Wagyu meat

[Commercialfarmer]

Read somewhere that the initial animals were procured and transported by less than honest means. Supposedly illegal to ship out of Japan.

Since it was on the internets must be true.

 

[Muddy]

Heard many Jersey steers are ranked so closer to wagyu in several contests. Seems tons of people liked Jersey beef more than any breed, even Wagyu.

 

[Son of Butch]

We've never owned one so i cant testify to it, but i've been told that the best eating beef comes from a jersy. Anyone here know first hand if this is a fact?

"Best eating beef" is completely subjective, so obviously it can't be a "fact." But a lot of people seem to like Jersey. I think I'd put Wagyu above Jersey as the "best" but as for "best value" I'd put Jersey above Wagyu.

I used to say Jersey steaks were as good as any I've ever eaten....until I had a steak from a Wagyu x holstein steer.
Only had Wagyu influenced beef from that 1 steer, but that was the best I've had and I know it wasn't because of the holstein.

 

[WalnutCrest]

We've never owned one so i cant testify to it, but i've been told that the best eating beef comes from a jersy. Anyone here know first hand if this is a fact?

We have done a very large number of private beef tasting events where we'll have unmarked beef (i.e., you don't know what you're eating until after you've turned in your score cards) of a wide variety of breeds all prepared exactly the same way (pinch of salt on both sides, butter smeared on the griddle to sear, then over an open gas flame to grill, then rest in a warming drawer).

Across all participants and across multiple events and multiple carcasses out of different management environments, dairy and dual purpose breeds (Aubrac, Pinzgauer, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.) and Bison-influenced carcasses rate more highly than the beef-only breeds (Galloway, Char, Beef Shorthorn, etc.) in almost (but not all!) instances. I think it has something to do with the genetics of the butter-fat content of the milk that translates through to the flavor profile of the intramuscular fat (Aubrac milk is very (!) high in butterfat).

The most consistently lowest scoring beef (by a mile) has been Belgian Blue x. Angus and "store bought". It was really interesting/funny that once, there was this foodie-type who was going on and on and on about organic this and grass-fed that who picked "store bought" as his favorite -- he tried to get his score card back to change his vote!

Typically, women like the dairy and dual purpose breeds substantially more than the beef-only breeds. In men, the scores are close, but still tilt towards the dairy and dual purpose breeds.

The biggest sampling we had was the following "menu" (going from memory):

Pasture-only Red Angus
Pasture-only Aubrac
Pasture-only Bison hybrid
Pasture-only Galloway
Pasture-only Guernsey

Grain finished Aubrac
Grain finished Beef Shorthorn
Grain finished Belgian Blue x. Angus
Grain finished Charolais
Grain finished Galloway
Grain finished Jersey
Grain finished Pinzgauer

Store Bought

************

While there was one or two people who preferred the Char and each of the two Galloway's as their personal top picks in this particular test, the top four (out of nearly 30 voters) was a pretty-near tie between pasture finished Aubrac, pasture finished Bison Hybrid, Grain finished Jersey and Grain finished Pinzgauer. Nobody had the Red Angus or Beef Shorthorn on the top of their list. Other than the one foodie-type and one other person, nobody had "store bought" in their top three.

As it regards Wagyu / Kobi, I've never tried any that I was told ahead of time was Wagyu / Kobi beef.

 

[J&D Cattle]

My family and several others have butchered Jersey steers for about 10 years. We really enjoy it and have had many happy customers.

 

[Muddy]

We've never owned one so i cant testify to it, but i've been told that the best eating beef comes from a jersy. Anyone here know first hand if this is a fact?

"Best eating beef" is completely subjective, so obviously it can't be a "fact." But a lot of people seem to like Jersey. I think I'd put Wagyu above Jersey as the "best" but as for "best value" I'd put Jersey above Wagyu.

I used to say Jersey steaks were as good as any I've ever eaten....until I had a steak from a Wagyu x holstein steer.
Only had Wagyu influenced beef from that 1 steer, but that was the best I've had and I know it wasn't because of the holstein.

I don't know that, Holsteins were good beef as well.

 

[Muddy]

My family and several others have butchered Jersey steers for about 10 years. We really enjoy it and have had many happy customers.

Same with my uncle, he raises Jersey steers and he has very strong customer base for Jersey beef. He used to raising 3-4 steers, now he has 25 Jersey and Jersey cross steers around.

 

[tamarack]

I just ordered semen from Wagyu bull in semenx catalog they say that to get the marbleing you need a double copy of one gene and all their bulls are tested for it and have it so when crossed once the offspring should have marbleing of Wagyu. They have 3 black bulls and a red to choose from.Will let you know how i make out but it will have to be a 2 year project so i have a long way to go.

