How Mozart and massages are helping create the perfect steak (2024)

Gerhard Baden was Australia's crane king in the '80s and '90s, but swapped mechanical beasts for the bovine kind upon retirement and subsequently built another empire - wagyu beef at his Schottlanders Farm at Gerringong on the NSW south coast.

Once owner of the GM Baden crane dealership, which became the nation's prime dealership and distributor, he and his wife Maria moved to the South Coast for a quieter life.

"It was always a hobby and it still is a hobby, although it's a hobby gone insane," he laughed.

"Being a business person I'm trying to make some money out of it, which seems to be extraordinarily difficult."

In 2007 their then 96-hectare farm, took on a small herd of wagyu cattle - 20 cows and a bull - but the hobby now exceeds 700 animals living in resort-style comfort across two farms (Gerringong and Bolong) of around 174 hectares.

These house guests can roam happily down to a running creek or gaze at a spectacular view of the Gerringong coast, they are accustomed to regular massages, ample meals including tofu products, oats, corn and rye, plus private classical music recitals.

The 73-year-old explained there are around 200 permanent residents for breeding, where the animals are born and spend their entire life at Schottlanders.

He tends to "the girls" seven days a week with the help of a handful of others (including one whose job is to look after the cows' wellbeing).

For many city folk the idea of Mozart and massages to create the perfect steak almost seems like an urban legend, but it is real and happening on the South Coast.

"I was born on a dairy farm and 60 years ago they used to play music at the dairy," the German expat said.

"Already then they said the cows look better when there's music. So it's not new stuff."

When starting out, he visited a farm in Western Australia when all of a sudden music started blaring from an old rusted Toyota as they walked through the paddocks.

"I looked at him and said what's the story? He says 'the animals can put on a kilo a day, but if they're under stress [they wont] and can even lose weight' ... so I came back and did the absolute same thing," Baden recalled.

"People say 'does it work?' I don't know, but it's good the animals like it."

But how does a highly successful crane king suddenly become sought after by some of the South Coast's finest restaurants you wonder?

The idea was sparked more than 20 years ago during one of Baden's many crane-sourcing trips to Japan. He was dining with one of the then-richest men in the country and experienced a meal that would ultimately change his life.

"There was a piece of round Kobe steak and it would have been 60 or 70 millimetres thick and about 100 millimetres in diameter ... and the guy cut it with a spatula and that's what stuck in my mind. I just thought "how can you cut frigging steak with a spatula?'" he said.

"It blew me away."

He couldn't stop thinking about the sublime flavour and texture of this unique type of beef, and decided on the plane home he wanted to return to his childhood roots of farming (having grown up on a German dairy).

Baden has 12 bulls for breeding though does keep variety in the genes with some artificial insemination, however he said he does like nature to take its course.

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"I'm still a farmer and I like animals and we look after them, they get the best life that possibly can while they're with us," he said.

"A normal breeding cow probably comes to the end [of their life] between 10 and 12 years. Well, we've got cows that are still bearing calves at 16 and 17. That is the lifestyle and the way we look after them ... that allows nature to do that."

A happy cow is one that pokes its tongue out, often seen as they snuggle up to one of the various massage machines (many equipped with speakers wafting meditation music).

Baden admitted he has tried the machines on himself but it doesn't quite give the same effect.

"How we look after cows is second to none," he said. "Animal welfare is the top of our list, and we always have done so from the very beginning."

Around 110 of Baden's heard are turned into steaks each year, and can be found at several restaurants between the South Coast to Bankstown, such as Debutant in the heart of Wollongong.

The retiree admitted he knew very little about farming cattle in the beginning but after putting long hours in seven days a week for more than 20 years, he has a wealth of knowledge.

"If I didn't love what I do you wouldn't be doing this," Baden smiled.

"I could be investing my money somewhere else and sit on the beach and watch the world go by, but that's not me ... it's living the dream."