We are Vicki and Alex Voils. We are Voils Family Wagyu, a true mom-and-pop operation. In addition to our professional lives, we relocated our “hobby farm” near Spring Mill State Park just over 10 years ago with our Trakehner horses. About 7-8 years ago we were introduced to Wagyu Cattle.

Wagyu is actually what beef is called in Japanese. Wa (Japanese Style) and Gyu (Japanese for beef) (Source: Wikipedia). There are four main breads, namely Japanese Brown, Japanese Black, Japanese Polled, and Japanese Shorthorn. Japanese Black is prized for its intensive marbling. We raise the Black. We fell in love with them! You’ve probably heard about it’s flavor and taste. It is unique and high quality! Something hard to appreciate until you’ve tasted it after having been properly prepared, it’s easy to overcook. What you may not have heard about the meat is the health benefits over other breeds.

Wagyu beef has been likened to olive oil and salmon in terms of its health benefits. It has up to 300% more monounsaturated fat than normal beef due to the high marbling of the meat, as well as incredibly high omega 3 and 6 content. Wagyu beef has the lowest cholesterol levels of all meats, even lower than fish or chicken, and it contains oleic acid which is considered good cholesterol for your heart. It's also believed to have anti-carcinogenic properties.

As with everything in life, for all the positives in a situation, there are also negatives. The negatives are pretty simple. They are slow-growing. What this means is that it takes considerably longer to raise them from birth to processing size. Our wagyu are raised approximately 27-30 months before processing. This time is also necessary to obtain the desired wagyu marbling. As a reference, commercial Angus are 13-15 months old when processed.

Thus we have to feed them an additional 14-15 months. The time factor is made worse by the fact that a full grain feed regiment is required to maintain the growth rate and obtain the marbling. Obviously, the extended time and full grain feed costs more and is the primary reason wagyu is more expensive. Our goal is to obtain the best possible dining experience.

Our wagyu are bred, born, and raised on our farm. We strive for a low-stress environment. Our Great Pyrenees and donkeys help keep the coyotes away. We interact with them on an almost daily basis. They are free-range pasture-raised. No feedlots! We provide fresh water, free choice vitamin - and minerals, and all-natural protein tubs. We are all natural not using any hormones, steroids, or antibiotics.

We raise our own hay. We make haylage out of alfalfa hay, rye hay, and sorghum-sudangrass hay. We then mix these with our dry Timothy-based grass hay. They are started on a grower’s grain mix before they are weaned until they are 800 pounds and then fed a finisher grain mix until they are processed. This sets up and finishes the marbling. The mixes are designed, taking into account the nutritional values of the hay, specifically for our wagyu cattle. Their chemistry is different and dialing in their diet assists in the growth, marbling, and health benefits.

We are continuing to work to improve our Wagyu beef. We are constantly improving our genetics, we just obtained another registered bull. Likewise, we monitor their diets to see what we can do to improve. The raising of our wagyu is a semi-retirement labor of love, we enjoy it and take pride in our wagyu beef. We hope you will enjoy it as well and stay healthy, thank you!