What did you order?
I have 3 simmental heifers confirmed pg to the Full Blood Wagyu bull Takamichi Doi linked below
And a daughter of WSI Umemaru that I plan to A.I. to him in June.

http://www.baywagyu.com/AboutOurHerd-TakamichiDoi.html

I cant remember the name right now but he is first one in new Semenx catalog looks like a fair bull,i willget you the name later

 

[Commercialfarmer]

What are you all's opinion on the age to slaughter these F1 cattle and are they all grass finished or can they be grain finished? I've seen conflicting statements.

 

[cowgirl8]

We just had a sim/angus slaughtered and they hung it over 30 days. I've had some of the burger and it was really good. This was a cow who was born with something like C Palsy. She didnt walk around much due to her disability, and she was getting too heavy so we were worried she'd get stuck in a pond before we could haul her off ... She was large, fat and grass fed. We gave her to our kids to have processed, i only asked for a pound of burger and a pack of steaks.

 

[R.T.]

Back in the 1980's 4 Bull 2 black 2 red shipped/other means to USA.
Landed on a Williamson County ranch. Breeding to a commercial herd black
angus cows. They kept all 1/2 heifers and kept line breeding back until
15/16 was able to register. Nothing was culled just a dash to get the pure as
possible waygu. The 15/16 and 31/32 shipped Canada and austrila . Marble testing
compare done several time A&M.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Here's an interesting article on the practices of raising Wagyu/Kobe beef:
http://www.blackmorewagyu.com/beer-and- ... nese-beef/

 

[gizmom]

I have a friend I call her the Wagyu Queen that lives just down the road from us. She got into the Wagyu a few years ago, and is doing pretty dang well with the breed. She purchased five registered heifers from us to make half bloods and she can't make them fast enough. I have to admire her, she started with a dream and is making it a reality. She has a really neat story, check out her web site.

http://redbullcattlecompany.com/farm-wagyu-angus.html

I have seen her bulls and I swear they are some of the best looking Wagyu you will ever set your eyes on. I am not a fan of the breed but I am a fan of the carcass traits that the breed has to offer, as well as the taste of the meat.

I have never had Jersey meat but Mr. Calvin Winter once told me that the best steak he had ever eaten was off a Jersey and trust me Mr.Calvin had eaten a bunch of steak. He died a number of years ago, I wish I knew if he had ever tried Wagyu I would love to ask his opinion on it. Mr. Calvin was a wonderful mentor to us when we were just getting started in the cattle business.

gizmom

 

[M.Magis]

http://redbullcattlecompany.com/farm-wagyu-angus.html

I have seen her bulls and I swear they are some of the best looking Wagyu you will ever set your eyes on.
gizmom

I would have to agree. They are head and shoulders above any other wagyu bulls I've seen. Not that I've seen a lot.

I think most people forget that when dealing with wagyu, the goal isn't necessarily the most pounds of beef like most of us are used to. Good thing too, because most of the ones I've seen aren't going to provide much meat.

 

[Muddy]

For some reason, these Red wagyu looks like very nice thicker animals and less ugly than black wagyu.

 

[cow pollinater]

There is a large breeder just up the road from me. I assumed they were raising half bloods when I saw the cattle but they corrected me. The only non purebred waygu on the place are recips and some of them are pretty decent looking cattle. A little frail but I've seen angus that were just as bad. They breed for balance and not pure marbling though so that may have something to do with it. Other than that I've only been around the bulls as lots of ranches in CA use them on heifers and have the calves on contract before they are even conceived and if I didn't know what they were I'd have probably shot a few of them and told the owner I saved his girls from an escaped fighting bull from the charro rodeo.
As far as the jersey, yes it marbles really well and is tender. The downside is that the fat is yellow no matter how you feed them and tasted "different" and the cuts are small at best. My big customer when I was in CA tried to develop a market for the steers at high end restraunts as the portions there are small and the yellow fat was the killer.

 

[WalnutCrest]

You might be able to blame the yellow fat (and flavor of the fat) on the high butterfat content of the milk. I've long suspected they gene sequencing is the same / very similar.

 

[Muddy]

You might be able to blame the yellow fat (and flavor of the fat) on the high butterfat content of the milk. I've long suspected they gene sequencing is the same / very similar.

It's more diet thing than butterfat milk.

 

[WalnutCrest]

You might be able to blame the yellow fat (and flavor of the fat) on the high butterfat content of the milk. I've long suspected they gene sequencing is the same / very similar.

It's more diet thing than butterfat milk.

You didn't read what CP said. I wasn't doubting his observation as I have no experience raising Jersey steers ... so if you've got a bone to pick, look him up ... not me.

<snip> As far as the jersey, yes it marbles really well and is tender. The downside is that the fat is yellow no matter how you feed them <snip>

 

[cow pollinater]

You might be able to blame the yellow fat (and flavor of the fat) on the high butterfat content of the milk. I've long suspected they gene sequencing is the same / very similar.

You are correct. The yellow fat comes from two copies of the butterfat/protein gene. Guernsys do it to. The jersey association used to test for it but it got to be a waste of time as testing for components would tell you which cattle had it and which didn't.