transition here is, the company you said when it started out had three and now it has all these different man.

Talk to us. Let's just give me a list right now of the categories. And what I mean by that is We have D feed and mineral and those types of categories. Yep. Walk us through all of, all those categories. Just list them out for us. 

[00:13:45] Tim Neuman: I'll break it down into four different categories and this is what we call our like retail wall.

And each of these would be like their own individual four foot section. Gotcha. So the first one would be the analogs legacy. Products, which [00:14:00] is like the originals. The first protein feed, the anti supplement gold, the first granular mineral, that's mineral Dirt 180, and then the bragging rights attractant.

And then we've also got the liquids in the legacy. As far as the bragging rights, we've got sweet corn, apple mineral dirt, and then we've got the blocks, the protein, and the anti mineral. And then next we made the crush. Line up. So the crush is, the signature of Lee and Tiffany and that comes in four different ways to be fed.

That comes in a brick, a liquid, a granular, and a protein block. Then the third of the four would be the Black Ops line up, and the Black Ops is anything that was designed to. Hidden where you're feeding, or in places where it may be frowned upon by the establishment to use any feeder minerals. The black ops is, like covert [00:15:00] can get a deer fed without a lot of people known about it.

Cuz like the granular looks a lot like dirt. . So that was the idea behind the black ops line. And then the seeds of science would be the fourth category. And that's, the whole runs the whole gamut of the food plot side of the world. So anywhere that feed and minerals cannot be used, food plots can.

And we've got everything from annuals to perennials to screens, you name it. And. The best product out of all the food plots right now is the one we call the perfect 10. And that's basically a mixture between, your oats, winter wheat cereal rye, and there's turnips, radishes, Austrian winter peas, crimson clover in there.

So it's like a little bit of everything that deer like. Gotcha. And we've expanded all of these lines. They started. One or two products, and now they're filling a four foot shelf individually. So to recap, we've got the [00:16:00] legacy items, we've got the crush, we've got Black Ops, and then Seeds of Science.

Gotcha. 

[00:16:05] Dan Johnson: Okay. Now going from three to however many you have now, it sounds like there's a ton of 'em. Talk to us. When you guys sit around the table and you start having these discussions on what product to bring to the market next like what is the new product? What kind of information or research do you guys do that helps you make that decision that says, okay, we wanna bring a different kind of mineral block to the market this year?

Or we wanna bring a different seed mixture or a different. Liquid or whatever the case may be. How does that decision get made? 

[00:16:43] Tim Neuman: It's, it starts with all of us using the products and finding out, like in the early days when we just had three flavors, it was acorn, apple, and chestnut on the attractants, I would say that Apple was the best.

But then I got a pro staffer [00:17:00] down in Nebraska that says, oh no it's Acorn. Definitely. And like another guy down. Kentucky says, while that chestnut's actually working the best for me, so then we, through this network of, people testing across the nation, like there is no a hundred percent deer herd that only likes that one flavor that's in one area.

It's different across the entire us. So like we needed the other flavors in the lineup because geographically they're d. And I equate that to you know how southerners just have different food tastes than we do up here in the Midwest? Yep. Like deer are no different. They have different taste profiles, and we wanna be able to say that we can get a deer happy anywhere within their range.

So we, we started testing, the different flavors and basically had to narrow it down to the five that we chose for the crush based on what the deer liked the most in [00:18:00] different areas. , even though we don't have persimmon here in Minnesota, deer will still eat persimmon. It's just not as much as they would in Mississippi, because there's those deer naturally around persimmon trees and know that scent.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just been an evolution of adding a little bit of flavors here and there and also looking at the market, there, there's a lot of other different flavors out there. , but I feel like we've hit the Mount Rushmore of flavors, we hit the main ones. Yeah. Because that's what the deer like the most.

[00:18:35] Dan Johnson: Gotcha, gotcha. And are you guys still making your decisions based off of those trail camera studies and how many deer come to those piles? 

