Transcript: Making a Waste Product into an Easily Absorbed Feed Source (WCP 510) – Working Cows Podcast

Podcast: Working Cows – Regenerative Ranching to Maximize Profitability and Soil Health

Episode: Making a Waste Product into an Easily Absorbed Feed Source (WCP 510)

Host: Clay Conry

Guests: Marc Walther (Impact Fusion Brands), Trey Schmidt

Date: May 1, 2026

Length: 52 minutes

Full Speaker-Labeled Transcript

Clay Conry (cold open): What really matters when it comes to animal nutrition is that the first question what’s the crude protein? Well, you know what? That’s really not the question. Question is what is your cow absorbing? Probably not much. And what do they do at feedlots? They feed them crap and corn. Uh chickens they feed they feed that the chicken crap to the to the cows. And so it’s really about what you absorb. So our motto was always it’s not what you eat, it’s what you absorb. And then my scientist said to me said, you know what? You’re lying to your customers. I said, why is that? I don’t lie to my customers. He said, no. He said, it is what you eat. And then it’s how you absorb it. And how do we help those animals be able to absorb everything that we are putting in front of them? Intact is actually a medical term. It means that your body’s intact. So when I go give speeches for the different health food stores that handle our product or anybody, I’ll talk to them about it and say, you know what? All that stuff in your store, none of it will work unless your body’s intact. And what does that mean? Everything’s processing properly. I mean, can you imagine going to a a slaughterhouse and they can’t sell the livers of the cows for even dog food? That’s a shame. All that and more on this episode 510 of the Working Cows Podcast.

Clay Conry (intro): Welcome to the podcast that gives producers a platform to discuss and share paradigm challenging practices. Practices that have increased the effectiveness of their operation and the joy that their families have received from this lifestyle.

Clay Conry: Howdy everybody, it’s Clay Conry, host of the Working Cows Podcast. I’m going to share with you today a conversation that I had with Mark Walther and Trey Schmidt. And we talked to them about the way that they’re taking some byproducts from other agricultural sectors and turning them into beneficial nutrient dense uh supplements for cattle, uh feed for cattle, and uh just a seems like an option, a low-cost option maybe to get some more nutrients into the animals, up their absorption as we talked about there in the cold open, and some other things. So I’m just learning about it as with most things on the Working Cows Podcast, I’m just learning about it along with you. And uh I’m looking forward to sharing this conversation with you right now. Mark, Trey, thanks for joining me today on the Working Cows Podcast.

Marc Walther: It’s a pleasure.

Trey Schmidt: Hey, good afternoon. How are you? Doing pretty good. Yeah, so appreciate you guys taking the time to join me. A Patreon supporter reached out and said, hey, I think you should talk to these guys about what they’re doing. And uh as I’m I kind of have a real limited understanding of of what you guys are up to, but from my understanding, taking a waste product, turning it into a a feed additive or supplement uh that is that is helping kind of improve the bottom line for uh ranchers and and farmers in different parts of the country. So is that anywhere near the ballpark of what you guys are up to?

Marc Walther: Yeah, it is. It is in fact uh and I have traveled to India together, probably going to make a trip to Vietnam pretty soon, and um we’ve got distributors in a lot of places. We have a footprint that is unlike anything in the world. And uh we can depolymerize and de- and uh degrade uh lignin, which is the largest source out of crust besides crustacea uh for uh protein. And uh so I developed a system that I I’ve owned companies all over North America, and but this one was unique in that the last part of my career, whatever the Lord gives me, um I came down here to Louisiana to a little town that is literally south of New Orleans, if you could believe it, and developed a process that is unique to the world that is an ancient formula that goes back thousands of years, and I’ve just turbocharged it in modern-day terms. […] (full 52-minute conversation continues with detailed discussion of product mechanism, ranch results, soil health, cost savings, international applications, and more)

End of episode. Full episode audio: https://player.blubrry.com/id/153850303 | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InSgJsRcv7U