Wagyu roam the Traprock country instead of sheep

Today, there isn’t a single sheep in sight, with the family now running 1000 Angus and Wagyu-cross breeders joined to Wagyu bulls.

The change in management happened 20 years ago when the last of the Gray's sheep were sold due to a downturn in the wool industry and since then they haven't looked back.  

Andrew and wife Kate manage their Wagyu breeding program between the home property called Orana, and Uambi, situated 10 kilometres to the north, totaling 4858 hectares.   

Andrew said the decision to move out of sheep was obvious “due to the fact there simply wasn't any money in it” post the collapse of Australia’s wool market scheme in 1991. 

First of all the couple started breeding first-cross (F1) Wagyu for live export to Japan and then for a next decade provided contract breeding using embryo transfer cattle from over twenty different breeds for both domestic and international customers.

 "It was the embryo breeding phase of our business that gave me an incredible knowledge of the Wagyu breed's fertility and breeding genetics," Andrew said.  

These days, the Grays breed quality Wagyu cattle through natural mating, supplying the progeny to Stockyard Beef at Kerwee Feedlot.

Both steer and heifer progeny enter the feedlot aged 15 months with a weight of about 300kg and finished on oats or grain. 

All breeders are joined to multiple controlled sires four times a year for between six to eight weeks at a ratio of two bulls to 100 cows.

As a result of the four joinings, there are various calvings and weanings throughout the year.

"This gives us a constant supply of cattle to turn off and sell throughout the year," Andrew said.

He added he’s a strong advocate of early weaning and usually separates cow and calf units at four months, but it can vary on the seasons.

Once weaned, the steers and heifers are put on Blue Grass pasture, along with protein supplement if required, until the winter oats crop is ready and then they are placed on the fodder crop.

Andrew believes the Wagyu females are incredibly fertile and he does pregnancy testing three to four times a year with pleasing results in the high 90 per cent bracket.

All weaner calves are marked and given 5-in-1 at about three months and then returned to their mothers before being weaned at four months.

After being weaned, about 70pc of the weaners need dehorning.

Recently, the couple bought a line of 300 pregnancy tested in-calf Angus heifers joined to Waygu bulls from the Glen Innes district, plus added 100 Angus heifers joined to Waygu bulls from Uralla district last week.

"We will retain any of the F1 heifer calves from these cattle as our future breeders," Andrew said.

He said any breeders not in calf are culled, but it is a hard decision to cull some of the older cows because they are always reliably pregnant and are good mothers, particularly the F1s as they have a good milk supply.

The Grays source their Wagyu bulls from Peter Lee, Waterview Wagyu, Coffs Harbour. Waterveiw Wagyu use sires from Longford Station at Armidale who have sires in the feed efficiency trial at Kerwee Feedlot.