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Business View Australia - June 2015 121
Cross breed joinings, where a full
blood is mated with another breed
like an Angus, to produce a cross
breed animal forms the remaining
80%. So therefore that’s the size
of the breed at the moment and a
measure of feedlot value and all
these animals principally are fed,
they currently are around about
7% of the feedlot cattle turnoff but
because they are such high val-
ue carcasses they represent 17%
of the feedlot carcass value.”
Investments in the future
and upcoming research
The Association has initiated
research which would enable
it to predict the genetic perfor-
mance of Wagyu cattle by tak-
ing and analysing DNA samples
from a very young animal, say
from a day to three months old.
Preliminary runs on this technol-
ogy have already been done.
Graham Truscott explains why
this technology is of great impor-
tance, “It is very much needed in
this breed, because the time be-
tween, say a mating of an animal
and the conception of a proge-
ny and the time that the progeny
is slaughtered, so you actually
know how it performs, could well
be three years. So it takes a long
time to assess using carcass in-
formation how well the sires are
performing, so the opportunity to
be able to use a genomic analysis
through a DNA test and predict
a performance at a young age is
really important for this breed.”
Goals of the Association
The Australian Wagyu Association
has set for itself the goal of hav-
ing its genetic analysis work fully
accepted and utilised within the
Australian and international Wagyu
beef industry. It is also working
towards using genomic analysis
to establish the genetic perfor-
mance of Wagyu cattle with the
purpose of predicting the animal’s
performance at a very young age.
Wagyu beef enjoys the distinction
of being famous for its high quality,
delicious taste and health-enhanc-
ing attributes. Its strength lies in
the brand that it has built for itself
over the years and it is imperative
that this be preserved and en-
hanced. The Australian Wagyu As-
sociation has amply demonstrated
its ability to strengthen and uphold
the reputation of Wagyu beef and
improve its commercial value.
MANUFACTURING