Wagyu infused genetics can offer significant premiums for commercial cattle producers and developer of the Wag-You.com initiative, Jeremy Cooper, is keen to promote their benefits in northern Australia.
Mr Cooper and his family have a long history in the beef cattle seedstock industry and are the fifth generation to be on the family property at Marulan, NSW, breeding Angus cattle under their Circle 8 stud banner.
About 10 years ago, Mr Cooper looked at diversifying into Wagyu cattle, but found it difficult to access information about the breed and where to source genetics.
Initially the Coopers purchased some Wagyu heifers which were then artificially inseminated (AI) to male-sexed Wagyu semen offering their first drop of full blood Wagyu bulls in 2017.
Since then, the Coopers have formed a partnership with Bowral-based Wagyu breeder Trig Farms and are flushing selected cows to high indexing Waygu bulls to produce a quality herd of heifers.
We promote ourselves as evidence-based Wagyus and we are using the same discipline we apply to collecting data in our Angus breeding to our Wagyu program, he said.
On display at Beef Australia, the Cooper familys venture, Wag-You.com started as an initiative to promote Wagyu to the southern commercial beef sector and service the increasing demand for high quality Wagyu sired feeder cattle.
Mr Cooper describes it as a full circle service, which includes genetic selection, bull sourcing and purchase, AI breeding programs through to market solutions and advice.
Wag-you.com and Circle 8 bulls work in synergy in a breeding marketing relationship which gives commercial producers the ability to deal with one person for all transactions in their production pathway, he said.
If you look at any beef production system everything is driven by quality and fertility.
Heifers are the hardest animal on the farm to get a calf out of, so joining them to high quality Wagyu bulls as a terminal sire ensures calving ease and brings carcase quality to the table.