[00:18:43] Tim Neuman: Yep. And we'll get, people to say, you have to try this. And we'll say we got a pretty. Line up already, but we'll give a shot.

And there was some times where we were surprised by a flavor, and that's actually what ended up in the Black Ops lineup is a new flavor [00:19:00] that we didn't want to disclose, but it's in there and it works really good. Yeah. So yeah, I mean our product discussions, like new. , those meetings are a couple hours long cuz we, we wanna do the due diligence before a product hits the shelves.

That it is gonna be what we think it is. 

[00:19:20] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Makes sense man. You don't wanna put out garbage, right? . And so this kind of leads me to my next question and the, what is the main purpose of the products that you. 

[00:19:35] Tim Neuman: it. D it varies by product. Some of them, the main purpose would be attraction.

You, cuz some people just want to get pictures of deer. Some products. The main purpose would be nutrition. And obviously there's overlap between those two. But here's a for instance, in my, in the mineral side of things, mineral dirt. 180 would be the focus on nutrition cuz it's, I mean it's packed with the most vitamins, minerals, [00:20:00] probio.

and essential oils that it can have. It's a low salt content. Compare that with my White Out. White Out is more attraction based, so it's got a little bit higher salt content. It's still a very beneficial mineral product, but the price point between the two of the Black Ops White out is 9 99 and the Mineral Dirt 180 is 1999.

Gotcha. So there's a trade off there between cost and the attraction versus nutri. . 

[00:20:28] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. Okay. All right. So let's talk a little bit about the benefits, because I know on some of these products from talking to you and talking to other people who know a little bit more about your product line than I do.

It sounds to me like the, some of the, some of these products that you've put out, don't just attract Deere because I could go take a bucket of something, dump it out. Into the woods and deer would come to it. It doesn't necessarily mean there's a huge benefit to those deer. [00:21:00] When you guys are making those dec decisions do all of your products have something that benefits the deer in it or are some strictly just, Hey, it smells good.

We gotta try to get the deer close to us? 

[00:21:15] Tim Neuman: Yes, it, they all have something that benefits. On the feeding side of things that, that technology, we call the anti shield TX four. So that's the blend of essential oils, probiotics, chelated, micro minerals and vitamins. And that's in all of the products.

It's just not in them in the same amounts. Like for instance, the four pound brick has more salt in it than the 20 pound mineral. . So they both have the good ingredients. Just the 20 pound anti mineral block has more of them, and here again, is a difference in price point. So we wanted to have the ability so the consumer could get a good, better, best in, [00:22:00] in each category.

So like the good one would be, the starter pack, the four pound brick that's gonna get that's a very good product. But then we have something that's better, and then we have something that's best. Gotcha. And if somebody wants to put the absolute ultimate mineral site, I suggest you do three things.

You do a mineral block and then you do granular mineral dirt 180, and then you do liquid mineral dirt 180. And that's like the trifecta cuz it's all the consistencies of mineral in one spot and it's gonna last a growing season. 

[00:22:32] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. Okay. So and so you don't have to go back and so you don't have to 

[00:22:36] Tim Neuman: go back.

You can let it soak all summer and as long as the batteries can, and your SD card can keep up, you're gonna have a fun card pull at the right at. Time to gather the hit list. Yeah. If you can stay away from it that long. That's the hardest part is I can't, not going in there every week. . 

[00:22:52] Dan Johnson: I can't do that.

So let's talk about some of the benefits. You are a wildlife biologist at the base, so there are [00:23:00] things in here that may actually benefit. Herd health and the ability, I don't know a lot of people put feed deer to hold deer and do things to try to hopefully reduce stress on a particular deer so they grow big, giant antlers.

Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about some of the benefits, the biological benefits that analogs brings, and maybe even be product specific in your answer to a whitetails health. 

[00:23:32] Tim Neuman: Yep. So the thing that we'd like to focus on is actually the micro minerals, and we do that because we've tested a lot of deer free range and looked at their liver.

