Crazy? Or Just Crazy About Protecting our Chickens from Moldy Feed?
 | “I talked to Heather at the store for a while yesterday. The lady is crazy and has show chickens. I get it we have show pigs. However, I do sometimes see chunks of mold in my feed, toss it out and keep feeding.”—Kim Lewis, Cargill Feed & Nutrition, Commercial Account Manager, as stated in an internal email that was accidentally sent to Black Witch Farm. Fact: Nutrena is a brand of animal feed owned by Cargill, Inc. Cargill is a massive privately held American company that dominates the global agribusiness, that has operations in over 70 countries. According to these accidentally forwarded emails, Kim from Cargill thinks people that show chickens are “crazy” and that we shouldn’t be concerned about moldy feed, even though their website says differently. If you found moldy feed, what would you do? Should I “toss” that mold chunk and still keep feeding our critically endangered chickens from that same bag where the mold was found like Kim-from-Cargill does with her show pigs? I am one of those suckers that tends to do what I feel is right and stupidly expects the same response from others. I did not expect to be offered a coupon like I’m some hungry fish and they’re dangling a worm on a line, or be called crazy in an internal email exchange between the Senior Feed Technical Specialist at Nutrena and the Commercial Account Manager at Cargill, who took the advice of someone at my local feed store to deflect this as just my illusory concern—all while still selling potential moldy bags of feed to my unsuspecting neighbors for at least 16 days after the initial discovery. Here’s the whole story: I bought six bags of Nutrena’s Country Feed Layer Pellets on February 1, 2026 from our local farm supply store, Mijavec’s, in Pulaski, Pennsylvania. Our farm has spent thousands of dollars over the years on feed and other supplies at this store for our small family farmstead. The employees are always fun to make small talk with and our family knows them by name and a little bit about each of their personal lives. It is locally owned and operated—the type of place you want to support, one that hasn’t been put out of business by the big box stores. The day I bought the feed, the high temperature was 23 degrees, plunging much colder that evening. The bags of feed sat in my vehicle in our unheated garage overnight until the next morning, February 2, 2026, when I began to dump two of the bags into an empty metal storage bin and began to feed our chickens, like any other cold February morning this shitty winter. Luckily, I was just in the very first coop of the morning when I heard a thud falling into the metal chicken feeder. To my disgust, I pulled out a chunk of moldy feed. The chickens in that first coop were already pecking away at it. I removed the entire feeder and gave them some sunflower seeds to hold them over for the time being. Immediately from the coop, I texted a photo of moldy feed to the local farm and feed store’s manager, Heather, a nice (or so I thought) lady that went to the same high school as me. She starts to respond almost immediately and ask me to photograph the lot number on the feed tag and we (I think) begin to work out what’s going on and take care of the issue. Shit happens. I was glad I caught it before my chickens ate too much, and before I fed another round to one of our 14-ish currently occupied chicken coops. We re-bagged the feed that had already been dumped into our metal storage bin at Heather’s request, for a return with the four other unopened bags. I told her that I was not comfortable with any feed from this lot/pallet and Heather seemed to agree. She said they have some newer feed from a pallet that was made in January. I agree to make an even return for some newer feed. When I get to the store, we talk and she says she’s been on the phone for some time with Cargill, trying to figure this out and how it happened. I told her I understand it could have happened anywhere—from the mill, warehouses, the transport, even the back storage room at the feed store— and thanked her for looking into it and rectifying the issue. Here’s where I went wrong: I had faith in her and our local farm and feed store and even faith that Nutrena/Cargill wouldn’t risk selling moldy feed to anyone else. Since she claimed she had been on the phone with Cargill, I assumed that they were not going to be selling any more feed from that pallet/lot, which was made in December, according to the feed tag. I assumed they’d pull the whole pallet and not risk killing local chickens with bad feed. I assumed the right thing would transpire, but I was wrong. On Friday, February 13, (11 days after the moldy feed blob), I sent my two teenage daughters to grab four more bags of feed. They bring it home. They dump it into the bins, they went about their day. The next morning, on February 14, something told me to look at the feed tags on the four bags they had picked up the day before. These four new bags were from the same lot/pallet as the moldy feed blob that I discovered 11 days prior. The local store was still selling feed from the same pallet where mold was discovered. They have been selling it for eleven days after finding out there was possible mold contamination and risk to the entire pallet. They have been selling it to unsuspecting, local chicken lovers. They even resold it to us. It’s common sense that if one bag of feed had a nasty chunk of mold like the one I discovered—and it was stored with the other 40 bags on the same pallet (pallets come in 40 bag amounts, I know because I have purchased entire pallets from Mijavec’s at times)—there is a serious risk that other bags have gotten wet and have been contaminated as well. I was CRAZY at this point. Some of our breeds are listed as critically endangered by The Livestock Conservancy, like the La Flèche and White-Faced Black Spanish; we have fancy show birds and some of them are our beloved pets. I was not okay with getting feed from this lot in which I had previously discovered mold. I called the store. Heather, that nice (or so I thought) store manager was working and got on the phone. I told her that they had re-sold the feed from that lot to us. She stuttered and stammered. She said something about refunding us and said that the feed was not expired and that was their reasoning for continuing to sell bags of feed from that some pallet in which the moldy blob thing was found. I refused to re-bag up the feed this time and bring it down for a refund a second time. They had wasted my time eleven days before and I was just disposing of the feed, not spending my busy Valentine’s Day/Saturday playing this game with them once again. She promised a phone call back after she talked to the owner, Alex Mijavec, to sort this out. That phone call never came. I began to wonder how was this possible. Wasn’t she on the phone with Cargill—the company that produces the brand Nutrena—when I was making the return? Why would they want to risk selling moldy bags of feed? Did Cargill tell this small business to keep selling the feed? Or was Heather, the store manager, not even in contact with the company like she claimed that day? I was determined to find the answer to this question if nothing else: What is Nutrena’s protocol when mold is found in feed? On the following Monday, February 16, I reached out to Nutrena and tell the customer service person on the phone the situation. They promised a correspondence by email soon. I asked a specific question: What is your protocol when moldy feed is found in a bag? Do you pull the entire pallet of feed, or do you keep selling it? The first email correspondence is this: “Hi Suzanne - thank you for contacting us - we are very sorry to hear mold was found in your NatureSmart Layer Pellets, we've not have other reports of this nature. Our local team will work with the retailer - if bags are exposed to moisture during transport and/or storage mold can occur. We will be glad to mail a coupon for replacement, please provide your mailing address.
