100%

[Travlr]

I think the biggest gains in meat quality would be using Wagyu on Brahman influenced cattle, but I don't think that will happen to any significant degree.

What I think is more feasible is, bcs of sexed semen, dairies no longer need to breed the whole herd for dairy replacements. Using Wagyu on the bottom 1/2 of dairy herds in Europe could provide a local source of high quality beef to a very large European market.

"WAG" (Japanese) "yu" (beef/cattle/cows) means nothing more than "Japanese beef". There are four main breeds of Wagyu. It is not necessarily well marbled much less "Kobe" (extreme marbling).

Breeding a typical "Wagyu" to anything is only going to result in a small calf that will never be "Kobe". Good heifer bulls, but I wouldn't expect much at the sale barn. Maybe good prices advertised in a niche market due to people not knowing but enthused with the hype, but they may be disappointed once they open the packages.

There seems to be a lot of confusion associated with "Wagyu"... but if people are breeding for the extreme marbling and get it to show up in crossbreeding it will be interesting. If that happens people will be getting the hype they were expecting.

 

[Son of Butch]

Breeding a typical "Wagyu" to [just] anything... will never be "Kobe".

Black Wagyu has the highest marbling of any breed in America.
Breeding to Brahma and Holsteins will increase the % grading choice and prime.
As I said, I think Europe is the market with the best large scale opportunity.
But South American beef certainly is in need of a quality upgrade too.
I was disappointed with the quality of beef I was served in South America.

Kobe can only be produced in Japan and "Champagne" can only be produced in France. But I actually prefer knock-off Californian & Italian "sparkling wines."

 

[Stickney94]

As evidenced by Arby's offering a "wagyu burger" it's quite possible that the wagyu trend is nearing bursting/jumping the shark.

Having raised F1 Wagyu for several years -- if you breed a quality wagyu sire to quality cows -- your time to slaughter should not vary much from your other calves and they will grade and taste very well.

The extreme marbling results in actual Kobe beef/Japanese A5 grade beef is a different process (36+ month to finish) with different goals -- but even there data and genetics are at work cutting time to slaughter substantially (I've heard examples of 24-27 months with similar results).

I will agree, wagyu influenced cattle may not always look that appealing on the hoof, but they look very nice on the plate.

 

[cowgirl8]

"WAG" (Japanese) "yu" (beef/cattle/cows) means nothing more than "Japanese beef". There are four main breeds of Wagyu. It is not necessarily well marbled much less "Kobe" (extreme marbling).

Breeding a typical "Wagyu" to anything is only going to result in a small calf that will never be "Kobe". Good heifer bulls, but I wouldn't expect much at the sale barn. Maybe good prices advertised in a niche market due to people not knowing but enthused with the hype, but they may be disappointed once they open the packages.

There seems to be a lot of confusion associated with "Wagyu"... but if people are breeding for the extreme marbling and get it to show up in crossbreeding it will be interesting. If that happens people will be getting the hype they were expecting.

The guy we got the bulls from, yearlings, he got from another guy who paid a ton of money for his stock. He got cows and bulls and planned to breed full waygus. He set up a little ranch and hired someone to care for it. He did not market them so he lost interest. The guy who sold us his yearlings, got the cows as payment for something. He's not in the cattle business, but has some land and what the heck, put some cows on it. He's had a lot of trouble with them. But, one day we chatted with him across the fence. He mentioned the waygus and was going to have his first calves in a few months. I told him at that time that i'd be interested in a bull. I figured they'd be better than a longhorn that would more than likely put spots on the calves. I may advertise at least the calves i know are not out of the black w/f bull... and of course i have really no way of telling without a DNA test, anything can happen right. BUt if they grow good, next year i might throw in some older cows and see what i get. We have a line of simbras that grow like a mutant..I think the cross would be good.

 

[cowgirl8]

Here is one of our Magoo calves. I now call them magoo instead of waygu, maybe thats what waygu means in Japanese.. I think i can safely say this calf is not out of our black W/F

 

[MurraysMutts]

When they come out red are they akaushi?

Magoo!
Love that!

 

[cowgirl8]

When they come out red are they akaushi?

Magoo!
Love that!

I dont think so. I think that is a different line of magoos. My daughters are coming out black, but for some reason some of ours are red. Cow may be out of a red cows and the magoos are not angus black, they are like a very dark brown, looks black, but i dont think its like a black black....