The liver is like a report card of their circulating mineral levels, and a lot of people think that calcium and phosphorus are important for antler growth, which I will not deny. Calcium and phosphorus are important, but we didn't find many deficiencies. [00:24:00] in calcium and phosphorus. So what we did find is deficiencies in things like manganese and copper and zinc and selenium.

So those are micro minerals. The deer do not need them as much as they need the macro minerals, but we noticed that they were not getting enough of the micros. So it's this theory in wildlife management is the limiting factor. What is keeping them from becoming their best self? And most of the time it was one of the micro minerals.

So we focused on that. That's what's, that's really what started the health side of things with analogs is focusing on the micro minerals. Now, specifically, copper and zinc are very important in immune system function. So in order for an animal to survive an E H D outbreak, they get bit by that. , they need to be in tiptop shape when that bite happens, if they're gonna come out of that alive, and if they're at all compromised, if, if they're stressed by [00:25:00] the summer heat, if they're, if they weren't in good shape coming outta winter and they didn't, grow as much throughout the growing season, they might be in bad shape.

So we're just trying to get these deer in the best shape of their lives because they might end up with that bite that could end their lives, and we wanna try and get 'em through it. , we don't have, the technology in our product is not, it's not like a vaccine. It's not gonna end, eh, h d it, what it's gonna do is lower the death loss, okay?

Because guys like Lee Lukowski and Mark Jury, they're feeding a lot of, they're deer herd throughout most of the year, and they're not seeing the EHD loss like some parts of Iowa did last year, and even 2015 was another big year, but they didn't have. Of any death loss, whereas neighbors were reporting quite a bit of death loss.

So the studies in the scientific world mostly focus on copper and zinc and the benefits of the immune system, and that's [00:26:00] really what we focused on with our products. 

[00:26:02] Dan Johnson: Okay. And although they may not, it may not be a particular. For e h d, if a deer is healthy going into an e h D event, the chances of them coming out of it are much greater.

Yep. Okay. Absolutely. All right. And so that is where the specific minerals that you put into your product come into play. Yep. 

[00:26:29] Tim Neuman: And it's not always, many people think it's a more better type of thing. These guys got. You fill in the blank, but it's not always a more better, there's an optimum level of these micro minerals that interact with each other to create a better system within the whitetails immunity.

They, if you just pour a bunch of one thing that they don't need it's actually harmful to them. Yeah. They could get too much of a good thing and then they have to work to process that. Add. [00:27:00] nutrient and it's just hurting them. Yeah. So we feel like we've hit based on studies of the liver in free-ranging deer we've hit what we would say would be the optimum micro mineral content.

Gotcha, gotcha. And you gotta back, back, figure this using consumption data that is really hard to collect because you don't know how mo how much they actually eat of the, of a mineral in, in the wild. Because some of it is mixed with, The food along the ground, and they're constantly foraging. So yeah it's not an exact science by any means, but I feel like we've done a really good job of calculating the requirements so that you can optimize the animal.

Yeah. 

[00:27:43] Dan Johnson: Have you ever done any studies where, all right, someone like the Leki they are, , oh, how do I put this? They are, they have analog products all over their farm, right? And so , they run the mineral all year and they run the food plot mix and [00:28:00] the food plot seed, and then anything else that they're currently running.

Have you ever done a harvest study off one of the deer? Looked at their livers compared to a liver of another deer in the same area, but that is not receiving that tr nutrition. And then comparing the two, 

[00:28:19] Tim Neuman: I have several instances of what you're saying, and it was surprising that even on Lee's farm that Lee's deer are in some of the best shape of deer on the planet.

They never all had it. , like there was always just one nutrient that was a little bit lagging. We have tweaked the levels as we are gathering this data, basically because we can tell what's happening in real life. . So we haven't found the perfect deer yet.

