By Stacey Doud
Mitch Felderhoff, who is a fourth generation owner of Muenster Milling Company in Muenster, Texas, is known for his lightheartedness, practical jokes and making quality food for pooches. He is also known locally and nationally for eating nothing but his company’s dog food for 30 days to illustrate the quality of Muenster Milling Co. food. He was monitored by his family physician to make sure that he was staying healthy.
Muenster Milling Co.has been in existence since 1932, when Mitch’s great-grandfather, Joe Felderhoff, established a flour mill. The business was passed down to Mitch’s grandfather, Arthur, who, after he served his country in WWII, converted the site into a livestock feed mill.
The company also had a brief stint as a dairy feed plant because of a newly built cheese plant in Muenster that operated for close to 40 years. I wonder what kind of cheese they made? Hmmmm.
“We provided most of the dairy feed to all the dairies in the area that brought their milk into the cheese plant. Now, there’s a huge cheese plant in Amarillo as well as one in California, and the people who had owned the cheese plant here were part of the Co-Op, and so they shut this one down,” Mitch explained.
Mitch’s dad, Ronnie Felderhoff, decided to take the company in a new direction when it was his time to run the Mill, and, in 1989, Muenster Milling Co. started to produce pet food.They currently offer dog, chicken and horse feed.
Mitch officially joined the company In 2007 to head the sales and marketing department, and his brother, Chad, joined in the summer of 2013, though both men had basically grown up helping out in the Mill. Now, the brothers are co-owners and work together to keep Muenster’s products meeting excellent standards, which Mitch, personally and gustatorily, found out.
So, what’s up with the month of dog food?
“We are a small company, and it’s hard to have a voice and to get the right message and information out there, and so we had to come up with an idea that other people would not be willing to do. The CEOs of Nestlé, Purina and Mars are not going to eat dog food for a month,” Mitch said.
“I came up with the idea while I was on vacation. I had been trying to think for several years about what we can do to get our message out there – to provide healthier diets to more dogs. I was on a trip with my wife and was staring at the ocean, and the thought popped into my head: ‘I bet no one has eaten dog food for a month.’”
When he started his quest, Mitch weighed around 230 pounds at 6’3”. He lost 30 of those pounds, according to the physician, but that’s not all.
His cholesterol went down 64 points, his triglycerides went down 209 points and his liver enzyme panel went down 34 points.
So, does Mitch recommend eating dog food for a while?
“No, don’t do it,” he said. “But it sure made me more aware of what I do eat and assured me that we are still making products that will keep dogs healthy and happy.”
Muenster Milling Co. dog food is available for purchase online with home delivery at https://muenstermilling.com/ or you can search for your closest retailer at https://muenstermilling.com/where-to-buy/. They are looking to expand to cat foods very soon.
To watch Mitch’s 30 Days of Dog Food, complete with practical jokes and very honest critiques of his meals, watch the documentary at https://youtu.be/3Q_FPPslCWs
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