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Vicki and Tom Moon
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If you've tasted a true Wagyu steakas in, from registered Japanese cattle that has not been crossbred with other types of beefthen you'd remember it for both its outstanding level of marbling and flavor, as well as its price tag. (Kayne Prime currently has an eight-ounce wagyu strip steak on the menu for $65.)
When Tom Moon had his first taste four years ago at Franklin's Cork and Cow restaurant, it was literally life altering. He'd been dabbling in raising Angus on his idyllic 300-acre Spring Hollow Farmbut one bite and he was ready to switch gears.
'It became a four-year love affair to where we are now,” says Moon, who now has about 120 head of wagyu cattleone of the largest commercial herds in the state. Along the way he and his wife Vicki, who is as much a part of the operation as Tom, taught themselves everything from how to use Angus heifers as surrogates for the wagyu embryos (and how to implant them) to determining the perfect mix of feed and vaccinations. He now sits on the board of the American Wagyu Association.
Moon's cattle are raised until they're about 30 months old, which is a longer lifespan than standard beef cattle because older age adds to the intramuscular marbling that makes wagyu so sought after. He's hoping to eventually build his herd up to about 250. The animals are processed at a facility in Triune and mostly sold whole to restaurants like Kayne Prime and Urban Grub.
When Jason McConnell, executive chef and owner of McConnell Hospitality Group (Red Pony, Cork & Cow, 55 South, and McConnell House) first tried Tennessee Wagyu, he says, 'it blew me away. It's great to be able to get such a great product that is grown right here in our backyards.” Moon also still raises angus, which he crosses with wagyu; it fetches a lower price but still offers top-notch flavor.
The learning curve was steep, says Moon, who became a full-time cattle farmer as a late-life career move. The 70-year-old native of Huntsville, Alabama, was raised on a farm but then went into the military before launching a 20-year career as a trial attorney in Nashville. After years on the road, he returned to Franklin in the '80s and purchased the then-dilapidated property, which took years to restoreit now includes two historical log cabins that he dismantled, relocated, and reconstructed on site.
In 2011, when he decided to make the transition to wagyu, he says the research was two steps forward one step back. 'It was a big initial investment,” he says. 'I've been able to get some of the old Japanese genetics and that's what we have in our cows [thanks to] people who have been doing it for a long time.”
For both he and Vicki the benefits are two-fold: they're getting more top-quality beef into the market on a local level while thoroughly enjoying the life curve of becoming farmers.
'Once I got into it the challenge of raising the world's finest beef and a product that's largely unknown in the United States, I was hooked,” he says. 'The most common reaction I get when people ask what kind of beef I raise is ‘what's that?' So it's multidimensional in that appeal to me.”