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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