VG Meats

VG Meats is a third-generation family business based in Simcoe, Ontario, in Norfolk County. The Van Groningen family has been raising and butchering meat for Ontario families since the 1970s, and the business is now run by four brothers, Chad, Kevin, Kyle and Cory, each handling a different side of the operation: butchering and processing, food science, customer service and farming. At least one family member is involved in every step from farm to package.

The family runs two farms. Their cow-calf operation sits on a hilltop in Cayuga, just outside Simcoe, and their home farm in Simcoe, two concessions from their retail store and processing plant, raises cattle on pasture and pigs in the beech wood bush. They also work with a small group of southern Ontario farmers who follow the same farming mandate and practices.

VG Meats specializes in small-herd, high-care beef. Keeping herds small lets them maintain close animal care and humane handling, and every animal is fully traceable, with records of where it was raised, its age and what it was fed. Cattle are raised without growth-promoting hormones or implants, and animals get fresh air year-round. Antibiotics are never used as a feed additive, and are given only to treat a sick animal when necessary, with the full withdrawal period observed before any meat reaches a customer.

VG Meats was the first in Canada to tenderness-test their beef, and the family is active in regenerative agriculture and holistic planned grazing in Ontario. All of their products are born, raised, fed, processed and packaged in Ontario.