A Wagyu Story – August 2014
On the day of a particularly nasty ice storm in the winter of 2008 Jeff closed on a property in the town of Brunswick, NY consisting of about fifty acres, a house and a horse barn. Over the next four to five years we (Jeff and I) spent most weekends experimenting with several different animals and building housing for them. At the beginning of 2012 I was happy to dream of freezers overflowing with clean, non-GMO meat that we produced and processed from literally the beginning to the end. Jeff’s ambitions and aspirations were far greater in scope than I could have imagined!
Some background on us – Jeff is an extremely successful chemical engineer with a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as well as having vast experience managing the logistics of large-scale operational projects. As for myself, I have spent many years working in all phases of steel production, made snow at several large ski mountains and most recently had worked in specialty masonry brick, block and stonework.
We decided that if producing the highest quality meat possible is our goal, then there was no choice other than the Japanese Wagyu breed. Securing one hundred and seventy acres in Washington County, New York including the original farmhouse built in 1854 as well as a small dairy barn with a silo attached to the house with virtually no fencing that was usable on the property.
We stepped onto the farm as owners for the first time on April 5, 2014. After a continuous and bloody battle with the gods of Fence, that played out at all hours of the day and night, in two feet of snow and freezing rain. Delivery of the first of our own herd came On April 8, 2014, 32 Scottish Belted Galloway arrived to be surrogates, implanted with Japanese Wagyu Embryos. On May 28, 2014 we welcomed our first 12 Japanese Wagyu and on June 4, 2014 another 5 Wagyu giving us a total 19 Japanese Wagyu due to 2 births in May from the herd. On August 7, 2014 we purchased a property adjoining the first one-hundred-and-seventy-acre parcel. This land, with our leased land, will have us operating on about 350 acres in the spring of 2016.
Our mission is to continue our embryology and breeding programs and complete infrastructure in the next year to 18 months. We raise all of our animals as close to the standard of Organics as possible, while using antibiotics only in an emergency and not as a common practice. We believe success can only be achieved by clean, natural, sustainable and earth-friendly stewardship of the land and animals when attempting to bring a product to market that demands premium pricing.
We employ the rotational grazing methods on 80 acres and supplement with hay from our own hayfields and leased holdings. At no time will we use any chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers on any of the land we manage. All animals are treated with respect, dignity and enjoy the highest standard of living that we can humanly provide for them.
Our hopes are that our hefty investment in the highest quality bloodlines we could obtain will pay off in the future with a prime, superior beef product that will satisfy the most discerning and opulent of tastes.
As lifelong sons of New York, born and bred, it is our wish that Norsemen Farms can, by employing the best methods and techniques from both the old and new schools, play our humble part in the farming and culinary tradition that has kept the Empire State on the tip of the cultural spear.
Robert Grimm (spring of 2016)