AN important structural feature taking place in the Australian Wagyu industry recently has been growth in the population of ‘purebred’ cattle within the broader Wagyu population.

There has been distinct expansion in the proportion of purebred cattle entering feedlots, mostly driven by former F1 Wagyu x Angus breeders electing to move to higher levels of Wagyu content.

The term ‘purebred’ as used in the Wagyu industry refers to animals carrying at least four crosses of Fullblood Wagyu bulls over successive generations (F4), producing animals with at least 93.75 percent Wagyu content. This is different from ‘Fullblood’ Wagyu cattle, which are bred exclusively from cattle of direct Japanese Wagyu descent, with no other breed involved in the pedigree.

As reported in Monday’s Wagyu feeder steer report on Beef Central, substantial price distinctions currently exist between purebred feeders and F1s – presently anywhere from 50-100c/kg.

In researching prices for Monday’s report, Beef Central became aware of some anomalies in feeder cattle being purchased for purebred Wagyu programs.

One large Queensland feedlot said it had customers overseas who were now requesting purebred status cattle as part of their beef spec, rather than simply buying beef from ‘Wagyu cross’ carrying a certain marbling level.

The feedlot used a widely available Wagyu DNA test on some sample feeder steers bought as ‘purebreds’ recently, only to find out that some of the cattle were in fact F3s, and as low as F2s (75pc Wagyu content).

The feedlot manager said visually, it was impossible to distinguish an F2 or F3 from a true purebred animal. He was unable to comment whether the mistake might be accidental, or deliberate – but said either way the feeders were not as described in the terms, and often did not perform as well in marbling level or marbling consistency.

He said there appeared to be a population of former F1 Wagyu x Angus cattle producers in eastern and southern Australia who were now in transition towards purebred status.

“But that takes years and years to achieve, across an entire herd,” he said. “In the meantime, there are a lot of cattle being produced that are F2s and F3s, that do not fit the purebred description.”

“Some of these breeders have retained females for five or six years, but if you do an analysis for herd structure, its impossible to get to purebred level that quickly. They’re on the way, but jumping the gun,” he said.

Another Queensland Wagyu supply chain manager said he was aware of the problem, but only fed small numbers of ‘purebred’ cattle in his yard, and had not personally had problems.

DNA test

Another supply chain manager questioned the validity of the ‘Wagyu content’ DNA test, which costs about $45 a head to perform.

He suggested the test was only reliable for Tajima strain Wagyu content, and did not necessarily pick up other strains like Kedaka or Tottori.

“That does not necessarily mean those test results were wrong, but perhaps less certain,” he said.

His own company had DNA-tested F1 feeders, producing results suggesting anywhere from 44pc to 56pc Wagyu content.

“It depends on how many copies of the Wagyu gene the animal inherits. Each animal does not necessarily inherit exactly 50pc of its genes from its mother and father. That’s why our own children very as much as they do – they get slightly different percentages from the two parents, each time,” he said.

But if there were unscrupulous cattle breeders trying to deliberately pass-off F2 or F3 feeders as purebreds because of price, it’s something that they would only get away with once, he said.

“They will quickly get found out,” he said.

As more Wagyu cattle described as ‘purebreds’ come to market in coming years, the description issue could become more significant.

“The best solution in all this is in being part of a long-term supply chain, and having that close breeder-feeder relationship,” he said.

• Beef Central sought input from AWA general manager Matt McDonagh for this story, but he was unavailable for comment.
• More information: The Australian Wagyu Association has produced this information sheet on determining Wagyu content for non-pedigree crossbred animals.