Farms to Tables 2025: Priors deliver decadence with Wagyu beef in Brussels

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

While Brussels’ Tim and Donna Prior aren’t the only Wagyu farmers in the region, they surely were among the first and have been among the most prolific since they took the leap 17 years ago.

 

Sitting down with Tim and Donna on the expansive patio of their beautiful home on the bucolic 100-acre Grazing Meadows farm, just east of Brussels, Tim says he’s been telling anyone who asks that he’s been in Wagyu beef for 10 years now. After saying that for a few years, ahead of our interview, he thought he should properly check, and confirmed that they bought their first pair of animals 17 years ago.

 

It began simply enough. Tim was at a conference and listened to two Australian Wagyu beef farmers speak, discussing the animals and the unique nature of the beef they provide. Wagyu beef comes from four principal Japanese breeds of cattle and it is known for its extreme fat marbling and exceptional taste. For its quality and rarity, it is among the most expensive meats in the world and can often be found on the tables of the rich and famous and in the kitchens of some of the best restaurants in the world.

 

The pair speaking at the conference must have made a very convincing argument, extolling the virtues of Wagyu beef, because Tim was ready to learn more. He and Donna had been farming traditional beef for a few years at that point and when he returned, he had a proposition for her.

 

Now, Tim didn’t grow up on a farm. He grew up in Brussels, but as a teacher’s son in town, so he came to farming completely on his own. He worked on a farm for some time in his younger years and he just connected with it in a way that he didn’t with school work, studying and being in a classroom. 

 

He attended the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus and everything just fell into place, not only for his career path forward, but that was also where he met Donna. From there, he returned to Brussels and the rest is history. They now have a profitable Wagyu beef farm, own The Cowboy Loft, one of the premier western-style outfitters in the province, as well as Brussels Agri Services, another large farm business in the area, and live a comfortable life that is, increasingly, being populated with grandchildren.

 

However, all of those years ago, they had a decision to make. To start their own Wagyu herd, they needed some animals. They started humbly with two to breed at a cost of $12,500 per animal. 

 

They had just invested $25,000 into a GIC, only for Tim to return to Donna - bringing the proposition back to the Board of Directors, as he puts it - to discuss using that money to take their farm in a new direction. Not only did Tim have to convince Donna, but she didn’t have the experience with the pitch that Tim did, so she had to wholly trust him on this venture and believe that he knew what he was doing.

 

One thing that really helped to make up their minds was when they first ate Wagyu beef, prepared by a professional chef. It just so happened that they were due to take a vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada, so, while there, they sought it out and indulged for the first time. After that, their minds were made up.

 

They kept their traditional beef cattle herd, but began growing their Wagyu fleet as well. They bred the first two and ended up with two females after that first round, which was a good start. From there, the herd has steadily grown to the point that the Priors are now making money from their Wagyu beef sales, much of which are from outside of Huron County, both to individual customers and high-end restaurants in Kitchener, London, Toronto and beyond.

 

He also points out that Wagyu calves have a longer timeline to finish - 27 or 28 months, compared to the traditional 16 to 20 for an Angus beef calf or any other traditional commercial breed. The longer maturation period, he says, helps to produce the brand’s famous marbling.

 

In those early years, the Priors were early adopters of online shopping and direct-to-customer sales of their farm’s bounty. This is something that many area farms have come around to in recent years, especially in the time since the COVID-19 pandemic, but, in the early 2010s, very few farms in Huron County had embraced that technology.

 

Having said that, Tim admits that his early website work was rudimentary, basically listing the cuts and packages offered and leading customers to call him to arrange for purchase, payment and pick-up. But, it did work and customers began finding him and his beef, leading to positive word-of-mouth and growth at the farm in subsequent years.

 

The growth of his Wagyu operation has coincided with his work preaching the good word of rotational grazing, the importance of fencing and more. These all work with what is being done at Brussels Agri Services, as well as grazing seminars he has hosted and group trips he has arranged all over the world.

 

To the Wagyu end of things, Tim has hosted many customers and chefs at his farm and, in turn, he has eaten in many of the restaurants that carry their product. As a humble farmer who enjoys a fine meal, Tim says he’s always amazed when he sees what a creative, talented chef can do with his beef. They enjoy it frequently at home, he says, but it’s often a simple, barbecued steak with seasonal vegetables. To see the creativity, flavour-matching and more that a professional can bring to the table, Tim said, can be truly inspiring.

 

Continuing to grow with and adapt to the times, Tim and Donna’s Grazing Meadows now has a comprehensive and robust online and social media presence (they have followed the same model with their retail businesses, with Tim saying that The Cowboy Loft now has full-time employees dedicated to picking the thousands of online orders they fulfill and ship every year).

 

The Grazing Meadows website includes information on different cuts, the history of the farm’s livestock, a photo gallery and, of course, the full shop, which includes packages beginning at $170 each for 6.75 pounds, up to $465 for 11 pounds for the “Ultimate Wagyu Steak Package”. It also includes single-steak prices, as well as a per-pound price that can go as high as $95 per pound for cuts like tenderloin, ribeye and New York strip steaks.

 

However, with Wagyu beef, it’s not all about steaks, the website also offers more unique Wagyu products, like burgers, bacon, jerky, brisket, ground beef, osso buco, sausage, tongue, cheeks, tallow and organs like heart, liver and more. They also carry merchandise like hats and farm-branded steak knives.

 

Really, it all comes down to the flavour of the beef, though, Tim says. He has become one of the county’s foremost advocates for Wagyu beef and will never turn down an opportunity to sing its praises or to convert a new fan who doesn’t know he’s a fan yet.
And, by adopting that principle, Tim says that he and Donna have met so many great, interesting people along the way, all of whom have been lovely to deal with and who very often become repeat customers who have a deep interest in how the farm works. 

 

For more information, visit grazingmeadowswagyu.com.