And I've tried to explain that to state agency wildlife biologists that think it's better not to feed. [00:29:00] and I argue that in areas where they're not fed, it's so much worse because instead of missing, like one micronutrient, they're not hitting the reference interval on five or six where they're not fed and that just, this causes trouble cuz any disease challenge that those deer.

They're just coming out worse because they don't have the ammo to fight it off. Yeah. 

[00:29:25] Dan Johnson: Okay. 

[00:29:26] Tim Neuman: We're still a work in progress. 

[00:29:27] Dan Johnson: Yeah, that definitely makes sense. It makes sense, if the products that you're selling actually do. Benefit the health of a deer then why not do it?

But at the other side of the story and I'm just gonna play devil's advocate here when we're talking about something like C w d that is through contact, right? And through, deer being close to e each other and being spread through interactions with each other. , whether that's secondary interactions like , or let's just say whether it's a first case scenario where [00:30:00] deer licking each other, or it is a second second case where they do something and then another deer comes to that same area and like a licking branch, a lick, a licking branch, or a mineral site where , it concentrates traits. Where is your take on. on the C W D issue in mineral and because a lot of people are saying that, Hey, why would you want to concentrate deer into one little heavy area where the chance of getting A C W D, especially in an area where there is a known CW d positive deer, why would you want to have a mineral block there or a bait station where several deer come and feed off of it at the same time?

Yep. 

[00:30:44] Tim Neuman: And. Response to that is the state agencies are not capable at a landscape level of monitoring mineral use. So if you imagine an area that has c [00:31:00] W D and it's legal to use minerals let's pretend in a section there's 10 guys using minerals. Okay, now it's banned. You can't use. , are there guys still using it?

Yep. There's probably one or two. So now there's two mineral sites in that section instead of 10. So do you see where it could be a an even worse problem in a band area because now there's fewer people doing it and it's just concentrating deer even more? Yeah. 

[00:31:31] Dan Johnson: It makes sense, but the question I'm asking is there a chance.

For, is the chance increased at a, not necessarily whether something is legal or illegal, but when a higher concentration of deer activity in a specific area, the outbreak for certain diseases would potentially be higher? Correct? Potentially. 

[00:31:54] Tim Neuman: Okay. Yep. But I don't think it would be any higher because the mineral site was there.

I [00:32:00] think the interaction of deer natural. is what's the determining factor of how quickly the disease would spread, not how many mineral sites would be contacted by that specific deer. 

[00:32:16] Dan Johnson: Gotcha. So it's not necessarily it's not necessarily. where the largest contributing factor is a mineral station or a bait pile.

Because you, it might be a little bit of the issue, but not a major issue. Yep. 

[00:32:30] Tim Neuman: Okay. Most of the pen deer, they don't have a mineral lick. They have feed there, but they don't have mineral licks there because they're, all the minerals that they need are in the feed.

And a lot of those, once one deer gets it, it spreads throughout that herd, but they're touching each other, is it the feed site or is it the deer touching each other? 

[00:32:52] Dan Johnson: And the main outcome here is the healthier a deer going into a sickness just like humans, right?

The healthier you [00:33:00] are going into any kind of sickness, the quicker you'll recover and the better that you'll re recover and just recover in. . Yep. 

[00:33:08] Tim Neuman: And there, there are some interesting things that are being tested in the deer breeding world that include some things that might help a deer from actually getting c w d because the way I understand it, the protein that changes shape and cannot be reversed.

If you could get their gut health so optimized that protein would. Change shape, then you could prevent them from ever getting the detrimental parts of cwd. So you could feed 'em the PreOn, but it would basically pass through because it would never let the good natural PreOn within the rest of their body change the shape.

Gotcha. So that's at very much at the forefront of deer breeders' minds because they keep losing. herds left and right, because the state [00:34:00] agencies come in there and wipe 'em out. 

[00:34:01] Dan Johnson: Yeah. 

[00:34:01] Tim Neuman: So they're trying their hardest to they're trying to hit it from two fronts. They're trying from the consuming things that will prevent a deer from getting cw and then also they're trying to do the genetic work so that they can make a genetic resistant deer that, that will not get cw.

