# Wagyu?



## Reed77 (Mar 20, 2011)

Does anyone raise or eat wagyu/kobe meat?


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## postroad (Jan 19, 2009)

Is it an actual breed or just the manner in which it is raised?


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Wagyu is the breed, Kobe is the name for the beef with some special treatment the Japanese give the animals.


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## Reed77 (Mar 20, 2011)

what treatment is given to them? I heard something about beer, but IDK.


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

We were never told exactly how they raise them when I was in collage for beef production but my professor said the way they raise them would be illegal in the US, or something like that, I personally have no idea though


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## Reed77 (Mar 20, 2011)

I'm just wondering if there is a good market for them, if the meat is as good as they say, and how working with them is.


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## Nyx (May 13, 2006)

This is a pretty interesting read:

How Wagyu cattle are raised in Japan


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## Cheribelle (Jul 23, 2007)

Looking at the pics in that article (very interesting, thanks) there is no way I would even eat that, let alone pay those prices! May as well go down to the local locker, pick up some free tallow, and grill that. IMHO.... of course.....


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

I love the prices, wish I could get that for a pound of meat. Did you see how clean those barns are, and not a steal gate in the place. > Marc


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## genebo (Sep 12, 2004)

Wagyu is Japanese for cattle. Japanese cattle are from three or four diferent breeds. Kobe beef is Japanese beef (Wagyu) raised in the Kobe area of Japan.

The secret to the Japanese beef is not as much in the type or breed of cattle as much as it is in the method of raising them. They are stuffed, gorged with high nutritional feeds and kept penned so they can't exercise.

My uncle used to raise calves that way. He'd take a calf from it's mother, put it in a stall that was so small the calf could not walk or move around. He fed it from a constantly filled trough of milk and ground grain. The feed was measured to keep track of how much the calf was eating each day. The first day that the calf ate less than it did the day before, it went to slaughter. usually after 89 or 90 days. Each calf yielded about 40-45 pounds of meat.

He told me that in Argentina they added eggs to the calf's mash for more weight gain.

Beef is graded by it's fat content. No other way. Prime is the hightest fat content rating in the US, but my uncle's calves and Japanese beef go far beyond prime grade.

My uncle fed me his beef. He cut a thin piece from a loin and fried it in a skillet. It was so tender that it could be cut with a fork with hardle any pressure. Much tenderer than chicken. It was pretty bland, though. Sort of like young veal, only with less beef flavor. It was a pale pink color, almost white.

He could do what he did because he lived so far from other people that no one could complain about the noise. The calves bellowed constantly, day and night. Public opinion eventually convinced him to stop, because he came to believe it wasn't humane treatment for the calf. Sometimes he'd lose two out of three calves.

Genebo
Paradise Farm


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Sounds like you're casting around a bit on cattle breeds, we all want the same thing on the bottom line. It's hard for small producers to compete with angus feed-lot operations. I think you're in a good area for the local-food movement, and grass-fed is getting the premium now, not the particular breed. Take a look here: http://ceplacer.ucdavis.edu/Meat_Buyers_Club/Meet_Your_Producers.htm

Go to your own county or richest adjacent, and see what's going on. UC Davis ANR is the best thing this state has going. If you can get a direct market thing going, then yes, breed is going to come more into play. Check out Galloways.


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## trbizwiz (Mar 26, 2010)

Find a breed that matches your managment goals and marketing plan. I would think the wagyu cattle would command a premium price up front, and to raise them Kobe style would require premium management costs, for the hope that your market could support a profitable price in the end. I would also think because of the way Kobe is raised that it would be the least healthy beef (nutritionally) available. Seems that would be a hard sell on small scale. Most foodies think they want lean beef, and grass fed beef. In a blind taste test they often prefer the fattier meats. BUt what people think they want is what they buy, not what they actually want.


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## Reed77 (Mar 20, 2011)

I didn't know kobe was the style they were raised, I was talking about the breed in general, not the method. Is wagyu only an 'exotic' meat when raised a certain way?


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## unioncreek (Jun 18, 2002)

I've raised and eaten them. It's some of the best tasting beef that I've had. Most have been cross bred with angus so they will gain faster. I once cross my Longhorn cows with Wagyu, The meat was very well marbled and didn't have tons of other body fat. Was extremely good tasting.

Bobg


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Wagyu cattle put a lot of marbling in the meat and they are genetic for good flavor. So it is tender and flavorful beef.

The actual cattle are scrawny mongrel looking things. Seriously, they look a lot like Mexican roping steers. I haven't looked at them for awhile, but at one point they were so expensive I sure couldn't afford to eat one. At some point that price pyramid thing collapses when the supply of greater fools runs out. At that point, the cattle will find their market price based upon meat value.

The Kobe beef is not only fed a bottle of beer daily, but the cattle get a daily massage. 

Heck. if someone would give me those prices for my beef, I'd be willing to go out and give the steer a back rub.


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## trbizwiz (Mar 26, 2010)

Technically Kobe is a region in Japan, Much like champaign is a region in france. But in that region in Japan they have "kobe standards" that must be adhered to in order to sell Kobe beef in Japan. Over here you probably could market grass fed wagyu beef as Kobe beef. I dont think any standards exist here. But your customers would be quite angry with you. 
Kobe is not Japans most elite standard for beef. *In the book "Steak" by mark Schatzker *he visits some japanese farms adn meets the farmers adn samples their beef. There was a better region than Kobe that was more prestigeous, and the beef was infact better according to the author. It was still the wagyu beef I believe. i read the book a few months ago. But he Japanese eat their beef very differently than we do. I dont think you would want to raise that kind of beef and then eat a traditional ribeye 1 1/4 inch thick. It would be nasty fatty. THey cut the beef in thin strips and cook it on hot rocks. then when you eat it it melts in our mouth you dont chew it. For that kind of fat I'll take bacon. I like my beef USDA "prime", though I dont care if it is close to 3 years old. older beef cant grade prime over 20 months old I believe.


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## genebo (Sep 12, 2004)

There are a lot of tales about Japanese beef. Some true, some fable.

For the full story, read the book, "Steak" by Mark Schatzker.

The book is available from Amazon. Cheap. too. I recommend it. It's an engrossing read. Not just about Japanese beef, but about the search for the best steak to be had anywhere in the world.

You'll be surprised to read about US commodity beef.

Genebo
Paradise Farm


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## DianeWV (Feb 1, 2007)

We love Waygu beef. We raised and butchered our first two purebred Waygu steers some years ago. We have also cross bred Waygu with Angus. Waygu is excellent beef, excellent marbling. Fine eating.


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## trbizwiz (Mar 26, 2010)

Diane as a breeder of Wagyu, how does their cost compare to more traditional US/british breeds?


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