CHAMPION, Ohio (WKBN) -- A local businessman is taking on a new business endeavor: Selling beef raised on his land in Trumbull County.
Omega Door Company owner John Thompson raises some of his cattle on a 300-acre property tucked away in Champion, at Hidden Acres Cattle Company.
Thompson moved to the Mahoning Valley 25 years ago for his business but grew up on a cattle farm in Missouri.
"It's hard to take the farm out of the boy, so to speak," said Thompson.
He bought a few cows years later after purchasing some property, starting off with a few Scottish Highlands. Thompson added two Wagyu heifers and a bull to cross breed after tasting a Wagyu steak, gradually growing his herd during the pandemic.
"Quite frankly, I think it's a really good steak -- it has a great taste and it's not too fatty," Thompson said.
Thompson calls the cows his passion project which he, in turn, turned into a business.
"Just woke up one day and said, 'You know what? We have the land, we have the cows -- let's see if this works,'" Thompson said.
And so the Hidden Acres Cattle Company was born, selling beef from Thompson's cattle.
"It's a thousand pounds of meat apiece, so that's a lot of meat," Thompson said. "I have two that are waiting to be butchered, and five in the next year to butcher ... So that's where we are now. We have enough to butcher and enough in the pipeline."
All of which is pasture-raised right here in Trumbull County, without hormones or antibiotics.
"It's as natural as you can get," Thompson said. "We don't artificially insemenate -- we have a bull that does that for free."
Local customers can place beef orders online and pick it up at the Hidden Oaks Golf Course in Vienna.