But as far as I know right now, they haven't found, the a hundred percent resistance they've gotten it. 96 plus percent. So those Deeres still could get c w d. It's just not as often as Deere that are more susceptible. 

[00:34:32] Dan Johnson: Okay. All right. So outside of C W D and e h D maybe I'm wrong here. I thought I heard that you guys have some kind of mineral that if a deer eats enough of it, it would prevent like flea bites and tick bites.

Is that something that you guys 

[00:34:50] Tim Neuman: have? Yeah, it's a tricky slope because if you claim that a product is helping reduce [00:35:00] fly bites, then it's becoming a like pesticide. Ah, I gotcha. So we have done studies and we have some ingredients that will repel things, like mosquitoes and NATS and that, but it's not something we can put on a bag because of the claim that it would turn into a pesticide and we would require.

like fda Yeah. 

[00:35:26] Dan Johnson: Regulations for it. What is that particular ingredient? Or is it like an antibiotic or how, what is the specific bag? 

[00:35:34] Tim Neuman: It's one of the essential oils that we Okay. In. Okay. I won't get into the exact one, but it's one of 'em. Okay. And it's, the ingredient is listed on the bag, but I don't wanna just give it 

[00:35:42] Dan Johnson: away.

What is, what, how does it work? 

[00:35:46] Tim Neuman: Basically, the essential oil gets into the. And it's like a plant compound and that, that has the ability to get absorbed into the body. And I would equate it [00:36:00] to someone eating like an onion and reducing the ability of their body to be bitten by a spider.

Just because of like the onion has soaked in and it creates a tiny little odor that like spiders don't like. But imagine that with a deer and a different ingredient. That's pretty 

[00:36:18] Dan Johnson: sweet, man. I've heard of some guys, some serious guys out there who go and maybe it's cuz they're a little crazy, but like people trying to get a deer to come to a feeder and that triggers some kind of.

Automatic mister that it, it sends a mist of something over top of the deer while it's feeding in order to reduce fly bites and reduce ticks. I've heard guys hanging like sticky strips all over their woods, trying to catch flies, just like taking it to the next level. And I look at that and I go they've evolved over, hundreds of thousands of years to get to this [00:37:00] point.

I think they're I think they're pretty used to getting bugged by ticks and bites every year. Yeah. 

[00:37:07] Tim Neuman: But at the same time, they've evolved with a natural succession of wildfire that would set back some of those tick populations that I don't think that's a good, in today's world, we're putting enough fire on the landscape.

That, that's a good point. Mimic natural condition. So some of those areas that haven't been burned for many years have a tick inf station that, it's sad looking at some of those pictures where a f is just absolutely covered. Covered, yeah. And they're putting so many nutrients into keeping themselves alive.

They can't even think about growing antlers the next year. 

[00:37:42] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. All right, so let's talk a little bit about some people who are skeptic. Of what the products do and what the claim is. Right? And so some people listen to this and go, [00:38:00] this is just all hocus pocus. It's just a bag of salt, all they're trying to do is make money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Talk to us a little bit about trying to, I don't know not necessarily convince them, but if someone's debating on trying to. Use your product line in the best possible way, how would you convince them that this, their, your product line is worth it? 

[00:38:24] Tim Neuman: I think they really just need to try it. Put whatever they're using now.

Put it out. Make sure your camera can see both piles and put mine right next to it, the equivalent product. So if they've got a apple corn that they love and you put it next to my Apple crush, attract. A hundred percent of the time they're gonna hit the apple crush over their apple corn. It's, deer can tell that there's nutrients in our product and they will eat that because they need the nutrients more than, a fluff product.

So I [00:39:00] would just challenge somebody to give us a shot. Yeah. And in the real world how better could your deer. . That's hard to know exactly because you need very controlled studies. But the best, for instance I can give is both Lee Lukowski and Mark Jury, both are some of the best Deere managers on the planet.

