Thread: Wagyu calves

Originally Posted by Flyblown

None of the crazy wild hill country Angus - Charolais mayhem I’m used to.

I hear ya! Never again.

Originally Posted by Chelsea

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. Attachment 183944

OMG! They need to be born with winch points attached!!! They have to be nudging 50kgs!!?

We have become ruthless in culling difficult calving cows. Or ones throwing monsters, or twins. Twins sound cute and economic but in reality they just never do well, and hold a pens' worth of weiners back at the March sales.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

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.

I'm starting to suspect some people prefer wild Angus cattle. I've been to bull sales where the quiet bulls I bid on get almost no other bids (suits me!), but when a bull comes into the ring and the seller immediately steps out, and the bull starts snorting and crashing into the sides, the bids go through the roof. Maybe a mad wild bull has some breeding advantages but on small farms like mine quiet bulls are the way to go. I cannot understand why anyone does not actively breed for quiet cattle. I work Angus cattle in the yard, in tight spaces without ever being concerned about safety. Out in the paddock sometimes we have cattle sitting on the tracks that don't bother getting up when we try to get past. By contrast I've seen other Angus herds where every beast has it's head up, snorting, watching your every move even from a long way away.

If there is any advantage of wild cattle I'm confident the quiet ones make up for it with less stress, less fencing damage, and less hassles generally.


Has anyone had experience with Red Devon? The meat group I'm involved in are all heading that way, and I'm the only one resisting and sticking wiht Angus at this stage.

Best dairy beef we have done would have to be Speckle Park by a long shot. They throw well marked calves with strong beef traits, you couldn't tell most of them apart from a Speck/Speck despite coming out of a Holstein dam. They're always good strong calves that are very easy to rear and weight gain is impressive. They're never the biggest animals but the economics of feed in vs weight on the hook always looks good and works pay a premium for skins. Heifers are great mums and we haven't had any trouble getting calves out of them. We have had occasions where the saleyards weren't looking too flash yet lifestylers and and small run holders can't get enough of them due to their aesthetically pleasing look so it's always easy to move them through private sales. The original breed was developed through Angus and Shorthorn cross so they produce a great steak and are a lot quieter than Angus and shorthorns are some of the hardiest cattle out there so they thrive well

Originally Posted by XR500

OMG! They need to be born with winch points attached!!! They have to be nudging 50kgs!!?

We have become ruthless in culling difficult calving cows. Or ones throwing monsters, or twins. Twins sound cute and economic but in reality they just never do well, and hold a pens' worth of weiners back at the March sales.

I think he was maybe 58kg, can’t quiet remember. We had an even bigger one this year. Born with no assistance from an average sized XB cow. Lucky they are good kids and easy to deal with. Can you imagine fighting these on the feeder...
we only have 180 cows and they are really high index and high producing girls so we can’t be ruthless and cull them. We found making them a little fitter pre calving helped this year and plenty of mag and even early calcium if we had to. They tend to get really fat here which is probably half the problem come calving.
I think out of 180 calvings this year we had 5 sets of twins. Luckily good figures so the H/H have been sold despite being ugly and average and the H/B twins we keep and take a risk on them being freemartin. They go in the freezer if they are no good to breed.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Best dairy beef we have done would have to be Speckle Park by a long shot. They throw well marked calves with strong beef traits, you couldn't tell most of them apart from a Speck/Speck despite coming out of a Holstein dam. They're always good strong calves that are very easy to rear and weight gain is impressive. They're never the biggest animals but the economics of feed in vs weight on the hook always looks good and works pay a premium for skins. Heifers are great mums and we haven't had any trouble getting calves out of them. We have had occasions where the saleyards weren't looking too flash yet lifestylers and and small run holders can't get enough of them due to their aesthetically pleasing look so it's always easy to move them through private sales. The original breed was developed through Angus and Shorthorn cross so they produce a great steak and are a lot quieter than Angus and shorthorns are some of the hardiest cattle out there so they thrive well

Next door do speckle park, they are out the gate at 7 days old. Lifestyle people love them. Last year I seen 4 day olds going for $450, good sized Angus at 4 days old were $80. A huge difference in price. Aside from being good meat animals it’s also a supply and demand thing. So many people have Angus to offer up and speckle park can be harder to source.

Originally Posted by Chelsea

Next door do speckle park, they are out the gate at 7 days old. Lifestyle people love them. Last year I seen 4 day olds going for $450, good sized Angus at 4 days old were $80. A huge difference in price. Aside from being good meat animals it’s also a supply and demand thing. So many people have Angus to offer up and speckle park can be harder to source.

The guys that were equity managers here before us developed a Speck stud (Aniwaniwa Speckle Park) and when they sold their shares they bought a block next door so easy to find Speck bulls and semen, it's actually surprising how many Specks you see around the area since they started up.

