A Bunch of Bull

At home on the range. This past weekend Alissa and I made our way on about a 5 hour drive to eastern Colorado; the fruits, or rather beef of our labor was a Wagyu breed bull.  For years my family has used Angus breed bulls on our commercial cow herd. Alissa and I however are trying something different.  With the hopes of direct marketing meat, we are breeding our commercial Angus cows to a Wagyu to achieve a higher quality product. "Wagyu" essentially means Japanese Cattle.  The U.S. no longer imports Japanese cattle; however, the genetics are still in the U.S. in a breed simply named "Wagyu."

Why Raise Wagyu?
Wagyu cattle are known for their excellent meat qualities. Despite that positive, the breed takes much longer to mature making them very unpopular in a world that values efficiency. Our goal is to capture the excellent carcass traits while taking advantage of the heterosis of cross breeding to Angus cows.  Heterosis is also known as hybrid vigor, or in lay terms: the selection of superior traits of each breed from parents of two different breeds. Angus are known for excellent growth and good maternal dispositions, and crossed with a Wagyu bull we hope to keep good growth while improving the quality of meat.

Our Bull
The bull that we drove so far to get is a registered half-blood Wagyu bull. Like any typical Wagyu bull, he has strong shoulders, but his hips and back end leave something to be desired.  Wagyu were bred to be a pack animals in Japan giving them a large front end.  The hind end on the other hand is quite small compared to most beef breed bulls appearing to be weak.  We feel however, that this will not cause issues.  To most cattlemen, he isn't a very good looking bull, but for us, he'll do just fine at home on the range.


-Colin