The Basics
-
Wagyu cattle are a special breed of cattle known for their great taste and intense marbling.
-
Parentage, pedigree, and genetics are very important for breeding and business purposes.
-
Wagyu percentage is important and is reflected in the price and taste.
-
High-value cattle typically have big names (in the parentage table below) in their parentage.
-
Wagyu cattle are susceptible to inbreeding risks and as such, genetic test are done to reduce risk.
-
Wagyu cattle are genetically tested for tenderness and have a higher amount of unsaturated fats than saturated fats. Making them likely healthier to consume and better tasting.
-
Wagyu cattle sold at American Wagyu Association sanctioned sales must be tested for these genetic risks.
-
Information for our cattle can be found at DigitalBeef.com.
-
When thinking about your motive for getting into the Wagyu business it's important to know your objectives. For breeding purposes or carcass production.
-
F1 or F# refers to the # of generations away from the first crossing of a Wagyu and another breed that progeny is.
-
If after you have educated yourself about this wonderful breed of cattle and are interested in doing business, whether that be Wagyu or Registered Angus please visit our contact page on this website to get in touch with us!
What is Wagyu?
Wagyu (pronounced: Wag-You) are a group of a Japanese breed of cattle known for their intense marbling and superb tasting meat. Wagyu literally translates to Japanese cattle. The introduction of Wagyu to America has brought with it some misconceptions. Frequently, American Wagyu beef is (incorrectly) referred to as American (or American-style) Kobe. Kobe is a prefecture in Japan, only Wagyu beef bred, born, raised and butchered in Kobe Japan can have the title Kobe Beef. Furthermore, after reading our education section and learning how Wagyu percentage matters, we urge those eating in restaurants to ask what percentage Wagyu they serve and you may be surprised!
Wagyu cattle arose from a government sponsored crossbreeding program in Japan during the early 1900’s. This program, along with the pride in producing the highest quality beef in each prefecture (aka district), eventually led to breeds with extraordinarily desired traits. They were so serious about their beef breeding, unions formed to evaluate potential sires and dams to determine optimal breeding pairs. The Wagyu that are present in North America and Australia are descendants from only 221 Wagyu cattle that were brought over from Japan in the late 1900’s. Most of the Wagyu seen today in the US have a well-documented family tree. This information, which is available for most Wagyu cattle(@Digital beef, AWA) allows the breeder to select traits such as growth rate, taste, and marbling based on prefecture origin and parentage.
There are two main breeds in North America and Australia: Japanese black (90%), and Japanese brown (AKA Red Wagyu).
From the table above, it is evident that 100% Wagyu are considered Full-blooded(FB), while 93.75% Wagyu are considered Purebred (PB). This distinction is important as 100% FB Wagyu are the closest you can get to the original cattle brought over from Japan. The difference is seen in the price tag, marbling, and most importantly in the taste.
Now that you understand the basics of Wagyu cattle (it can be very complicated!) as well as general important considerations when selecting a breeding cow. We can now dive into the genetic testing for genetic deformities, tenderness, and the science of Wagyu fat.
Science of WAgyu
Because of this close attention to parentage and genetics a different method of categorizing Wagyu was developed.
As mentioned before, Wagyu breeding is very much about genetic heritage and parentage. Given this emphasis, and the fact that the starting population for American or Australian Wagyu was only a few hundred it stands to reason that inbreeding would become a problem. Inbreeding is good for maintaining traits but reduces the amount of diversity in the genes of the progeny. When a new organism is created from a breeding pair their DNA (blueprint for genes) is “mixed”. This mixing of DNA is likely to dilute certain traits but also increases diversity. When breeding Wagyu it's important to keep in mind that inbreeding and inheritance of traits are prominent considerations when selecting breeding pairs.
