Wagyu

[Taurus]

I've seen few ranchers breeding their angus cows to Wagyu bulls these days and it kinda sparkled my interests into Wagyu. However I do not want any Wagyu bulls to covering my angus cows to produced slow-growing calves so I want to focus on getting a fullblood or a Wagyu x Angus heifer or cow to raising beef steers for our freezer and not for commerical purposes. Any tips of how to obtaining Wagyu?

 

[Engler]

Why not just AI a handful of cows Wagyu? I think that the semen is stocked by several of the major companies. Breed 10 @ 50% conception you'll get 5 calves, eat the steers and keep the heifers to make 1/4 blood calves.

 

[Taurus]

I never do A.I on my cows before and I've heard some stories that A.I often failed.

 

[dieselbeef]

so does the bull ...he just keeps trying

 

[Engler]

While AI is not as good as a bull (usually) you can get the cows bred to a really good bull for $50/head, including set up and paying the tech. If your bull is depreciating by $500/year plus the cost of feed it gets really close to a break even for much higher quality genetics.

Also this way you're not bringing in any new stock (diseases) and it's probably easier to find an AI sire to sample than what it will be to try to find either pure or percentage Wagyu females. If the calves are a crash and burn, you can eat them all and not be out much.

There are some on this board that are either 100% AI or close to it and they have great luck, or at least good enough luck to stay in business. I have some customers of mine that every year breed a handful of heifers Wagyu and have had good luck. Calves have won the county fair carcass contest and they love putting them in the freezer.

 

[slick4591]

A couple of big operations around here are producing the same cross. I've also heard they are in the planning stage of their own slaughter/packing facility.

 

[Taurus]

Ok I'm open to the ideas of A.I on some cows. But what cows I should pick out of our herd? I'm thinking of the yearling heifers (three blacks, one red angus and one black angus x beltie) or these angus cows with their first/second calves?

 

[Engler]

Are you managing those heifers away from the main herd now? If so they would probably be the easiest. For many of the synch programs to work the cows need to be at least 45-60 days post calving, so if you are going to use cows, do the ones that calved early.

 

[Massey135]

If your bull is depreciating by $500/year plus the cost of feed it gets really close to a break even for much higher quality genetics.

.

If you paid the kind of money whereas your bull depreciates at a rate of 5hundo/year, you should have some of the highest quality genetics there are.

 

[cow pollinater]

The only people I know using Waygu have the calves under contract before they are even concieved. I don't think I'd mess with it unless I had it set up that way. They aren't worth having unless someone knows what they are.

 

[Bigfoot]

The only people I know using Waygu have the calves under contract before they are even concieved. I don't think I'd mess with it unless I had it set up that way. They aren't worth having unless someone knows what they are.

I agree 100 percent. Better have a market in place. If not buyers at the yard will shy away from them. Might be able to sell halves and quarter to everyday folk on the novely of it.

 

[VanC]

The only people I know using Waygu have the calves under contract before they are even concieved. I don't think I'd mess with it unless I had it set up that way. They aren't worth having unless someone knows what they are.

I agree 100 percent. Better have a market in place. If not buyers at the yard will shy away from them. Might be able to sell halves and quarter to everyday folk on the novely of it.

Taurus said he wanted them for freezer beef, not to sell at a sale barn.

 

[Taurus]

Are you managing those heifers away from the main herd now? If so they would probably be the easiest. For many of the synch programs to work the cows need to be at least 45-60 days post calving, so if you are going to use cows, do the ones that calved early.

I am concerned about use the cows that calved early as these cows weren't black angus. These are shorthorn and beltie crosses and I thought that Wagyu x Black Angus makes a good cross? Or doesn't it matter whatever breed you use on with Wagyu bull to make a good steer? My focus is put some beef in our own freezer and not use these Wagyu in the commerical business.

 

[gizmom]

I tried to AI some cows to a Wagyu we purchased 5 straws bred 5 cows got a big old 0 on calves. I would of said bad luck but that year if you didn't count the cows we bred to the Wagyu our AI percentage was 80% so I think we got some bad semen. Maybe your luck will be better but that ended our Wagyu experiment.

Gizmom
http://Www.gizmoangus.com

 

[Cattleman200]

I am eating one right now that I AI`ed a Wagyu bull to an Angus female and the meat is really good. If I were you I would go for it if I wanted to try it. As far as a market, you might have to build a market but IMO if you had to sell them for the same price you sold other animals that you sold for beef what would it hurt? The semen can be purchased for the same or less than most beef semen from several places. If you sell a few like that you surely might develop a market in your area. We started with 5 Angus females that we AI`ed to Wagyu. We got 2 pregnancies , one heifer and one bull. We steered the bull and butchered him at 2 years old. He weighed around 1450 and was fed limited grain , free choice grass and hay. The heifer turned out pretty good also and now my embryologist wants to flush her. We are flushing her back to Wagyu to produce 3/4 Wagyu, 1/4 Angus for beef to be sold as embryos or as calves. I want to keep the 1/4 Angus in them so they will finish a little faster than Fullblood Wagyu`s. I have another halfblood steer now that weighs about 700-800 pounds. The meat is very tender, has good flavor and abundant marbling. I would however keep my base females to the Angus breed. If you would like to try it I say go for it. Heck, if people had never tried something new we would be missing out on a lot of great things today.


Circle H Ranch

 

[Taurus]

Well I see no harm in it doing a small experiement on two or three cows since it's only for our freezer....only if I know how to AI on the cows since I have zero experiences on AI.

 

[Taurus]

Speaking of Angus crosses, do the horns show up on F1 Wagyu crosses?

 

[Cattleman200]

Where are you located? Surely someone in your general area can AI.



Circle H Ranch

 

[Taurus]

I am from central Minnesota.

 

[Cattleman200]

Unless your cows are homozygous polled there is always a chance for horns on the Wagyu calves but why would it matter if you plan to butcher them?



Circle H Ranch