Wagyu X Calves

[WAnabee]

Wagyu/Jersey cross is the way to go

Could you please elaborate? I'm considering trying a few of these crosses. Wondering what kinds of results one might expect.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

Mostly that was joke, but I think there is a place for a few J/W cross, or Angus/Waygu cross, That would be a selling point for some people wanting beef and buy from a farm raised butcher shop, Whole/half/hind quarter, or just steaks for tonight! But NOT at the sale barn!

 

[WAnabee]

Ha, i figured there was about a 50/50 chance you were serious. I was serious though, here's why: In my area there are several jersey dairies that essentially give away their bull calves. I would think at least one of them could be convinced to AI to a wagyu bull if they would get something for the calves. I sell freezer beef and retail cuts as USDA cut/wrap is available locally. Im pretty sure i could market some "F1 wagyu" beef easier than another cross. This thought of mine is all based on wild speculation that calf prices for the next year or two might make buying feeder calves to raise and sell for beef less attractive, so this could be a way around that. Of course the cows should be getting bred soon if i wanted to sell the beef from the calves by 2026-2027. I dunno I might be getting carried away. I agree also, taking them to my local sale barn you might not recover your gas money.

 

[Stickney94]

Ha, i figured there was about a 50/50 chance you were serious. I was serious though, here's why: In my area there are several jersey dairies that essentially give away their bull calves. I would think at least one of them could be convinced to AI to a wagyu bull if they would get something for the calves. I sell freezer beef and retail cuts as USDA cut/wrap is available locally. Im pretty sure i could market some "F1 wagyu" beef easier than another cross. This thought of mine is all based on wild speculation that calf prices for the next year or two might make buying feeder calves to raise and sell for beef less attractive, so this could be a way around that. Of course the cows should be getting bred soon if i wanted to sell the beef from the calves by 2026-2027. I dunno I might be getting carried away. I agree also, taking them to my local sale barn you might not recover your gas money.

I have a jersey cow and a jersey/angus cross cow. I've never crossed Wagyu x Jersey -- but I have bred the x-bred to wagyu (AI).

If you have patience and a good feeding program it would probably work fine as private sale beef. They will grow slow. They should marble very well. They will not be very attractive in terms of muscling/beefiness. But they probably will look superb on the plate . There are definitely large scale dairies crossing wagyu x holstein (I assume by jersey as well).

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Ha, i figured there was about a 50/50 chance you were serious. I was serious though, here's why: In my area there are several jersey dairies that essentially give away their bull calves. I would think at least one of them could be convinced to AI to a wagyu bull if they would get something for the calves. I sell freezer beef and retail cuts as USDA cut/wrap is available locally. Im pretty sure i could market some "F1 wagyu" beef easier than another cross. This thought of mine is all based on wild speculation that calf prices for the next year or two might make buying feeder calves to raise and sell for beef less attractive, so this could be a way around that. Of course the cows should be getting bred soon if i wanted to sell the beef from the calves by 2026-2027. I dunno I might be getting carried away. I agree also, taking them to my local sale barn you might not recover your gas money.

Just remember, you will be sacrificing a lot of muscling for marbling. I don't know how long this fad for "Wagyu" meat will last. Having more white meat than red is unappealing to me.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

I am cutting way back on my cow numbers. and I have considered buying a waygu bull and marketing them for freezer beef beef and I've also considered buying a couple of Jerseys just for the heck of it to see what they look like, but I'm 75 with some health issues, and been hit in dahead w/2x4 several times so I don't think to clear sometimes

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

Ha, i figured there was about a 50/50 chance you were serious. I was serious though, here's why: In my area there are several jersey dairies that essentially give away their bull calves. I would think at least one of them could be convinced to AI to a wagyu bull if they would get something for the calves. I sell freezer beef and retail cuts as USDA cut/wrap is available locally. Im pretty sure i could market some "F1 wagyu" beef easier than another cross. This thought of mine is all based on wild speculation that calf prices for the next year or two might make buying feeder calves to raise and sell for beef less attractive, so this could be a way around that. Of course the cows should be getting bred soon if i wanted to sell the beef from the calves by 2026-2027. I dunno I might be getting carried away. I agree also, taking them to my local sale barn you might not recover your gas money.

I personally think that would work on a small-scale as far as I know. There are no Jersey Darius, close to me.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

Darn this auto correct voice to text I hate Google most of the times

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

Just remember, you will be sacrificing a lot of muscling for marbling. I don't know how long this fad for "Wagyu" meat will last. Having more white meat than red is unappealing to me.

IMO this "fad" will last several, several years, just don't get carried away like the ostrich breeders did. Or like I heard about a local alpaca breeder that paid $30K for 1... Are they edible, , must have been for the write off,

 

[WAnabee]

IMO this "fad" will last several, several years, just don't get carried away like the ostrich breeders did. Or like I heard about a local alpaca breeder that paid $30K for 1... Are they edible, , must have been for the write off,

Yeah I hear ya. I wouldnt be interested in owning any wagyu or jersey breeding cows i dont think.

 

[WAnabee]

Just remember, you will be sacrificing a lot of muscling for marbling. I don't know how long this fad for "Wagyu" meat will last. Having more white meat than red is unappealing to me.

