Westfield Egg Farm: A fourth-generation, family-owned specialty egg packaging company located in New Holland, Pa.
- KLS
- May 14
- 7 min read
For the 245th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with Westfield Egg Farm and Ephraim Byler, Business Development Manager. Westfield Egg Farm, located in New Holland, Pennsylvania, is a fourth-generation, family-owned business that is committed to operating with core values of excellence, integrity, family, stewardship, and eternal perspective. The company’s goal is to empower their team members to grow as individuals and to treat employees and customers with the highest care and respect. Westfield Egg Farm is dedicated to honoring God in everything they do and to operating in a way that reflects their Christian values. Westfield partners with small family farms to source, process, and distribute high-quality organic and free-range eggs to the market. They have the capability of offering their own brands to the market as well as private label and custom packing options. The company is dedicated to providing their customers with the highest-quality products and services and to operating in a way that reflects their core values.
"Together Talks" feature 245: Westfield Egg Farm presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
Story of how it was created? What have been the biggest challenges? Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
What were your concerns about making this transition and what excited you? Share a decision that you made that was detrimental? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
Westfield Egg Farm was founded more than 60 years ago by George Weaver at our main facility in New Holland, PA. George started with chickens on-site, selling eggs directly to local retail stores and to neighbors who stopped by the farm. As demand grew, the operation expanded into a full-scale egg grading business. Eventually George realized he couldn’t produce enough himself, so he began signing contracts with local family farms throughout Lancaster County and sourcing eggs directly from them.
That partnership model became the foundation of the company. George stopped raising chickens himself and focused entirely on grading and sourcing from local family-owned farms. That mission has remained at the core of Westfield ever since: supporting independent, family-owned and operated farmers.
Today, we own four brands, Utopihen Farms, Natures Yoke, Rosies Farm Fresh and Elevated Delights. We operate two grading facilities: our primary in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and a second in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. New Holland runs two to three shifts Monday through Thursday. Lebanon currently runs one shift as we continue adding farms and flocks.
What makes our model unique is farmer ownership. Most egg companies own the birds and pay farmers a caretaking fee, making the farmer function more like an employee. At Westfield, the farmers own the birds, buy their own feed, own the farms, and run their own businesses. We simply partner with them. That ownership gives farmers the ability to be genuinely entrepreneurial.
Westfield has also consistently been ahead of industry trends. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when eggs were heavily criticized for causing high cholesterol, Westfield developed a low-cholesterol egg that became successful. Around that same time, we also became one of the first companies to move into organic eggs, long before organic became mainstream.
Currently, we are the largest producer of soy-and-corn-free non-GMO eggs. In January 2026, a food research group called Nourish Food Club worked with Michigan State University to test fat content across egg brands. The study found that some competitor pasture-raised eggs had linoleic acid levels comparable to a tablespoon of canola oil. The story went viral on TikTok and Instagram, then spilled into publications like Parade, Men’s Journal, and The Kitchn. Millions of shoppers learned for the first time that “pasture raised” doesn’t automatically mean “soy and corn free.” Our Utopihen Farms Pasture Raised Soy & Corn Free Non-GMO eggs have seen strong growth as a result and become a leading SKU in the segment.
That’s really the heartbeat of Westfield. We’re innovative, nimble, and small enough to move quickly. Today we’re still a privately owned, fourth-generation family company: George IV is CEO, George III serves on the board.
What have been the biggest challenges?
The core challenge is that eggs are essentially a live commodity market. The Urner Barry index largely controls pricing, and it fluctuates dramatically. Right now, the market is extremely low. Conventional eggs are selling for under a dollar a dozen in some stores, while our premium products retail from $4.99 to $8.99. Last year, during the avian flu outbreak, market prices rose to seven or eight dollars a dozen and made our pricing look attractive by comparison. This year is the opposite.
Taste is another challenge, most consumers can't differentiate on taste the way you can in most food categories.
The other piece is that production never stops. Chickens lay eggs whether the market is strong or weak, and you can’t slow output overnight. That constant ebb and flow of pricing, supply, and demand is probably the single biggest challenge in this business.
Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
Our biggest focus is the soy-and-corn-free category. We’ve been producing these eggs since 2014 and have seen approximately 128% year-over-year growth in that segment. Currently we offer one SKU: Utopihen Farms Pasture-Raised, Soy-and-Corn-Free, Non-GMO egg. Later this year we’re launching two more: Utopihen Farms Pasture-Raised Organic Soy-and-Corn-Free egg, and Nature's Yoke Free-Range Soy-and-Corn-Free Non-GMO egg. We are excited to launch these new SKUs and to continue growing our Soy and Corn Free line of eggs.
Long-term, we would love to see our brands meet consumers' needs throughout the nation. We primarily serve the east coast right now, but we're expanding in the Southeast, Midwest, Texas and would love to partner in the west coast eventually. Our goal is to grow our farmer network and be known for how we build networks of farmers.
What were your concerns about making this transition and what excited you?
I grew up in a family-owned business. My family owns Byler’s Canning Co., a natural food company focused on pickles, relishes, salsas, jams, pickled vegetables, and other shelf-stable products. I spent years there in sales and marketing before becoming CEO. From the beginning, though, I knew I wanted to eventually step outside the family business and gain experience somewhere else. So, at the end of 2024, I transitioned out and joined Westfield.
The biggest surprise was the shelf-life difference. At Byler’s we worked with three- to four-year shelf lives. Eggs are completely different. Most states allow 60 days, while some only allow 45 days. When you’re shipping from Pennsylvania to Chicago, you effectively have about 15 days to get those eggs graded, transported, stocked, and sold. That changes how you think about everything: logistics, distribution, inventory. Moving from shelf-stable center-store products into fresh perimeter items was a much steeper learning curve than I expected.
Share a decision that you made that was detrimental?
Two come to mind.
The first was a personnel situation at Byler’s. We had a manager creating significant internal challenges, but we were short-staffed in a busy season, so we kept convincing ourselves we needed him. We invested heavily in training and support for him. To be clear, I strongly believe in giving employees grace and opportunities to learn from mistakes. What I didn’t realize was how much damage the situation was doing to the broader team and culture. By the time we let him go, it had already spread. Letting it continue as long as it did ultimately cost the company hundreds of thousands in production failures. It was one of the most painful leadership lessons I’ve learned.
The second is from an experience here at Westfield involving our duck eggs. A national retailer expressed interest in pasture-raised duck eggs, and I got overly optimistic. I treated it like a bottomless pit of demand and encouraged the company and our farm team to significantly scale production only to discover that demand had a real ceiling. I made assumptions instead of validating the opportunity first. An expensive lesson in balancing optimism with discipline.
What is your why?
It comes back to what Westfield was founded on: supporting family-owned and operated farms.
Every egg we sell directly impacts a farming family here in Pennsylvania. That’s tangible to me because I visit our farms often, walk their properties, and get to know the farmers. When I’m building relationships and growing sales, I know that work is directly benefiting real people.
That’s my why. It’s very personal and very tangible.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
I love seeing new partnerships come together. We recently closed an agreement with Eggspectation restaurant chain that is launching May 20th, and expanding our brands into the Midwest and Southeast over the last year has been really rewarding.
But honestly, the greatest joy has been leading my team. I manage three people. Seeing them develop in their CPG sales experience and grow in their roles has been genuinely inspiring. Sales wins are exciting but seeing people develop under your leadership brings a different kind of joy.
Piece of Advice
One of the biggest things I constantly remind myself of, both personally and professionally, is this:
There is time.
I may not be where I ultimately want to be today, and that’s okay. There is time to grow, time to learn, and time to develop. I try to lead my team with that same mindset. Growth takes time. That doesn’t mean lowering standards, it simply means removing the unhealthy pressure of needing to become everything all at once.
Ironically, I’ve found that when I stop putting overwhelming pressure on myself or my team, we actually grow much faster.
Community Callout
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Westfield Egg Farm and Ephraim Byler, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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