Northumberland farmer Steve Ramshaw is set to become one of the country’s first producers and processors of rare Wagyu beef as his three-year project to bring the breed to North East England nears its launch on Wednesday, October 7 at his Monkridge Hill Farm, near Otterburn.
Wagyu beef is renowned across the globe as the ultimate beef-eating experience, the ’Caviar of the Beef World’. Consumers may recognise it as ’Kobe’ beef as it is more commonly known, but technically it can only be branded under this name if it comes from the Kobe region of Japan.
Wagyu beef is famed for its deep flavour, extreme tenderness and rich, smooth texture owing to its remarkable level of intra-muscular fat or ’marbling’. These characteristics have long made it the gastronomist’s choice and allow it to command exceptional prices in the few top restaurants and outlets it is available in across the world.
Steve imported embryos from the finest ’full blood’ Wagyu cattle in the USA and transplanted them into his own cattle to establish a small herd of this extremely scarce breed.
Nearly three years since the project started, in October, Steve’s marketing company Northumbrian Quality Meats based on the farm will begin to retail Wagyu beef directly to the consumer. The product will be strictly limited at this early stage but will be made available nationally in order to make sure the country’s finest restaurants can allow as many consumers as possible to try the meat for themselves.
There will also be a website dedicated to the Wagyu range, with lots of information about the breed and images of the livestock on the farm as well as an on-line shop for those wishing to try some at home.
The Wagyu project has been only part of Steve ongoing programme of striving to produce the finest beef in the country and ultimately beef that will compete at an international level. His organic Aberdeen Angus herd has some of the best bloodlines available and has been recently further improved by importing embryos and semen from some of the finest Angus specimens in Canada, where animals are selected and bred specifically for eating quality. The progeny of these have already been genetically scored for tenderness and achieved exceptional levels.
The company is also embarking on a project with Newcastle University to research the nutritional benefits of highly marbled beef (Wagyu and Angus) as intra-muscular fat is known to contain elevated levels of Omega 3.
Steve hopes to turn the myth around that all fats in beef are bad for you. Some are, in fact, very important to our diet.
The launch will take place at an Open Day Steve is holding at his farm as part of a Mutton Renaissance Club event.
The club, which is based at Malvern in Worcestershire, aims to develop the growing popularity of Renaissance Mutton, to strengthen the link between producers, butchers and chefs. Apart from his award-winning quality beef, Steve is also well known for his herd of Scottish Blackface sheep.
One hundred invited guests from around the country, including several prominent North East chefs, are expected to attend the Open Day.
