CROWN POINT, Ind. – Two northwest Indiana businesses have partnered to create feed that is soy, antibiotic and hormone free.

Heirloom Feeds – for chicks, chickens, pigs and cows – will be available nationwide in April, Steve Howe, owner of Crown Point-based Howe Farms, told Farm World. Belstra Milling Co., headquartered in DeMotte, Ind., helped to create the feed and will distribute it through its network of dealers.

The idea of soy, antibiotic and hormone-free feed goes back to when Howe and his wife, Jenn, started their small farm with homesteading in mind.

“We knew we wanted to avoid antibiotics and raise our animals on pasture for numerous health benefits for us and our kids, but doctors had told her she was allergic to eggs,” Steve explained. “It didn’t make sense to me so I started researching and I came across a paper on the internet that theorized that soy concentrated in the yolk of an egg. It was a theory. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I had to try. So I started mixing up our own chicken feed without antibiotics and soy, and she could eat our eggs.

“Those results pushed me to begin making our pigs’ feed as well. We stayed with the same antibiotic- and soy-free principles, and loved the results. The texture and flavors of both the meat and the fat was unlike anything we had raised. We then adapted the feed for our cows and have been completely in love with the results.”

Over the last 10 years, Howe said they trialed numerous different ingredients and methods. They tried organic feeds, grassfed, non-GMO, corn and soy free. They couldn’t get the exact results they were looking for nor could they reach the price point they hoped to achieve.

“We knew we needed help,” he recalled. “We sometimes had health issues with animals, we sometimes had growth issues, and we sometimes had pricing issues. All things that could be solved by bringing in some feed experts.”

Howe said they went to Belstra Milling about five years ago with their base feed. He said Belstra balanced the Howe Farms formula, and they began to see some of their challenges improve.

“We were lucky to find the Belstras,” Howe said. “We fell in love with the people there instantly. They manufacture and distribute our feed line for us. When I started developing this idea there was no chance we were partnering with anyone else. When you meet good people they become good friends, then they become family. There’s nothing better than working with family.”

The ingredients for all the formulas is fairly similar but balanced and formulated for the needs of the specific species, he said. Locally grown corn is in all the recipes, as is alfalfa as a major soy replacement, Howe added.

The family chose the name Heirloom Feeds as a way to honor an old way of doing things, the way their grandpas did things, he said. “Our 12-year-old son Easton came up with the name. He thought it sounded like something that honored and highlighted the generations that came before us. We agreed. The goal of the brand is to do just that.”

For more information, including how to become a dealer, visit www.heirloomfeeds.com.