Merrick's Whole Earth Farms

[Guest happygrey]

Is anyone using this food? I'm thinking of trying it for the 2 of my greys who have no real food issues. Both of them are pretty bombproof.

 

It looks like a higher end type of food that's more reasonably priced than most so I thought I'd give it a try.

[Meandmy]

I've tried their wet grain-free food in a few flavors for Tori and she seemed to like them. No digestive distress either. Much more reasonable than some of the other grain-free wet foods out there.

[LaFlaca]

The Whole Dog Journal rates Merrick foods as high quality. It was the first food I got for Wendy when she came home but she didn't care for it. She's doing very well on Wellness CORE, another WDJ highly rated food.

[Hubcitypam]

My distrust of Merrick is well known.

Garth Merrick built his empire selling cheap Beef 'n More by the trainload to Wal-Mart. Then sometime in the last 10 years he reinvented himself as purveyor of high end foods.. For a time they made Beef 'n More which was the best canned food for .55 at Wal-Mart as well as Merrick Cowboy Cookout, which sold at boutique pet stores for $2+ a can. Except for one vegetable ingredient they were identical. Both came out of the same factory.

I first heard about Whole Earth Farms from a Merrick rep last month. He heard me say that Poodle was diabetic and swooped in saying they had this wonderful low glycemic grain free (insert other buzzwords here) food coming out in May. He was also pushing it as an option for the all breed/street dog rescue that I am familiar with.

Bear in mind that Merrick owns several dead stock pick up services under the name of Tejas Industries and there is a rendering plant on site in his Hereford complex. I know that I'm cynical, but I think everything at Merrick might not be as rosy and upscale as it is painted out to be.

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm217086.htm

Edited April 14, 2014 by Hubcitypam

[Guest happygrey]

My distrust of Merrick is well known.

 

Garth Merrick built his empire selling cheap Beef 'n More by the trainload to Wal-Mart. Then sometime in the last 10 years he reinvented himself as purveyor of high end foods.. For a time they made Beef 'n More which was the best canned food for .55 at Wal-Mart as well as Merrick Cowboy Cookout, which sold at boutique pet stores for $2+ a can. Except for one vegetable ingredient they were identical. Both came out of the same factory.

 

I first heard about Whole Earth Farms from a Merrick rep last month. He heard me say that Poodle was diabetic and swooped in saying they had this wonderful low glycemic grain free (insert other buzzwords here) food coming out in May. He was also pushing it as an option for the all breed/street dog rescue that I am familiar with.

 

Bear in mind that Merrick owns several dead stock pick up services under the name of Tejas Industries and there is a rendering plant on site in his Hereford complex. I know that I'm cynical, but I think everything at Merrick might not be as rosy and upscale as it is painted out to be.

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm217086.htm

Yikes, that sounds pretty grisly...though I'm sure if I saw any dog food made I'd be somewhat shocked. (Kinda like sausage) Unless your dog is veg (which, to my mind, does not seem like a good idea for the dog) there's a whole lot of dead animals (from who knows where) in these foods.

 

Things to think about...

[RedHead]

 

Bear in mind that Merrick owns several dead stock pick up services under the name of Tejas Industries and there is a rendering plant on site in his Hereford complex. I know that I'm cynical, but I think everything at Merrick might not be as rosy and upscale as it is painted out to be.

Don't most other foods get their meat this way too? I thought almost every major dog food company got their food from rendering plants/deadstock.

[Hubcitypam]

Here is a quote from the Merrick website

 

We're proud all Merrick Pet Food is made from locally sourced farm fresh meats, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This delicious, natural pet food is worthy of a fork .

Keep on believing keep believing the "farm fresh" (buzzword) meat idea. Hereford is in the middle of some of the biggest feed lot operations in the world. Their high school mascot is a hereford whiteface cow. What farm are these meats "fresh" from?...and as far as I know beef cattle come from ranches, not farms and most all of them pass through feedlots - they don't get on that hauler at the RANCH.

 

The deceptive marketing just galls me. "Farm fresh" garners up images of contented grass fed cattle and that is not what happens, even to the vast majority of the "human grade" beef we eat. You can't make money having them nosh on grass. If anyone can tell me where they are locally sourcing (buzzword) all those fruits, grains and vegetables in the middle of the Texas panhandle I'd love to know.

[RedHead]

I totally agree with you on that, it just seems like many dogfood companies do the same thing. Either using buzzwords words like "farm-raised" meat (what meat isn't farm raised??!) to putting deceptive pictures of fresh foods on the bag. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that there are a few massive rendering plants that almost all of the major foods source their meat from. I could be wrong though. Anyways, don't want to get this off-topic!

 

 

[Guest Lillypad]

My distrust of Merrick is well known.

 

Garth Merrick built his empire selling cheap Beef 'n More by the trainload to Wal-Mart. Then sometime in the last 10 years he reinvented himself as purveyor of high end foods.. For a time they made Beef 'n More which was the best canned food for .55 at Wal-Mart as well as Merrick Cowboy Cookout, which sold at boutique pet stores for $2+ a can. Except for one vegetable ingredient they were identical. Both came out of the same factory.

 

I first heard about Whole Earth Farms from a Merrick rep last month. He heard me say that Poodle was diabetic and swooped in saying they had this wonderful low glycemic grain free (insert other buzzwords here) food coming out in May. He was also pushing it as an option for the all breed/street dog rescue that I am familiar with.

 

Bear in mind that Merrick owns several dead stock pick up services under the name of Tejas Industries and there is a rendering plant on site in his Hereford complex. I know that I'm cynical, but I think everything at Merrick might not be as rosy and upscale as it is painted out to be.

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm217086.htm

 

 

Yay!!!!! Finally some common sense words on marketing.... IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MARKETING.... (IMHO no matter what they say, it is all the same) Why not buy fresh, whole meats and be done with it? Simple and uncomplicated.

[Hubcitypam]

You bet it is all about marketing. Put a dozen blueberries in a 17 pound bag of kibble and people will flock to it. It's not just Merrick - when I was a demo person for Blue Buffalo my boss told me things like "senior formulas" and "indoor cat" were basically marketing b.s.

I just keep wondering how they can claim to be using locally sourced meat, grains and vegetables when they sit on a mesa that gets around 19 inches of rain a year. Water comes from an aquifer and is a very treasured commodity. Rice takes a lot of water to grow, salmon farms take a lot of water...how can they be locally sourced? there's not enough water on the high plains to support those industries.

There's a lot of rice in Anahuac near Houston but that is 600 miles away.