The cheapest part of raising livestock is never the feed — until you start cutting corners. Every animal at England Ranch eats 100% certified organic, soy-free feed. Here's why that costs more, and why we think it's the only option worth choosing.
What's in Conventional Feed
Most livestock feed in the United States is built on two crops: corn and soybeans. Both are overwhelmingly genetically modified — roughly 92% of corn and 94% of soybeans grown in the U.S. are GMO varieties engineered primarily to tolerate the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup). This allows farmers to spray entire fields, killing everything except the crop.
That means conventional feed starts with grain that has been sprayed with herbicide, often multiple times during its growing season. Residues of those chemicals remain in the grain and are consumed by the animal eating it. If you care about keeping chemicals off your pastures, it doesn't make much sense to turn around and pour them into the feed trough.
Beyond the chemical residues, conventional feed often includes byproducts and fillers — distillers grains, animal byproducts, synthetic amino acids, and other additives designed to maximize growth at minimum cost. The goal is economic efficiency, not nutritional quality.
Why Organic
Certified organic feed means the grain was grown without synthetic pesticides, without synthetic fertilizers, and without genetic modification. The certification requires documentation through every step of the supply chain — from the farm that grew the grain, to the mill that processed it, to our ranch where it's fed.
This isn't a marketing label. It's an audited, verified chain of custody. When we say our feed is 100% certified organic, that means a third party has confirmed it at every stage. We keep the certifications on file and we're happy to show them to anyone who asks.
Organic feed costs significantly more than conventional. That cost is real and it's a meaningful part of our operating expenses. We pay it because the alternative — feeding our animals grain grown in a chemical system we've rejected everywhere else in our operation — would undermine everything we stand for.
Why Soy-Free
This one surprises people. Soy is a standard protein source in livestock feed, even in many organic feeds. So why do we avoid it?
There are a few reasons. First, a growing number of consumers are sensitive to soy or actively avoid it in their diet. Soy compounds can pass through the animal and into the meat and eggs. For families managing soy allergies or sensitivities, knowing the animal itself was never fed soy matters.
Second, the soy industry — even organic soy — raises environmental questions we'd rather sidestep entirely. Soy production is one of the leading drivers of deforestation globally, and the supply chain is difficult to trace even with organic certification. By removing soy from our feed entirely, we eliminate that variable.
Third, it's simply not necessary. There are high-quality protein sources for livestock feed that don't involve soy. It costs more to formulate a soy-free ration, but the result is a cleaner feed that more of our customers can feel good about.
What Our Animals Actually Eat
Our Dexter cattle are 100% grass-fed and grass-finished — they eat grass and forage from our pastures and certified organic hay. No grain at all. Their digestive systems are designed for it, and the meat quality reflects that.
Our Berkshire hogs and pastured chickens eat certified organic, soy-free feed supplemented by whatever they forage on pasture. For the hogs, that means roots, grubs, and whatever they find while rooting. For the chickens, that means bugs, grass, clover, and seeds — a natural diet that the feed supplements, not replaces.
All of this happens on '-cide free land. No insecticides on the pastures where they forage. No herbicides on the grass they eat. The feed is clean and the ground is clean. That's the whole point.
The Cost Question
Organic, soy-free feed is expensive. There's no way around it, and we won't pretend otherwise. It's one of the biggest reasons our meat costs more than what you'll find at the grocery store.
But here's how we think about it: the cost of conventional feed isn't actually cheaper. It's just that the real costs — environmental damage from herbicide-resistant crops, health impacts from chemical residues, soil degradation from monoculture farming — get paid by someone else. When you buy cheap meat raised on cheap feed, you're not avoiding those costs. You're just not the one writing the check.
We'd rather pay more for feed we trust and pass that cost transparently to customers who understand why it matters. That's what Eat With Confidence means.
See for Yourself
We keep our organic feed certifications on file and we'll show them to anyone who asks. Better yet, come visit the ranch and see what our animals eat, where they eat it, and how they live. That kind of invitation is only possible when you have nothing to hide.
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