How this Australian farming family changed the game on prime-end beef
The Blackmore’s blue-chip wagyu business, which sells breeding cows to Gina Rinehart and beautifully marbled meats to the world’s top chefs, is transitioning from father to son.
Bloodlines are crucial to the Blackmore family. They are the genesis of their award-winning premium wagyu beef business and central to the ongoing dominance of their farming family, now in its sixth generation.
Ben Blackmore is taking up a new mantle from his father David, who is credited with introducing 100 per cent full-blood wagyu to Australia in the early 1990s. David Blackmore pioneered an new approach to farming, fusing traditional Japanese techniques with modern scientific methods.
In the past 30 years, Blackmore Wagyu has built a reputation as one of the best wagyu producers in the world. It’s a staple on the menus of leading local and international chefs from more than 15 countries. So coveted is the product that Blackmore is forced to turn away prospective purchasers.
“One of the key factors that really helped launch the product back in the early days was its use at the Academy Awards [the beef was served at the Governor’s Ball] in the US in 2005,” Ben Blackmore says.
“Chefs like Neil Perry have long championed our product. He introduced it to US chef Thomas Keller, who runs the French Laundry [Napa Valley] and Per Se in New York. But it’s not just Neil – there have been many strong supporters over the years, like Shannon Bennett, Matt Moran and Peter Gilmore.”
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Others include Clare Smyth from Core in London and Oncore in Sydney and Australian chef Dave Pynt, of Burnt Ends in Singapore. Curtis Stone is now the US distributor and uses the prime product in his restaurants.
Stone says Blackmore’s attention to detail and commitment to animal care and management are exceptional. “The flavour is crazy! It’s rich and buttery but still has a great mineral earthiness to it, I think because [the cow] spends so much time eating grass,” Stone says.
Wagyu is famous for its complex marbling, with fine streaks of monounsaturated fat woven throughout the muscle. This marbling gives the meat its signature tenderness and flavour. Blackmore Wagyu is meticulously bred, combining Japan’s three most famous bloodlines: Tajima from Hyogo prefecture, Itozakura from Shimane prefecture, and Kedaka from Tottori prefecture. “Over 90 per cent of what’s called wagyu in Australia is crossbreed wagyu. We do what they call full-blood wagyu, which is 100 per cent wagyu mother and wagyu father, and that guarantees the fat and muscle content,” Blackmore says.
Farming is in Blackmore’s blood, but he wasn’t necessarily destined to take over the family business. The 43-year-old and his three older sisters grew up on a farm near Serpentine, a small town in north-west Victoria, before moving to a 1400-hectare breeding property at Kalkallo on the outskirts of Melbourne in his mid-teens.
“I remember standing on the ute seat when I was probably five, steering while Dad was feeding out hay on the back,” he recalls.
He attended Trinity Grammar in Melbourne’s Kew for years 11 and 12 and then began a business marketing degree at Monash University. “At that stage, I had no interest in farming,” Blackmore says.
But on weekends and holidays he would return to the farm and pitch in, “doing all those jobs no one else wanted to do”.
“It was during that time that I realised there was more to farming than just farming. It was becoming agribusiness. We needed to consider various factors, like exchange rates for exports, marketing, branding, all those different types of things that a normal business would consider.”
Despite his renewed interest in farming, his father wasn’t keen for him to join the family business immediately.
“Dad didn’t want me to learn what he knew. He believed I should focus on things he didn’t know. So, I worked for two Japanese meat companies before returning to help Mum and Dad. I did that for just over five years,” Blackmore says.
Just after graduating, he met his now wife of 18 years, Rebecca, who has a PhD in psychology and was, ironically, a vegetarian. The couple now have three eager meat-eating boys, Hugo, 10, Liam, 8, and Jack, 6.
“Rebecca was [vegetarian] when I first met her, but that soon changed. Her main focus was knowing where the animal came from and that it had been well looked-after. She believed that if the animal had a great life, with one bad day, it’s OK.”
Blackmore’s ascension from hands-on farmer to marketing, chief executive and, ultimately, owner has been a decade in the making.
“Like most young people, you’re quite impatient and want things to happen quicker than they actually do,” he says.
“Looking back, it was probably a structured and gradual transition. It’s an important part of ensuring that the succession plan is effective. Many businesses fail in the second and third generations and we were very conscious of that — we didn’t want to see it happen to this business.”
Savvy decisions along the way have also helped propel the brand into its next chapter. “At one point, we sold 1000 breeding cows to Gina Rinehart, which was significant for us. We didn’t necessarily need wagyu females to get wagyu calves. If we have enough wagyu females to collect embryos, we can put them in a surrogate and still maintain a breeding herd,” Blackmore says.
He acknowledges they can’t compete with the expanding scale of global agribusinesses, but they maximise their more bespoke approach.
“We can’t compete with the big corporates or the Gina Rineharts of the world. Just the other day, she bought an additional farm for $70 million. That’s not even in the realm of something we could consider doing. I think in the past 10 years, she’s become the largest wagyu owner outside of Japan, possibly even the world.
“From our perspective, we aim to specialise not by getting bigger but by becoming more specialised. This means producing unique products for our customers, something distinctive that they may not have encountered before.”
“The large producers of wagyu wouldn’t have the skillset or ability to do that. Any of our customers can call either me or Dad anytime. That’s not likely to happen in larger companies.”
Singapore-based chef Dave Pynt, whose Michelin-starred restaurant is rated 15th in Asia’s top 50, says that personal approach helps Blackmore stand out from the herd.
“We’ve been working with them for close to 10 years now. Whenever they’ve got these niche projects they’re working on, we get to chat with them about it,” Pynt says.
“This helps us understand the heritage behind why they’re producing this beef, what we should expect, and all the unique properties we can then relay to our guests. It’s pretty rare to come across such an intimate, specialised product anywhere in the world.”
Blackmore runs 4000 cattle across four properties in Alexandra, Romsey, Benalla and Finley, totalling 3230 hectares.
“It’s quite small. So, what we can do is really look after each animal throughout its life,” Blackmore says. Their product, which is pre-sold before it is produced, commands a premium price tag, selling for between $400 and $700 per kilogram in restaurants. “It takes four years to produce, from the time the cow is pregnant to when it hits the plate. For regular beef, it’s half that time, and there are plenty of costs involved. It’s the difference between producing a Toyota and a Rolls-Royce,” Blackmore says.
While business is booming, it is not without challenges. “Wagyu is probably one of the hardest industries to break into. It’s hugely prohibitive just because of the high cost to be involved and to be able to produce a consistent product,” Blackmore says.
“There are lots of challenges around managing that supply chain. The biggest one at the moment is the weather. We’ve had the driest start to a year for almost 20 years. At this point, it’s crucial to ensure the animals receive the necessary nutrition to raise their calves, have enough for themselves, and produce enough milk to do so.”
When it comes to regulatory issues, Blackmores says the recent announcement of US tariffs on Australian beef will have little impact on their business. They are already fielding inquiries from other markets including Canada and Mexico.
“Ultimately, I don’t think there is going to be a significant effect on our business in the US. We’re in a very fortunate position where our product is in demand, allowing us to set terms with our customers that eliminate currency risk. It’s ever-evolving, but that’s why we have a diversified market,” Blackmore says.
This story is from the May issue of WISH.
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