Raising fullblood Wagyu cattle

Raising Wagyu cattle is different from raising other cattle. With an average daily gain of around 1 kg, they need a longer time to develop. The slow gain is both a blessing and a curse, it’s the reason why they can gain so much more intermuscular fat, but it takes a lot of feed which makes them more expensive to raise.

The diet is a science in itself. Wagyu cattle eat a high-energy diet. To get the inherited quality that wagyu cattle are well-known for, it’s hard to finish them only on grass.

It is not only feed, genetics has a huge role.

To raise the beef that is sought after by a lot of people isn’t only feed. The pedigree of Wagyu cattle is equally important if not more important. There are different ways to select your breeding animals, some select based on the merit of the maternal line and bull. You can select with the data from the dam and sire, out of progenies. The newest way to select your fullblood Wagyu breeding stock is with genomics. It has long been utilized in dairy cattle, to analyze the DNA from the calf itself. Now it has come to Wagyu cattle also, which makes for one more tool to select from.
In reality, most farmers do use all three to some degree. It makes for certainty in what you are breeding, and since it takes around 4 years from the breeding decision to hang on the rail with a result takes 4 years. Taking all things into consideration is not a bad idea. With genomics, you get a indict of what the calf can do early on.

Raised in a stress-free environment

It’s always important to raise cattle stress-free. But with wagyu cattle where meat quality is the most important attribute, raising the stress-free becomes the number one priority. Stress releases hormones and adrenalin which leads to muscle tension, which courses less marbling and tenderness in the meat.
Among the things that we have control over, are transport, handling, changing in the herd, and weaning the stressful factors we can control.
We have among other things started using nose flaps, to prevent stress at weaning and make sure the Wagyu calves have a smooth transition and keep eating.