The angus are still good, look like little buggers when calves but they grow out.
Temperament wise Dad got settled with angus that were wild.
Us kids used to circle the yards on the the top rail.
He culled for temperament and it didn't take long.
The latest I have is a couple of Charolais cross that were calf club pete\s.
Very quiet but hard to move and now they can nearly look you in the eye you have to be really careful as they come up for a pat and can easily bowl you over being friendly.
Have to make sure the grandchildren do not get in with them.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

I'm starting to suspect some people prefer wild Angus cattle. I've been to bull sales where the quiet bulls I bid on get almost no other bids (suits me!), but when a bull comes into the ring and the seller immediately steps out, and the bull starts snorting and crashing into the sides, the bids go through the roof. Maybe a mad wild bull has some breeding advantages but on small farms like mine quiet bulls are the way to go. I cannot understand why anyone does not actively breed for quiet cattle. I work Angus cattle in the yard, in tight spaces without ever being concerned about safety. Out in the paddock sometimes we have cattle sitting on the tracks that don't bother getting up when we try to get past. By contrast I've seen other Angus herds where every beast has it's head up, snorting, watching your every move even from a long way away.

If there is any advantage of wild cattle I'm confident the quiet ones make up for it with less stress, less fencing damage, and less hassles generally.


Has anyone had experience with Red Devon? The meat group I'm involved in are all heading that way, and I'm the only one resisting and sticking wiht Angus at this stage.

The Red Devons are a very old breed and have been bred from a time before modern parasite treatments so have very good natural resistance, which is probably why they will be popular with an organic group.
If it were me I would go for a first cross cow. An F1 will have on average about 16% improvement over the mean of economic traits in the two parent breeds. This is why Black Baldies ( Hereford Angus ) cows have been a mainstay for so long. The most efficient cow is a jersey angus or jersey hereford cross on kg's calf weaned per hectare. But just a plain hereford angus with a Speckled park bull over them might be the best option. The very best way is F1 cows ( jersey x hereford) mated to an F1 bull like a limosine x Charolas so four unrelated breeds are crossed and progeny are terminal

Played around on my 10 acre block with Waygu ,& have only got experience with comparing to previous Murray Grey and Angus/Murray Grey x.Was encouraged to give the Waygu a try cause the straws were mates rates free against my better judgement.So finally picked up the processed steer after that extra years graizing in anticipation of the next level marbled steaks.Straight on the barber.Verdict: wasn't worth the extra feed.Quiet underwhelmed with eating quality.Not worth the candle.have immediately switched back to the tried and true Murray Grey; easy care,good on fencing,oarsome table beef.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

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

NOW you talking...back in 80s they called them tarindikiss spelt wrong but sounds right..... the AI folks were putting pure bulls across herd cows and heifers,the female calves were being shipped overseas to start herds with increased vigour and great drought and parisite resistance.....two things to note...they hit ground and RUN LIKE STINK...you have about an hour to get a hold of them or will be bulldogging off motorbike......fences??what fences to calf..... and the colours are amazing..... but the best bit,the calving,even heifers poke out big calves just like spitting out sausages,its like the calves have no bony corners to get stuck...its always amazed me the breed hasnt been kept on for heifer for just that reason...photos of your wee fellas please.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

I'm starting to suspect some people prefer wild Angus cattle. I've been to bull sales where the quiet bulls I bid on get almost no other bids (suits me!), but when a bull comes into the ring and the seller immediately steps out, and the bull starts snorting and crashing into the sides, the bids go through the roof. Maybe a mad wild bull has some breeding advantages but on small farms like mine quiet bulls are the way to go. I cannot understand why anyone does not actively breed for quiet cattle. I work Angus cattle in the yard, in tight spaces without ever being concerned about safety. Out in the paddock sometimes we have cattle sitting on the tracks that don't bother getting up when we try to get past. By contrast I've seen other Angus herds where every beast has it's head up, snorting, watching your every move even from a long way away.

If there is any advantage of wild cattle I'm confident the quiet ones make up for it with less stress, less fencing damage, and less hassles generally.


Has anyone had experience with Red Devon? The meat group I'm involved in are all heading that way, and I'm the only one resisting and sticking wiht Angus at this stage.

we had WILD red devons...as in proper wild herd,been feral for hundy years,they grow fast and have great nature if bred in captivity,great/awesome mums and milk not too bad either.....and that senario is the one where a snotty scrappy bull is advantage,he keeps cows and fights off feral scrub bulls,other than that a scrappy bull is pain in arse and best turned into burgers...

some of the hype will possibly come from 5star feedlot beef...basically cattle beast eats ,shits n sleeps...doesnt need to walk far so just grows like stink,all feed is brought to them so no stress or strains,no excess excercise,just eat n grow fat.got given a 4x4 log of that stuff some years back,4"x4" about 2 foot long...eye watering price to buy and mouth watering on BBQ.......and I dont really like beef,much prefer venison.

I got a "white" Galloway ( I put white in quotes since it was actually black), as a pet/house cow but it was mad as a meat axe. Jumping fences, and after chasing the TB testing guy out of the yards ( he declared it " too dangerous to test"), I decided it wasn't coming out of the yards alive. A quick call to the home kill guy and an hour later I gave it a 30/30 pill to chew on just before the homekill guy turned up, since I knew if it saw him it would be over the top of the yards and stampeding across the paddocks. Some of you guys will know the look, head up high, tail up and a super mad look in it's eye like it's gonna run over everyone and everything. Anywho as the guy was skinning and gutting he kept going on about what a great eater it was going to be. Well yep, marbling and great fat levels and that was just on grass. Never again, if I go house cow again I will stick to a jersey. Lesson learned

Ha ha, home kill guys say that to all their clients.
I'll stick with Angus, Angus x although we did one MG and it was excellent.
First few we ever did never made it into our freezer - the beef price was just too good.