Here’s how a family farm began raising prestigious wagyu cattle in Accord.
Most surprise gifts entail spa days, weekend getaways, event tickets, or dinner at hard-to-book restaurants. For Becky Collins Brooks, it was three straws of wagyu semen. You read that right.
Becky and her husband Barton Brooks are co-owners of Catskill Wagyu at Hilltop Farm, an Accord-based family farm complete with 56 acres of sprawling pastures and rolling hills. The couple was born and raised in the Rondout Valley, where Barton grew up as a farm kid, learning how to milk cows at his grandfather’s knee and delivering milk to local creameries. He established Hilltop Farm at 18 years old.
Becky had a cow-free childhood, but her family believed in eating food that was grown, not purchased; her home had a huge vegetable garden, a small orchard, a grape arbor, and a raspberry patch.
The Brooks’ Hilltop Farm was originally a pasture for Barton’s family’s dairy cows before a majority of the Holstein herd was sold. “We wanted to do something different,” explains Becky. “The idea of wagyu arose out of curiosity about the breed. We’d read about it in farming journals, and we wanted to sample it, but no restaurants nearby served it.” So, Barton, an AI enthusiast—which is artificial insemination in farm talk—purchased a few straws of wagyu semen.
Wagyu means Japanese cow, a catch-all term for four different breeds—Black, Brown, Polled, and Shorthorn—of Japanese cattle. The beauty of wagyu beef is its unique fat distribution: Unlike typical breeds that have thick layers of intramuscular fat, wagyu naturally produces a bright white, lacy, and buttery fat throughout the meat, resulting in its distinct marbling.
In Japan, wagyu beef is sliced thin and grilled over charcoal before being dipped in raw egg yolk or soy sauce, but Catskill Wagyu is raising beef for “American tastes,” meaning it’s best cut into steaks and cooked on a grill, or prepared Western style—roasted, slow cooked, or braised. Hilltop recommends a burger cooked medium rare on the grill, seasoned with salt and pepper.
Hilltop’s herd originated from an imported Tajima bull, a type of Japanese Black. “Tajima is one of the oldest cattle breeds in the world, bred with meticulous thought and care,” Becky explains. “We work hard to honor the long tradition involved in raising these animals.” Tajima is also the breed that produces the famed Kobe beef, a delicacy known for its flavor, melt-in-your-mouth fattiness, and beautiful marbling.
The two began crossbreeding Tajima and Hereford cattle until their cows were considered “purebred wagyu,” meaning they are 7/8ths wagyu. “The beef we raise is uniquely a Hudson Valley product—a combination of the care we provide, the hay we grow to feed them, and the knowledge we’ve gained in the time we’ve been doing this,” explains Becky.
Catskill Wagyu runs a closed herd, meaning every animal sent to harvest was born and raised in Accord, tended by farmer hands and fed fodder Hilltop grew. This loop, in which the farmland feeds the cows who then fertilize the land in return, is important for herd health and allows the farm to maintain consistency from a breeding standpoint.
“Cattle should live as cattle, in a herd with a herd leader, wandering pastures and woods freely, being born and growing under the sunshine and stars,” says Becky, whose leader is named Lil. The farmers gently scratch their itches and brush dirt from their coats with a curry comb. “We know our animals because we spend so much time observing and interacting with them. And they know us.”
Wagyu lovers can get to know the cattle on tours, starting this spring. “What’s most important to us are the cows. By letting visitors connect directly with them, they respect and honor the value of every single piece of food on their plates,” says Becky. “We believe the love and care they receive is why the beef we raise tastes so good.”
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