And they were growing some really nice deer five and six years ago. But those top end deer were 1 90, 1 95. And in the last five years, between the two of them, I think they've gotten. , like eight 200 s and some of those were as high as, 2 22. So they just took their top end and added 20 inches to it.

Yeah. So they were really good managers before. Now we just took 'em from really good to the best. Of the nutrition that those deer are getting. Yeah. And they didn't do much different. They're still planning food plots, they're doing [00:40:00] the habitat management. They did that before. The only difference was they switched analogs.

Gotcha. So that's the best free range, real life example of what we could, numbers-wise, could help improve your hurt. 

[00:40:13] Dan Johnson: Okay. All right. And then talk to us a little bit about who your demographic is. Who is buying analog? , 

[00:40:21] Tim Neuman: I feel like we run the gamut. We could hit everyone in the hunting community because we have price points that are friendly for the average consumer, but we also have things that are, top end the recons of deer feed, if you will.

Yeah. It's more expensive for the premium protein, anti supple goal. , it's a better product. Just like anything, you get what you pay for. I think we're catering towards the people that want a healthier deer herd that want to keep their deer herd on their property and they'd like to get bigger antlers because who doesn't?

Yeah, 

[00:40:57] Dan Johnson: absolutely. Absolutely. And [00:41:00] then I don't wanna end on a bad note here, but. Let's talk a little bit about this. Black Ops disguised this dirt, right? And so I've had people reach out to me and say, Hey, this is just an opportunity for your products to be sold and used in states where minerals are banned, okay?

. And so what's your response to that? 

[00:41:23] Tim Neuman: I think I, it's not up to me to be the police of the. . So in my eyes as a citizen that, has to listen to the government, I think it should be up to the landowner to decide the land use on their property. So I won't get into politics, but I'm very much in, in terms of people's rights on what they can do on their property.

What if someday, the government said, you can't plant food plots cuz that's concentrating deer. Like at some point [00:42:00] somebody has to just be like, Hey, this is my land. I can do what I want with it. So 

[00:42:06] Dan Johnson: even if it means b breaking 

[00:42:08] Tim Neuman: a law, their state agency and it's still legal to sell in that state.

Maybe they need to try and get it off the shelves, but nowhere is it not legal to sell. . Okay. So I'm very much a land rights proponent. 

[00:42:22] Dan Johnson: Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. And then the last question is for someone who's been listening to this today why should they give analogs a shot? 

[00:42:32] Tim Neuman: I think we have the most sound science in terms of our background.

I'm a wildlife biologist by training. I've got papers published at, in the Journal of Menology, we have a nutritionist, Dr. Aaron Gain. That is the best in the business. So we've got the science to back up the product and it all works really good. There's a little bit of something for everybody.

If you talk about the types of products we have between granular mineral [00:43:00] attractants blocks, and food plot seeds, there's something for everybody. And if anybody wants to have a conversation about what they would like to try, Item would be specific to you. I'm really good at having a conversation with someone and narrowing down what products they need to use.

Cuz we have a lot of different products, but there's always something for somebody. 

[00:43:20] Dan Johnson: Okay. Cool. All right. And then let's see. analogs.com is your guys' website. Tons of information on there, on all the products. And then what would be the best social platform for people to go check out? I 

[00:43:34] Tim Neuman: would say between Instagram and Facebook would probably be viewed.

Okay. 

[00:43:40] Dan Johnson: All right. Perfect. 

[00:43:40] Tim Neuman: I'm a Facebook guy. I'm old school, but I still have an Instagram account. 

[00:43:44] Dan Johnson: Gotcha, gotcha. . All right. Hey Tim, man, I really appreciate you taking time outta your day to hop on and give us an update over there at analogs and I appreciate your time, man. 

[00:43:54] Tim Neuman: Yeah, absolutely.

Hey, good luck getting after that one you missed, and hopefully I can conclude the [00:44:00] chapter this fall.

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