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Wagyu is a breed of cattle which originated in Japan and has gained a worldwide reputation for its beef.
But what exactly is it that makes the beef from these animals so famous? The breed is genetically predisposed to intense marbling, which equates to one thing – taste.
Ireland’s biggest breeder of full-blood Wagyu, Oliver O’Hanlon, knows exactly why these foreign bovines take pride of place on his farm outside Kilcullen, Co Kildare.
“Why Wagyu? Because I like money,” Oliver laughs.
Oliver’s home farm was always dairy and he had been milking a herd of Friesian cows and later Montbeliarde with his dad Greg. In 1997, when money had started going out of dairying and the price of milk quota was high, Oliver made the choice to switch fully to beef, a practice he was also well used to.
We started with 51 embryos, which at the time was costing the same as a new John Deere
“I started milking when I was six, so after 30 years I had enough. I have to say though, I missed the cows something fierce, the whole routine of getting up in the morning and everything.
“We were breeding a herd of pedigree Belgian Blues at the same time as dairying, so we continued this. There was money for Blue bulls back then, particularly when the Italian market was going strong.”
Following the dispersal of the Blue herd, it was on to Oliver’s next venture. This was the one that has brought him to where he is today.
“I am constantly searching for something new. I want to try to get what’s coming down the road, not what has gone. With the Blues, the idea was if you’re going to have an animal on the farm, try to have the one that will make the most money.
“I saw something on the internet where this Wagyu beef was very expensive, then I thought to myself, maybe, and it went from there.”
Oliver took the plunge in 2007, arranging to import over 50 embryos from Australia.
“I was talking to this lad on the computer, sent him the money and, having never met him, I was solely dependent on his word on how good they were. I got lucky and some had very high EBVs, one of which, Ohanasaki Baltazaar, was the sire of 300-plus calves for the Michael Twomey project in Cork.
“We started with 51 embryos, which at the time was costing the same as a new John Deere tractor.
“I had a poor conception rate. I know because we were good with embryos at the time. With the Blues, we were constantly hitting around two-thirds, but with the Wagyu we only had 21 calves. Each calf was costing enough!”
Marbling
About 40 full-blood Wagyu females now roam the fields surrounding Kilcullen, with a further 40 females which are either half-, three-quarters- or seven-eighths-bred Wagyu. To put that in perspective, Oliver says that the next-biggest full-blood herd contains five breeding females and that Ireland only has a total of 70 full-blood breeding females in the country.
Unlike most other pedigree breeders in the country who base their breeding decisions on the animal’s phenotype, Oliver bases his choice solely on Australian EBV figures.
“You might as well, because none of them are pretty,” Oliver added.
Oliver O'Hanlon's Wagyu cattle. Credit: Wagyu International
One figure in particular sticks out, and that is for marbling ability.
All Oliver’s cattle are registered through the Australian herd book because, as of yet, there is none in Ireland.
The Australians are using computer systems to generate an EBV on a number of traits, with particular emphasis on marbling, including a camera which takes pictures of the carcase cross-section.
This emphasis has opened a number of key markets already with regard to exports, but Oliver hopes in the future it will open a lot more.
Last May, a heifer calf in a recipient made $95,000
“The first export was two crossbred heifers [recipients] with implanted embryos I sold to a man in the north and that was the first bit of money we made off them. This was followed by live sales to France in 2014, semen shipments to Spain and just a few months back we sold four bulls and one heifer to Scotland.
“We have sold a nice bit of both semen, frozen embryos and scanned recipients since the get-go also.
“My aim is to not have any half-bred three-quarter-bred animals, but to breed full-bloods that will be able to be sold at an elite Wagyu online sale in Australia where all animals must be in the top 10% of EBVs to enter. It’s a live auction where animals, semen and embryos can be sold.
“Last May, a heifer calf in a recipient made $95,000. Because of Ireland’s free status allowing exports to anywhere in Europe, I would be in the right position if I had the right stock.”
Any bulls in the Ohanasaki herd which fail to meet the mark are made steers and are either sold to people for their own freezer or butchers. However, bulls kept full have a different purpose, with a number of people looking into the crossbred market.
“Pretty much all are looking at the high-value market.
"Anyone purchasing bulls is looking to breed and to supply to the local restaurants and hotels in their area.
“I have one customer up the North who is supplying a restaurant in Belfast. He is putting in one bullock a fortnight there and they are talking about expanding it to Dublin and wanting another bullock a fortnight, so that means a bullock a week.”
It’s like MiWadi; the more lean you go, the more you’re diluting down the Wagyu
While happy to see the Wagyu breed going out on more and more herds, Oliver stresses the point that not just any Wagyu bull on any cow will lead to magnificent beef.
“Some people think a Wagyu is a Wagyu; that’s not the case.
"Putting them on pure Limousins, Charolais or Blues, any lean breed really, wouldn’t work.
"You need to use a very high-valued Wagyu bull on marbling across something that can lay down fat naturally.
“It’s like MiWadi; the more lean you go, the more you’re diluting down the Wagyu, but similarly you’re going no-where without good MiWadi [Wagyu] to start with.”
Future outlook
“We as the producers need to become better listeners. It’s irrelevant the type of cattle we have on our farms, whether they have four, five or six legs, as long as they taste good.
“The consumers are our bosses, not the other way round.
"It is our job to give them tasty, tender beef or they will eat chicken or pork and the richer part of the consumer base is saying we’re going to pay for it.
“So, as far as I’m concerned, we will give them what they want.
"That for me is what this whole Wagyu thing is about, for me to produce the best nucleus stock to help others do that.
“You’ll soon see these animals aren’t making thousands and thousands because they’re rare, it’s because they’re tasty.”
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