Where's the

It’s Actually Closer to Home Than You May Realize

Story by Randy Gross, rgross@harrisburgmagazine.com

Photos by Will Masters

Gourmet cooks and gourmands agree: the unique taste and tenderness of highly marbled Wagyu beef provides an unrivaled eating experience.

But did you know that, behind every Wagyu steak, there is a dedicated breeding, nurturing, and processing process that involves sophisticated genetics expertise? Or that a farm that incorporates all the above has acreage right here in Central PA?

At A5 Wagyu, owned and operated by Robert L. Myers, whom some people will also recognize as a highly successful oral surgeon, Wagyu is more than just a business. And it all began when Myers first tasted Wagyu at Bobby Flay’s restaurant in Atlantic City. He was instantly hooked. So much so that he decided to begin raising the elite full blood Wagyu cattle himself – but not before fully educating himself about the unique properties of the breed and adopting the fundamentals of Blackmore genetics from Australia. With the Blackmore philosophy of “breeding the best to the best, with constant vigilance to ensure the health and safety of our herd,” Myers was prepared for the path to Wagyu excellence from the very beginning.

Those “best to the best” aspirations include a goal of informing the public about the difference between A5 full blood Wagyu and F1 50/50 Wagyu that’s been crossbred with Angus cattle. In a recent interview with Wagyu World magazine, Myers states “I think allowing F1s to be marketed as Wagyu really hurts the fullblood brand; we need to differentiate it from F1. We process about 100 steers each year, and we’ve found – when we talk to restaurants and chefs – that they are confused also.”

Myers purchased his first four Wagyu beef cattle in 2015, and that number has now grown to approximately 350 between his Pennsylvania and Virginia farms. Over the past couple of years, A5 Wagyu