The sacrificing of muscling for marbling is certainly something to consider, especially since i sell a fair amount of retail cuts so i very much care about the yield. Do you know what kinds of yields you get from straight jersey? I imagine the cross might be slightly better but maybe not.

 

[Travlr]

The sacrificing of muscling for marbling is certainly something to consider, especially since i sell a fair amount of retail cuts so i very much care about the yield. Do you know what kinds of yields you get from straight jersey? I imagine the cross might be slightly better but maybe not.

Straight Jersey dress out about 50% of live weight and meat to bone ratio is pretty low due to low muscle mass. Results vary just like any other animal due to feed and other factors.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

Ha, i figured there was about a 50/50 chance you were serious. I was serious though, here's why: In my area there are several jersey dairies that essentially give away their bull calves. I would think at least one of them could be convinced to AI to a wagyu bull if they would get something for the calves. I sell freezer beef and retail cuts as USDA cut/wrap is available locally. Im pretty sure i could market some "F1 wagyu" beef easier than another cross. This thought of mine is all based on wild speculation that calf prices for the next year or two might make buying feeder calves to raise and sell for beef less attractive, so this could be a way around that. Of course the cows should be getting bred soon if i wanted to sell the beef from the calves by 2026-2027. I dunno I might be getting carried away. I agree also, taking them to my local sale barn you might not recover your gas money.

I personally think that plan is workable, The only thing I would add/change, I would keep the Jersey/waygu heifer calves, and breed to Angus, but your lookin at 2030's before you get any return

 

[Dave]

I think getting "#1 price" is not enough. I know my neighbor B uses Wagyu bulls on his commercial heifers. He gets about 50 cents above the #1 price on beef calves the same size. These Wagyu cross calves will be much lighter. What is the dollars for a 400 pound #1 compared to the #1 price on a 550 pound. At the sale here today that 550 pounder brings in an extra $350. Two years ago I bought four 400 pound steers at the sale. They came from a former employee of B. I was concerned about one of them. B looked at them and said that one was a Wagyu cross. He had a load of F1 Wagyu calves going out the next week. We just added him to the load. I had paid $1.80 for the group. That Wagyu left for $2.40.

I can't imagine why anyone would use Jersey to breed to Wagyu. Taking 2 slow growing breeds and putting them together is just going to give you a slow growing calf.

 

[bird dog]

I can't imagine why anyone would use Jersey to breed to Wagyu. Taking 2 slow growing breeds and putting them together is just going to give you a slow growing calf.

I'm with Dave. Why don't you get the Jersey dairymen to AI a nice low birth weight sim angus and sell you all the calves.

 

[CrazyMRanch]

Wagyu grow slow but have better marbling. Depending on how long you feed them grain will determine how much marbling. Wagyu crossed with Angus/Brangus/Charolait would be best in my opinion. I say that as my herd bull is akaushi (Japanese red). The F1s with those breeds grow much quicker. My last two steers that I butchered were fed grain for the last 2.5 months of their lives. It was amazing. Not overly marbled but delicious. My brother fed his grain for 9.5 months. His had lots of fat. I think around 6 months might be the sweet spot but we're are still testing. The big one was 2 yrs old fed out for 9.5 months. The others were 1.5 years old fed out for 2.5 months. They had the amazing buttery flavor of the akaushi and were super tender. I'm sold on the breed and cross myself. Everyone that has had one of my steaks has fallen in love as well.

 

[Travlr]

Wagyu grow slow but have better marbling.

Looking at the meat I would never guess it is Wagyu... The image on the left has an amount of internal/cover fat that I would have had trimmed closer at the processor, but the marbling doesn't look any different than what I've gotten from non-Wagyu animals.

 

[WAnabee]

https://academic.oup.com/tas/article/3/4/1475/5529278?login=false study by Ohio State University, pretty interesting. They fed out purebred jersey, jersey cross w/Angus, SimAngus, and Red Wagyu. The results were not all what i would have guessed. The Wagyu had the best feed efficiency (on a live weight basis i believe), the Angus cross had the highest marbling, SimAngus cross had the highest daily gain. There is a lot of data in there but those were what stood out to me. The differences across breeds was not as pronounced as I might have thought.

 

[Dave]

The fall of 2022 there was about 160 weaned calves in my hay meadows. 80 of them were out of my one and done program. Which means they out of a wide variety of beef cows bred to unknown beef bulls. 20 or 30 were late calves from B's herd which made them mostly out of Angus cows bred to Charolais bulls. The remaining calves were F1 Wagyu crosses from B's commercial heifers. Calves mostly February/March born. Teh one and done calves were weaned in mid August. The Wagyu cross calves were weaned a month later. The beef calves had 75-100 pounds on the Wagyu calves. And those Wagyu calves had been on the cows a month longer. I remember an Angus heifer got sick. After doctoring her I did a closer inspection of the herd. I told B that about half the Wagyu calves looked to need doctoring. His reply was, "it is an acquired taste". None of the Wagyu calves actually got sick but they sure looked like death warmed over.

 

[rocfarm]

Now I'm starting to think I don't want to try it LOL.

I agree you don't want a Jersey Wagyu cross, unless the Dairy could perhaps find the right bull to AI to their cows to end up with a really marketable calf, like they are doing with the Holstein/angus right now.