I look forward to hearing back from you. Ruth Hopke Sr. Feed Technical Specialist” I responded, not falling for the Here’s-Your-Coupon trick: “I would like to know if it is your protocol that the store keeps selling feed from the same lot that has had a bag with moldy feed?” AND “The retailer, Mijavec's, allegedly reported this to you when first discovered. I am having a hard time processing how you allowed them to continue selling from the same pallet. Can you explain your protocol on how you handle mold when found in a bag? It is looking like you just continue about selling the entire pallet of feed, as was done to our farm.” Then a few days later they responded with this: “Good Morning - our team has been in touch with the retailer and discussed the situation. We are very sorry mold was found in the feed and will make a report to our plant team. 5 coupons have been ordered and mailed for the inconvenience to you and in appreciation of your business. Ruth Hopke Sr. Feed Technical Specialist” (Oh, wow. They upped me to five f***ing coupons now.) Then I read further— and what a DOOZIE! They accidentally included an internal email thread that I wasn’t supposed to see, one where they call me “crazy” and even suggest that I should have tossed the mold and continued to feed our chickens, like Kim the Commercial Account Manager from Cargill does with her show pigs. They even state that the bags in the same pallet that the moldy feed was found are “still in date”. So yes, it’s apparent that profit, not the health of animals, is priority for all these companies—from the small feed store to the big ag businesses of Cargill and their many brands, such as Nutrena. You can read their accidentally sent email exchange here:
--------------- Original Message --------------- From: Kim Lewis [[kimREDACTED@cargill.com](mailto:kim_lewis@cargill.com)] Sent: 2/17/2026, 3:45 PM To: [can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com](mailto:can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com) Subject: RE: Nutrena inquiry I talked to Heather at the store for a while yesterday. The lady is crazy and has show chickens. I get it we have show pigs. However, I do sometimes see chunks of mold in my feed, toss it out and keep feeding.
Here are the details. She was buying regularly from Mijavec, switched to Rural King for cheaper price. Came back to them and got 8 bags 2 weeks ago. Opened and and chunky mold piece. Brought it back to replace and the dealer got a new lot of feed. They checked the other bags made in December from the lot that the mold was in and decided they looked fine and it was isolated to that one bag and will sell to others. They replaced it with fresh feed from plant.
Issue, lady had her daughters in high school go by feed and didn’t tell anyone they were with this Black witch Farm. They get 4 bags and the lady saw it was the same lot as previous moldly feed and went crazy. They tried to tell her that if they would have known it was her family they would have given her the new lot. The lady is like why are you even selling it? Trying to tell them how to run their business.
I did just send her 5 free bag coupons. You can let her know those are coming. Thanks, Kim
Kim Lewis Cargill® 4526 Schultz Rd. Center Point, IA 52213
Retail Account Manager “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”
From: CAN NA Inquiry Do Not Reply <[can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com](mailto:can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com)>
that's how I'm reading it - how about this. . . I can tell her our team is in touch with the retailer and working to resolve it. . . if you can contact the store and have them pull the lot? I'll deal with consumer. . . Ruth Hopke Sr. Feed Technical Ruth Hopke
--------------- Original Message --------------- What am I supposed to tell her. She is freaking out that because there was mold in one bag we are still selling the other bags. ? Kim Lewis Cargill Feed & Nutrition
From: CAN NA Inquiry Do Not Reply <[can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com](mailto:can-na-inquiry_donotreplyservicecloud@cargill.com)>
Hey Kim - sending along FYI - feed was from December so not technically out of date. Ruth Hopke Sr. Feed [link] [comments] |
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