What do you look out for? Because of the increased risk of inheriting bad traits, scientist have been able to identify and test for multiple deleterious traits in these cattle. Like in humans, cattle can be carriers (C) of a single copy of a deleterious trait or may carry both copies and be affected (A). Genetic tests are used to measure these traits and measure an overall “risk” referred to as Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI). Given this, scientist have identified the more prevalent recessive traits in Wagyu cattle and are able to test for their presence. Below the tested diseases are listed:
“All live cattle and genetics sold at Association sanctioned production sales must be tested and the results must be published in the sale catalog for all potential buyers to review prior to the sale. As an exception to Required Testing, if both the sire and dam of the offspring are Free from all five of the genetic disorders set out above, the offspring will be exempt from testing and will be given “Free” status by the Association for all five genetic disorders.” Below is a graphic from The American Wagyu Association website explaining more.
These genetic tests are very important for determining what cattle to purchase and breed with. Another test to consider when breeding cattle is the tenderness test. The tenderness genetic test is on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the most tender. Although the Warner - Bratzler shear force (WBSF) test (a test based on the amount of shear force required to separate meat) is an accurate measure of tenderness, we would like to know how tender the cattle is while it's alive! With this problem in mind scientist at Iowa State University were able to correlate certain genes found in Wagyu cattle with high scores on the WBSF test. This means we can genetically test for tenderness! Below is a distribution of tenderness scores across all cattle tested by Ingenity (the company that produces the tenderness test kit):
We have focused on a multitude of genetic tests but there is one more test that is very important for Wagyu cattle in particular and that is how wagyu cattle chemically interact with fat. Wagyu cattle typically have intense marbling as seen in some of the pictures above. You’re probably thinking that this beef is fatty and has an incredible taste and therefore it has to be bad for you, well, in this case, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing. Let us explain how Wagyu fat is different from your typical beef fat. Unsaturated fats and saturated fats are in almost all the foods we eat. An example of an unsaturated fat and a saturated fat are pictured below.
Unsaturated Fat
Saturated Fat
Looking at the pictures you may have noticed that the unsaturated fat example is liquid. This is because most unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature as they have a low melting point. Saturated fats have a high melting point meaning they are solid at room temperature. Typically, they say unsaturated fats are better for you and that they reduce your risk for heart disease and even increases the “good” cholesterol and reduces the “bad” cholesterol. While it has been known that a diet of unsaturated fats is correlated with a reduced prevalence of heart disease, a direct link has yet to be conclusive. However, when saturated fats are replaced by unsaturated fats a reduction in heart disease risk is observed in certain populations. Saturated fats are typically the fats to avoid. This isn’t to say that saturated fats are bad for you, they can be good for you when they are derived from unprocessed sources. Trans-fats and certain saturated fats (palmitic acid, found in most meats) have been found to be linked to diabetes, and heart disease. Interestingly, Wagyu cattle have a much higher percentage of unsaturated fats. These cattle posses a gene that more efficiently converts its saturated fats (Steric Acid) to unsaturated fats (Oleic Acid). This conversion from saturated fat (high melting point) to unsaturated fat (low melting point) is determined by the action of an enzyme called Stearoyl CoA desaturase (SCD). Why am I telling you about this enzyme? Wagyu beef are tested for the presence of this enzyme. This means that Wagyu beef contains primarily unsaturated fats, this is how Wagyu got its infamous “melt in your mouth” quality due to the low melting point of unsaturated fats. The action of this enzyme is measured by an SCD test. The results are described in these terms:
Not only does Wagyu beef have more unsaturated fats it also contains a special fat called linoleic acid this fatty acid has been described in recent studies to be health beneficial and even help with weight loss. According to Digital beef AWA: “ Wagyu beef contain(s) the highest amount of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) per gram of any foodstuff – about 30% more than other beef breeds… Foods that are naturally high in CLA have fewer negative health effects.” Wagyu beef is merging the natural health food revolution with good quality beef!
Whew! We’ve come a long way with your Wagyu education and that’s just scratching the surface. We at L. Jacobs Farm urge you to continue to learn about this breed of cattle not only from us but from other sources online and in person. An excellent resource for trusted information is from the Wagyu handbook and digitalbeef.com. We urge you to use these resources as references in the future.
