Some of Ontario's Finest Wagyu
J. Cook is a cattle farmer. On the side, he is the chair of neurosurgery at Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Queen’s University. But it’s cows that really get him going.
Cook raises approximately 400 head of Wagyu cattle on more than 1,000, acres spread across multiple farms just outside Kingston. It’s an expansive operation that uses cutting-edge scientific knowledge to produce the finest meat possible. His drive to produce excellence is one thing, but his pure passion for a well-built beast is something else.
On a balmy late fall day, he leans over a fence in the sunshine while explaining his operation — the cattle one, not a medical one — and breaks into a soliloquy of praise. “Look at that one over there,” he says, pointing to a particularly noble-looking cow. “Look at the length of her loin, her hips. She’s really beautiful.”
Cook grew up on a beef farm in Lindsay, Ont. He started his own operation at Otter Creek Farms in 2013, but has been collecting embryos since 2007. He’s that kind of obsessive: a man consumed by his passion for what he does and determined to do it well. “I’d been wanting to do this for a long time,” he explains. “I was collecting and thinking.”
Cook now breeds selectively to produce the finest meat possible. With the ease and fluency that only a scientist can muster, he rattles off the genetic traits that make Wagyu beef so desirable. It’s a rapid-fire, two-minute lesson in gene mutation with terms such as SCD and Exon 5 punctuating the lecture. In layman’s terms, “Wagyu cattle have a mutation that causes them to cleave their fat into two parts,” he explains, “and Wagyu has a high percentage of monounsaturated fats, the fats that are found in healthy foods, such as fish.” They have high oleic acid content — up to 52.9 per cent, whereas regular Black Angus contains between 32 per cent and 34.5 per cent. This oleic acid is one of the factors for the superior tenderness and flavour of Wagyu beef. “It has a low melting point, so it produces a more buttery flavour on the tongue,” Cook says. “We are looking for tenderness, marbling and fat content. From a nutritional standpoint, it’s a very different product to other beef. The fatty acids are more beneficial to the human consuming it.”
There are three fat profiles generally found in beef. The first is standard in the majority of beef bred across North America with a small amount of fat found in the meat. The second is where Cook’s Otter Creek cattle fall — coarse marbling of fat throughout the muscle without the cap fat so typical of most beef. The third is the fine marbling of fat within the muscle that produces the white-looking meat that most consumers associate with Wagyu beef. This is more commonplace in Japan, where Wagyu originated, and Australia, where it is also produced, whereas North American consumers tend to be more comfortable with the second fat profile.
Historically, Wagyu cattle came from Japan and evolved out of necessity. The bovines were used as pack animals in high altitude. Fed at the base of the mountain, they were then expected to make long treks with no food. Their bodies packed fat into their muscles for energy stores.
Wagyu (and Kobe, a subset of Wagyu) beef is strictly controlled by the Japanese government. In 1978 and 1992, the export of Wagyu cattle was permitted. From this original stock, large operations have grown in Australia and the U.S., with a few in Canada.
With his scientific and research background and the assistance of two full-time vets, Cook and his team know what to look for. They test for the genes that produce optimum marbling. They then choose cattle with the precise gene profile to breed the next generation, thus improving the stock each subsequent cycle. “We are making unbelievable Wagyu cattle,” says Cook, of the several hundred embryos and semen stored on liquid nitrogen in the barn.
The embryos that Cook and his team create in test tubes are subsequently implanted in one of three ways. They can be implanted into a Wagyu cow, which brings it to term, births it and feeds it as a calf. Or, they can go into a Black Angus cow, which does the same, or, finally, into a cow belonging to a neighbouring milk farmer. These cows carry embryos to term, birth them and then they return to Otter Creek to continue to grow, while the milk cows continue to produce for the milk market. All the calves are pastured on grassland for as long as the weather allows. They consume hay taken from surrounding fields and eat a special, secret grain mix, made to order by the local grain co-op. They are hormone- and antibiotic-free.
Cook is breeding for the greater good. Not only is his meat packed with good fatty acids, but his cows are also helping to improve the soil. “We feed our rations to the cattle while out at pasture,” he explains, “and we rotate through paddocks. We seed out the paddocks with a pasture grass mix once the cattle have grazed it, which allows native grasses to grow. The manure fertilizes the fields, returning biomass to the soil.” The Kingston area is predominantly a thin layer of loam on blue clay, so Cook is trying to build up the carbon content of the soil by promoting a closed circle in which his cows contribute to the regeneration of the land. “It’s more productive for the cattle, too,” he says.
Historically and ethnologically, humans are healthier when they consume things grown on the soil where they live. And that brings Cook to another subject close to his heart: the notion of local outlets for local food. While the conversation around “Buy Local” has been ongoing for several years, what is perhaps missing from this discussion is the fact that not only does it support a closed loop of production to the consumer, which is better for the planet, to say nothing of supporting the farmers who produce it, but it’s also a healthier choice. “We are biologically linked to our landscape,” he says, “and we should be consuming foods naturally produced on the land we live on. That’s why grass-fed beef is so terrific — you are forcing the land to be used in the way it should be. This is the heart of local food.”
However, local farmers are competing against a heavily subsidized product, mostly from Australia and Japan, which often contains hormones and antibiotics. The meat from Otter Creek Farms contains none of that, but when compared to imports, it is premium priced. Cook maintains that when the nutritional and cultural value of this purchase isn’t communicated to the client, it’s no surprise that buyers opt for a less expensive version.
Another wrinkle in the supply chain has been exacerbated by COVID-19. With the disease appearing among workers in federal meat slaughtering plants in the spring of 2020, the few remaining provincial abattoirs have become backlogged; the whole industry is paralysed. At present, farmers are being forced to keep fat cows that are ready for slaughter, which is like tearing up $20 bills. “I wouldn’t encourage anyone who doesn’t have a steady day job to do this,” Cook says wryly.
Luckily, Otter Creek Wagyu beef is still available through its mobile food truck, serving at various locations in the Kingston area, directly from the farm and at Gilmour’s Market in Harrowsmith, which ships province-wide.
Otter Creek Farms
3439 Road 38, Harrowsmith, Ont.
ottercreekfarms.ca | @ottercreekfarms
