Thread: Wagyu calves

Got myself some Wagyu calves, which is a first for us. Not by design they just happened to be available from a new guy who’s moved here from the Hawke’s Bay. Nice and cheap cash deal too.

Applied the rubber band and put them into a nice small house paddock with a daily feed of calf nuts and they seem happy as. Really quiet which is helpful.

So I see that generally this cattle breed is kept for longer than the standard black white or brown white face. Which isn’t a problem for us because we learned that in general leaving our steers until they were rising three-year-olds resulted in much better quality Homekill beef. In fact I’ve fed my black white face beef to Angus farmers and I have commented that they thought it was Waygu, such was the marbling.

Any of you fellas got any of these on your blocks, ready for conversion into your favourite dinner?

No, but use Murray Grey or MG/Gelbvieh cross for freezer fillers on our own farm. Have had patchy results from all the pure breds or crosses that haver made their way onto our plate.Some fantastic, some meh!

I reared 40 wagyu this year to weaning and absolutely love them over any other calves. Very clever and great natures. We have been lucky enough to have wagyu from a 2yo but wasn’t all it cracked out to be, time is definitely their friend.
If I were to rear beef I would hands down to Belgian blue. Had one in the freezer last year and was by far the best meat I have ever eaten, was only a 2yo but amazing size, yield, marbling and couldn’t fault it.

We did a few bloody stubborn scraggly looking things with no zest for life compared to other breeds.
Have a few Brahman on the go this season, now they are cool, super easy to rear and real conversation starters

We have one being processed at the moment. A 3 or 4 year old (can't remember) steer, killed out at 390kg.

Absolutely horrible things to rear (used to do lots of them under contract until I was threatened with divorce by the calf rearer), slow growing, but taste nice.

@Chelsea, they’re big units those Belgian Blues, I snapped these beauties around Ypres a few years back.

We've got a small herd of Dexters. Knocked two 2yo steers on the head last weekend. Little cows, known for good temperament and marbling.They had hook weights of 186 and 194kg respectively. They'll be processed and into the freezer next weekend.

It's our first foray into homekill, so I'm looking forward to the results.

Originally Posted by Rich007

We have one being processed at the moment. A 3 or 4 year old (can't remember) steer, killed out at 390kg.

Absolutely horrible things to rear (used to do lots of them under contract until I was threatened with divorce by the calf rearer), slow growing, but taste nice.

I had neighbor with big fat cheque book sitting on one shoulder and grumpy wife sitting on the other shoulder... Decided domestic bliss was the right route

Wagyu were the next great thing when I was at uni - that was about 30 years ago.

While I was there we also visited a farmer in Hawkes Bay who was doing Belgian Blues, but he was using embryo transfer into Chianina draught cattle as they are big enough they could birth the calves naturally, as apparently Belgian Blues calves are mostly delivered by caesarian in Europe.

The most marbled steak we have ever had was from a Hereford-Friesian cross heifer, she was morbidly obese, but the steak was beautiful! I'll have to track down the photo of the steak.

Our Gelbvieh cows are by far the best mums we have ever had. When ringing the steers and with all the mums separated out into the yards paddock most of the herefords and some of the MG will be off scoffing their face on the fresh growth. Not the gelbvieh's and MG/Gelb X's. They'll be there leaning right over the yards rails staring us in the eye, and every time they catch our eye they'll bellow, covering us in spit. Happy as clams the minute you give them back their calf. In the paddock they are generally glued at the hip for the 7 months from birth till they go to the sales.

This here is 24hr old wagyu X, we do about 50 wagyu calves from our low index dairy herd each year.
Last season we had a bit of an issue having big suckers like this and had a lot of assisted calvings but things were much smoother this year. I have heard they can be awful and runty to rear but honestly I have loved them more than my replacements. They have been brilliant big strong kids and think with their stomach.

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

@Chelsea, they’re big units those Belgian Blues, I snapped these beauties around Ypres a few years back.

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I have been trying to convince the farm owner to use short gestation Belgium blue instead of short gestation x bred at the tail end of calving. We do AB all mating. But he’s worried about calving difficulties because they are such big units but I believe they have been “refined” to be easy calving. Still haven’t convinced him but once he gets a taste of one he won’t be able to resist.

Oh my I know nothing about raising beef but this thread has me thinking about eating a nice big chunk of marbled steak

Neighbours went into wagyu for the high prices, but they found they took a lot longer to finish than more common European breeds and the economics were not so great so gave it up. All on contract so they didn't eat any themselves.

Well quiet cattle are essential for us, and these allow me to walk up to them and feel their bollocks. Love a good scratch, not worried about the dogs, the tractors or the black white faces a year ahead of them. Come to the sound of me tapping the bucket, good eaters, drinkers, so all good! Stood there and watched the wife in the veg garden all day today, very attentive.

An advantage is that the breeding cows and the last year’s steers are over the road from us, so can see exactly what they’ll turn into, which is why I got them. Perfectly fine, easy going cattle, easy to move, follow the quad type stuff. Walk up to them to drench them with the pour-on, happy to scoff some nuts and have their medicine. None of the crazy wild hill country Angus - Charolais mayhem I’m used to.