If you live in a suburban subdivision and have never felt the need to visit a feed store, let me tell you why you should search one out. I did, over 20 years ago, and found D&D Feed in Tomball.
At the time, I lived in Cypress - Fairfield to be exact - and not only were there no nurseries, garden centers or hardware stores nearby, there was no place selling a specific dog food my lab-mix, Shadow, had come to appreciate. I was new to GardenLine, and had just moved from Bryan, where I lived less than four miles from a feed store. It was 1996, and I was still figuring out all the streets and businesses around me. One day, I shot up Mueschke Road until I hit FM 2920, where decided to venture west into Tomball. And there, I discovered what I call a good-old-fashioned feed store and knew I had to stop in.
I LOVE feed stores!
Right away, I found the dog food I needed. And as I looked around further, I was reminded why my dad and many others of his generation appreciated feed stores, even though they were suburban homeowners. I was taught back in the early ‘70s that these stores always carry fertilizers you simply cannot find at box stores - if there’s no nursery or garden center nearby for lawn and landscape supplies, the next best thing is a good feed store.
Like most of the old-school feed stores around the state, D&D Feed is family-owned and operated. The Dover family ventured into the business back in 1989 in what was an old Rosehill feed mill.In 1994, they moved the store to a modest 5,000 sq. ft. building at 16915 FM 2920, but today it has been expanded to 15,000 sq. ft. Danny Dover started the operation, and is semi-retired these days. But he still oversees the D&D Ranch in Hearne, where they produce approximately 40,000 bales of coastal hay per year. So, don’t doubt for a second that D&D Feed doesn’t carry the freshest supply in the business. These days they also sell alfalfa, Timothy and straw hay.
Besides carrying goods that country folk need for raising various animals, they maintain a plethora of products that any homeowner could use - fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. Plus, most of the employees have well over a decade of experience with all the items they carry.In fact, a few employees have been with D&D for their entire 30 years.
I’ve come to know Danny’s son, Jeffrey, over the years. Even more so since I moved from Cypress to Tomball six years ago and found myself less than five miles away from D&D. I’m at the store quite a bit, where I find all the things I recommend … from Nitro-Phos to Microlife to Bonide and everything in between. They’ve even developed their own fertilizer blend – an 18-5-9 that absolutely meets my requirements for the spring and summer applications on my fertilization schedule. Of course, D&D offers bulk fertilizer too, with discounts and price breaks for customers dealing with acreage.
And you name the animal, they have the feed. It’s where I get my dog and cat food to this day, because they carry some of the best lines - like Victor, Orijen, Diamond and Taste of the Wild. The same can be said for cattle and horse feed and supplements – they offer respected names like Lone Star, Wendlands, Nutrena, Purina and Big V.
Finally, you should know that D&D takes pride in handling a few things you probably haven’t thought of. For example, they stock bulk garden seed, and they have always kept one of the largest selections of vegetable seeds and plants around. They are even well-stocked with seed potatoes and onion sets throughout the year. Of course, they sell farm-fresh eggs, and they’re one of the very few places I’ve found that sells duck eggs. And they are huge proponents of Spartan Mosquito Eradicators – they sell more than any other retail home-and-garden supplier in the region.
Simply put, this is just a great operation with the comforting feed store atmosphere I grew up with and wish everyone - even subdivision residents - could experience. And, as I have said for years on GardenLine, if a feed store (like D&D) doesn’t have the product you need, they will do everything they can to find it for you.