Now that you’ve learned some genetics, biology, even some biochemistry, let’s get to the good stuff, applying this knowledge to pick a good candidate breeder or bull, and how to use our services to breed genetically superior Wagyu cattle.
STARTING YOUR Wagyu
Breeding Wagyu is all about what you are trying to do. Establishing the reasons why you want to breed Wagyu can drastically change your business approach and efficiency of managing your herd. If for instance your objective is to improve the quality of your already existing herd, purchasing straws of genetically superior bulls or simply buying a fullblood Wagyu bull can drastically increase value in your next generation. If you want to become a Wagyu breeder perhaps purchasing a pregnant fullblood Wagyu female with great genetics to start a new Wagyu line in your herd or embryos from a Wagyu breeder to implant in your receipt heifer would perhaps be the best way to go. We at L. Jacobs Farm have an embryologist (Dixieland Embryo Transfer) super-ovulating our females and flushing embryos for sale. We also sell straws of our top of the line bulls with genetic testing to ensure the highest quality. You don’t have to take our word for it its right online for you to see. Simply go to Digital beef AWA (American Wagyu Association) click on “Marketplace” at the top of the website and you can find us under the Georgia tab. You’ll be able to see all our available cattle for sale or for semen straws.
Here we will walk you through an example bull.
As you can see from this screen grab from the Digital Beef website you can see the name, grade, COI, and age. This bull’s parents are descendants from some big names such as Michifuku, Kitaguni, and Hirashigetayasu. You can see the pedigree of all our bulls on Digital Beef.
Clicking on the DNA tab at Digital Beef we can see the results of the genetic testing. This is mandatory for all certified Wagyu beef.
Looking at the above example you can see the results of the genetic tests for the common deleterious recessive traits and in this example, this bull is Free (F) of all conditions. The SCD test returned a genotype of AA which means that this bulls meat has an enzyme that effectively converts saturated fats to unsaturated fats. The tenderness score is a 9 meaning that the meat of this bull, if he is butchered, has a high presence of enzymes that helps produce very tender meat. If you happen to skip our earlier education section on the genetic testing, then please review that section as it goes in-depth into what these tests mean. As mentioned before its important to know what your objective is. If you wanted to produce meat for sale or for personal use, you wouldn't butcher this bull. His genetics and pedigree are excellent and this is a breeder bull. As a breeder bull, he's more expensive and his ROI (Return On Investment) is better when applied to breeding. It's likely that his progeny will also have excellent genetics (if bred with a FB Wagyu) and thus they also will be worth more. This is where your objectives and investment meet. If for instance, you wanted to produce Wagyu meat. You likely wouldn't purchase this bull but a slightly cheaper one with great genetics but likely not this high, perhaps a cross (a mix between a Wagyu and another breed) or high percentage wagyu.
Whether you're new to Wagyu breeding or an experienced Angus breeder all this may seem strange or too complex to understand where quality and value are. The truth is that many dishonest breeders will take advantage of this. Breeders will sometimes refer to their cattle as an F1 or F#. This means the animal has been crossed # of times and any progeny from that bull or heifer cannot be considered full blood ever. It is possible to get the progeny to have high percent Wagyu but it cannot have the distinction of Fullblood, ever. Another thing to consider is that just because a breeder says their cattle are registered that does not mean it is a Fullblood (if unsure of the meaning of Fullblood, please refer to the What is Wagyu? section). There is nothing wrong with crosses, we sell some, but it's important to know what your objective is and purchase accordingly.
Thank you for educating yourself on this amazing breed of cattle. We hope that you check out our available for sale Wagyu herd @ AWA digitalbeef.com (Find us in Georgia under Marketplace). Now that you have a working knowledge of Wagyu, we hope you will contact us with business inquiries for Wagyu or Registered Angus.