New benefits of Wagyu membership unveiled

A series of innovative benefits has been announced to coincide with the start of the new membership year of the Wagyu Breeders Association (WBA) on 1st July 2017.

These include a Wagyu Producer Group to link up Wagyu breeders with potential customers in the meat and hospitality trade. Chefs and butchers for example will be able to access quality assured British Wagyu beef as soon as it becomes available on-farm.

In tandem with this comes a three-tier registration facility allowing producers to market their product with a Wagyu-branded ear tag backed up by DNA technology. Starting at around £5 per animal for crossbreds, this again underpins the provenance and quality assurance of British Wagyu beef throughout the supply chain to maximise returns.

Recognising the importance of the pedigree breeder, commercial producer as well as the consumer and everyone in between, the WBA has two membership levels: ‘Full Member’ for those registering fullblood (pedigree) and/or crossbred Wagyu cattle; and ‘Friend’ aimed at those in the retail or catering trade (butchers, chefs, hoteliers, farm shops and so on) with an interest in Wagyu meat. The benefits of joining the WBA are summarised below and are available both to new members as well as those renewing their subscriptions.

FRIEND OF WBA (£50 annual membership)

Benefits include:

  • Access to the Wagyu Producer Group. A simple-to-use facility through social media to provide a co-ordinated approach for marketing meat: alerts those looking to source Wagyu beef when product becomes available

  • Attending Wagyu-themed Open Days and Farm Walks

  • A Welcome Pack to include an introduction to the WBA, the background of Wagyu branding along with a published feeding, finishing and slaughter template of advisory notes to meet a WBA Quality Standard

  • Monthly newsletter and social media updates

  • Advertising opportunities on www.britishwagyu.co.uk

  • Three online issues per year of the Wagyu Update magazine produced in partnership with the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA)

FULL MEMBER OF WBA (£200 annual membership)

Full Members enjoy the advantages of ‘Friends Of’ membership (as above) plus the following additional benefits:

  • Ability to register fullblood and/or crossbred calves via an integrated tag, DNA and registration facility (see registration options and fees below)

  • UK-based administration service run by Pedigree Cattle Services (PCS) to help guide Members through the tag, DNA and registration process. Based in Perth, Scotland, PCS already works with 11 other UK breed societies through the ABRI and Breedplan systems used by our partners the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA)

  • Automatic Overseas Membership of the AWA at no extra cost enabling British & Irish Wagyu fullbloods to be registered with one of the foremost Wagyu associations worldwide, the AWA. Access to AWA’s Breedplan performance recording system and genetic research. Online database for animal and member search

  • Use of the Wagyu Producer Group to market meat to maximum effect: helps smaller producers get the best return on their investment; harnesses those beef and dairy producers who have used Wagyu semen in the past

THREE-TIER REGISTRATION OPTIONS & DRAFT FEES

-       Bronze £5. For crossbred Wagyu calves. Includes Wagyu-branded Caisley Flexo-Plus Geno management tag. Storage & DNA parentage verification not included. Option to upgrade to Silver at later date at additional cost of £30.

-       Silver £31. For crossbred Wagyu calves. Includes Wagyu-branded Caisley Flexo-Plus Geno management tag, sample storage and SeekSire DNA parentage verification (PV) with WBA-liveried DNA certificate. Administered by Pedigree Cattle Services, Perth.

-       Gold £70-90*. For Fullblood & Purebred calves. Includes Wagyu-branded Caisley Flexo-Plus Geno management tag, sample storage, full sire and dam parentage verification (PV), registration with Australian Wagyu Association. Administered by Pedigree Cattle Services, Perth. (*£70-90 depending on the STR/SNP DNA testing required).

Fees exclusive of VAT & postage

If you would like to join the Wagyu Breeders Association, a young and innovative Breed Society covering the whole of Great Britain & Ireland, please click on the Membership section where you can complete an application form online.

