The Scoop on Our Feed

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August 27, 2026

Some of our customers hit us up with feed questions, so for those who want to nerd-out on the details, I want to give some thorough answers. Here we go!

Grass-Fed Beef and Lamb

Our beef and lamb are 100% grass-fed. That means all the way from start to finish - no cheating! (The grocery store “grass-fed” label allows for 90 days of feeding grain. What?! I know. It sounds like some sort of joke, but it is true - they are actually grain-fed “grass-fed” beef.) Cattle and sheep are magical ruminants that can actually ferment the goodies out of grass. Not so for pigs and poultry! They don’t have magic fermenting bellies.

Pigs and Poultry

Our pigs and poultry are moved VERY often to fresh pasture. (Our meat chickens are moved seven days a week. Trophy please!) This makes them all the more inclined to eat those very fresh and nutritious perennial grasses and forages, but pigs and poultry have been bred for thousands of years to thrive on a diet that also includes grain. They do not have a magical fermenting belly to fully access the grasses like the cattle and sheep do. Hence, we supplement them with grains on top of what they get from foraging bugs, grass, nuts, and berries from our pastures and woods.

Sunrise Farm Feed

I have been using Sunrise feed since we started our farm in 2009. They are a Mennonite family-owned business in the Shenandoah Valley, and they do a great job. I still remember driving my 1980 tiny Toyota pickup truck to Stuarts Draft, Virginia in 2009 to pick up way more feed than that truck could carry back to Warrenton. (Now, they deliver to us, but that was just me starting out and figuring things out.)

Here are some reasons I like their feed:

Their feed is non-GMO feed raised without toxic chemicals. (It is tested for non-GMO and chemical spray residue, so there is true accountability that this is non-GMO and is not grown with herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.)
Supporting a local, family-owned business
Feed is ground fresh for Whiffletree’s delivery with no toxic preservatives. This is really important because when grains are ground, they begin to oxidize and lose nutritional value. the feed at the typical feed store has toxic preservatives to try to mitigate this nutritional loss. No preservatives in this feed!
Their rations are designed by the guru of pastured poultry nutrtition, Jeff Mattocks of Fertell.
Their feed uses Fertell’s all natural mineral supplement.
Much of the feed is grown by Sunrise, and what is not is grown locally or regionally.
Their prices are reasonable and fair.

Not Soy-Free?

We currently feed our pigs and poultry a non-GMO, no chemical, no antibiotic feed that includes roasted non-GMO soybeans. We have raised chickens on a feed without soybeans, and I was not happy with it. There was a higher mortality rate and a higher number of birds that were sickly and runty. The proof was not in the pudding for me - just boots on the ground observing the animals. That being said, I am sensitive to the concerns about the nutrient-blocking and phytoestrogen aspects of soybeans. The thing is, when feed doesn’t have soybeans, it will have other legumes that, like soybeans, also have nutrient-blocking and phytoestrogen issues. So, soy-free feeds are not a silver bullet to solve that issue. Most feeds also do not contain roasted soybeans, but ours does. Roasting helps mitigate the nutrient blocking issue.

Finally, the soy in our feed is not the bad, conventional, hexane-extracted, GMO, herbicide-laden soybean meal. Hexane-extracted, GMO soybean meal is in more and more processed food. This has rightfully upset people and sparked a witch hunt against soy.

However, as usual, the devil is in the details, and I am not yet convinced that the soybean alternative legume (field peas, alfalfa, etc.) feeds are better than roasted, non-GMO soybeans in animal feed. I will continue researching and will let you know what I learn.

Thank you for tracking with me on all this! Thank you for caring about how your food is raised! Thank you for going out of your way to patronize us. We cannot do this good work without your support!

Let me know what questions or issues I did not address. I am happy to take multiple swipes at this issue!