 

Alternatively, for an informal chat please call Richard Saunders (07901768904) or Sarah Thirlby (07773893738)

 

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Wagyu cattle originate from Japan and are known to produce some of the world’s finest tasting beef which is not only highly-marbled and tender but is also recognised for its high proportion of ‘healthy’ fats. It is a high-end, high-value product with the potential to add huge value to all parts of the food chain. Other strengths of the breed in breeding terms are easy calving, low birthweights, short gestation and high fertility. As a terminal sire, the Wagyu bull can ‘improve’ all breeds of cattle but is said to work best with native breeds as well as dairy-bred cows which tend to have greater propensity to marbling.

 

$28,000 FOR WAGYU SEMEN STRAW

This press release from the Wagyu Expansion Conference that was held by our partner, the Australian Wagyu Association, makes very interesting reading..

Semen sold for $28,000 a straw, bulls to $105,000 and a heifer in utero made $95,000 at the Elite Wagyu sale at the Wagyu Expansion Conference in Albury MSW on Wednesday. All three are Australian record prices for the breed and stunned the 400 delegates in attendance.

The common thread with all three lots was they all sit in the top one per cent of the breed’s Fullblood Terminal index (FTI) indicating the growing acceptance of Wagyu Breedplan figures generated by the rapidly expandingWagyu database of growth, fertility and carcase information.

The $28,000/straw semen sale was for a package of 10 straws making it a $280,000 transaction.  The vendor was the Japanese owned Macquarie Wagyu stud and specialist Wagyu feedlot on Queensland’s Darling Downs managed byAnthony and Chantal Winter. The donor sire was the deceased Macquarie Y408, with an FTI of +$595, the second highest ranked bull in the Wagyu database. 

Buyer was Hendrick Markram’s South African based Miku Wagyu, a relative newcomer to the Wagyu breed who also paid $95,000 for a heifer in utero offered by Laird and Sonia Morgan, Arubial Pty Ltd, Condamine Qld. 

The buyer was on the telephone from South Africa giving bidding instructions to Jeremy Cooper of Wag-You dot com who said the genetics would remain in Australia to breed cattle that may be exported at some point in the future. 

Fourth generation Queensland cattle producer Ian Hewitt and his son Cameron went to $105,000 to obtain the two year old sire Mayura L0010 for their new Wagyu enterprise based at Hanging Rock Station, Charters Towers, Qld.  Offered by the de Bruin family’s Mayura stud at Millicent SA, this sire is in the top one per cent of the breed for FTI and marbling.

The bull will go to a semen collection center near Rockhampton before heading to his new home where a couple of thousand Shorthorn X Brahman cows will be joined to Wagyu each year with the F1 females retained to increase the Wagyu content in the herd.

Ian Hewitt said they intended to become heavily involved in the Wagyu industry to elevate marbling levels and generate feedlotter interest in their cattle.

Roger Hocking’s Summitt Agricutural, Albury, NSW, headed the volume buyers outlaying $86,200 for live cattle and genetic lots.

The sale averages were:

  • 7 females average $25,570

  • 28 embryos averaged $2600/embryo

  • 10 bulls averaged $20,799

  • 170 semen straws averaged $1962/straw

World K’s Genetic is now in Europe

World K’s Genetic is now in Europe. The opportunity to breed top quality World K Genetic Wagyu cattle is now available.  Famous bulls like Michifuku, Takazakura, Yasufuku Jr., Suzutani and Okutani are found in the World K pedigrees. They represent a unique quality in the Wagyu breed.

World K´s Japan and Wagyu Genetics Europe have a cooperation agreement and give thus the European breeders the opportunity to use this genetic to produce top quality Wagyu cattle.

Our first step has been to import the, the semen of WKS Michitsuru. This bull has Michifuku and Hisako in his pedigree. A genetic “treasure” with an excellent pedigree and proven progeny!

For more information, please contact Luke Smith lukes50@icloud.com.