-Jesse Straight

A Tribute to Wendell Berry from a Farmer Who Didn't Listen to His Advice

If you didn't hear, Wendell Berry passed away yesterday. I am indebted to Berry. In 2005 I had just graduated from college, and Liz and I were just married. And I was floundering a bit. Eager to set to some good work and to make a good life, but at a loss as to how to go about that. In terms of work and career I was all over the place--maybe med school, maybe seminary, maybe start a music festival, maybe go into audio documentary, maybe.... A friend of Liz and mine had recently spent a week visiting Berry, and sent us his short novel, A World Lost. We read it and loved it! It bit me. I was hooked. I read all of Berry's fiction that year. I read any chance I got--I remember reading at red lights. It was his vision of the good life and his critique of our modern life that captured my imagination. A big point of his is that fundamentally humans are happiest when their lives are as integrated as possible. I will get into what that means. But in contradiction to that, modern society has us "dis-integrated"--people don't live where they grew up, families don't live near each other, home and work are disconnected, children's lives and adult lives are disconnected, people are disconnected from food production, the work of the home is outsourced--no one makes anything at their home--it is only a place of ready-made consumption. Modernity is about specialization and outsourcing; and therefore dis-integration. And this has been an effective way to generate cash-wealth. If we all max our earning potential, and outsource all the work we can pay someone else to do more cheaply, then our bank accounts are ahead. So while this modern life has generated lots of cash-wealth, it has not done such a good job of making people happy. And Berry's point is that human lives are most full and most happy when they have this level of humane integratedness, rootedness, connection, localized knowledge, intimacy with your people and place; and when all the parts of your life are all intermeshed as possible--children, work, religion, home-making, neighbors, extended family, and your 3rd grade teacher are all mixed up and jumbled up in inter-crossing lines of familiarity and connection. This made a lot of sense to me, and caught me by the heart. I wanted this life of intimacy, connection, rootedness, care, friendship. That was step 1. Step 2 was coming across Joel Salatin's writings. Berry was the poet that wooed me to this idea of a good life. Salatin was the technician who laid out a compelling and reasonable plan for a novice like me to get into regenerative farming, do some good by healing land/animals/people, and actually provide a living for my family. So after doing a bunch of reading, and befriending farmers like Salatin, I decided I want to write a thank you letter to Berry. In my 1st letter I thank Berry for all his writings and let him know how he has benefited me, and let him know that I am making moves to get into regenerative farming. He sends back the below letter which is very kind and all, but essentially tells me to not go into full time farming. Ha! I remember reading that aghast, and a little angry--"this Berry guy thinks I am a fool and naive and have no idea what I am getting into--well, I will show him!" was about what I was thinking. So I take a deep breath, cool off a bit and write him back--pushing back and saying all the ways I have done my due diligence, and how I have a reasonable plan (and essentially, that "I am not a fool and naive, and I am a big grown up boy, thank you very much!"--Ha!). He then sends me back his very Berry-esque letter, which says essentially--"hey if you really want to get into farming, my advice isn't going to stop you." So Berry. Well, fast forward about 3 years from that letter. Liz and I had moved from Charlottesville back to my hometown of Warrenton (a very Berry-inspired move to be back in my hometown and near my family), and we had started Whiffletree Farm. I was working part time doing handyman work, while getting the farm business going. Berry had just published a new book of poetry and was making a reading stop at UVA. A friend involved with his stop at UVA invited us to a VIP reading. We went, and it was great. And then afterwards, there was some time where I could go up and speak to Berry. I went up and reminded him who I was and about our exchange of letters. And I told him how I was executing on this plan to ease into full time regenerative farming, with the handyman business, without going into debt, and how the farm business was growing, and that pretty soon we would be able to go full time. To this day, I can remember his reaction. It is a highlight of my life. He pumped his arm and said emphatically, "YES! This is how you have to do it!" It was my hero slapping me on the back. Major tingles. I was flying so high. My life could have gone in a lot of directions--some not so great. I was a pretty confused young man, and looking for direction. Liz and I are so grateful to Berry for his influence on us--his challenge to resist the current of modernity that prioritizes cash-wealth, and instead to go after an integrated life that prioritizes rootedness, connection, stability, sacrifice, friendship, care. It is still a daily challenge, but worth the fight! God bless Wendell Berry. Jesse Straight

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