Issue 89 | Wagyu Quarterly Update, Spring 2024

WAGYU

QUARTERLY UPDATE

Using performance data more effectively

Sustainability & profitability go hand in hand

Fertility most important breeding trait

Unraveling the mysteries of nutrition

PROMOTING, ENHANCING AND CELEBRATING THE WAGYU SECTOR

WAGYU World’s Luxury Beef

LTCF22T338

WAGYU BREEDPLAN SEPTEMBER (RUN 2) 2024

LTCF23U310

WAGYU BREEDPLAN SEPTEMBER (RUN 2) 2024

B3F, CHSF, CL16FU, F11C, IARSF

B3F, CHSF, CL16FU, F11F, IARSF

Editorial

Emily Rabone − emily@wagyu.org.au

Contributors

Laird Morgan, Dr Matt McDonagh, Troy Setter, Katie Dailey, and Dr Anneline Padayachee.

Creative Director

Heather Frazier − heather@squishcreative.com

28

32

39

48

51

59

On the cover

Seeing

Printing

Printed using soy vegetable-based inks with alcohol free solutions. The magazine is fully recyclable and printed in Australia.

Publisher/Distributor

Australian Wagyu Association communications@wagyu.org.au

Disclaimer

All content subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission. Opinions expressed in The Wagyu Quarterly Update are not necessarily those of the Association. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of any product or service by the magazine or the association, nor support any claims by the advertisers. Every effort is made to ensure information contained in this magazine is correct at the time of publishing.

13 years of IVF experience in Uruguayan & Australian laboratories producing over 10,000 high grade embryos each year

Brazilian trained veterinarian from a family of IVF pioneers Over 18,000 OPUs & 50,000+ embryo transfers performed

President's report

Success through hard work and education

Dear Members,

As the bull selling season gets into full swing, seeing the many pleasing results is encouraging. What is evident to me is that the successful vendors are doing their homework, educating clients on the understanding and interpretation of EBVs and assisting in the offtake of the resulting progeny so they have a clear path to market. In addition, the presentation of the sale animals this year has gone ahead in leaps and bounds. Catalogues and photos are more routinely done professionally and the results are there for all to see. I am reminded of the old adage, “The harder you work, the luckier you get”. Congratulations to those of you who worked hard enough to get lucky at your bull sale!!!

AWA Board Meeting

The board convened in Melbourne on 26 - 27 August 2024. Before the board meeting, there was a "Gene Technology Policy" workshop led by Dr Carl Ramage from Ruataki Solutions and Dr Laercio Neto Porto from CSIRO Livestock Industries. If you ever need a reminder that there are incredibly intelligent people in this world, I recommend spending time with these two gentlemen! We were given a very in-depth update as to the regulatory standards that are imposed in Australia and other major international markets and competitors. Gene technology has been progressing and there are significant changes being seen across a range of countries regarding acceptance of gene edited bovines and their products.

The AWA Board is staying informed about trends in the use of gene technologies and how these trends may impact future markets. Furthermore, the board is actively advancing several projects to provide new and essential services to its members.

New F1 Terminal and Fullblood Indexes

Off the back of the highly successful Breeder Feeder Index (BFI), the AWA has invested in further collaboration with the Abacus Bio team to develop and soon launch the new F1 Terminal Index and Fullblood Terminal Index. This will transition three of AWA’s selection indexes to the Abacus Bio economic models that allow non-linear birth weight functions

and direct weighting on the Carcase Weight EBV as essential components of our selection indexes.

Securing Wagyu IP

We continue to support the development of our in-house data analysis so that AWA can optimise the knowledge learned from Wagyu data. We have been successful as part of an Australian Research Council – Centre for Predictive Breeding grant that will fund a post-doctoral quantitative geneticist to work in AWA analysing Wagyu data. It has been developed in parallel with the AWA's internal database system (Helical) so that Wagyu IP is secure for the future and that Wagyuspecific and optimal genetic models can be defined to improve our breed.

AWA Technical Workshop and new Strategic Plan

In gearing up for our AWA Technical Workshop in Brisbane on 26 November 2024, we have almost completed our new 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. The document will set the direction for the AWA for the next five years, providing the guidelines for the AWA to continue delivering valued services and outcomes for our members.

At the November Technical Workshop, we are excited to share our research on the use of genomic information for calculating true inbreeding and genetic diversity across the Fullblood Japanese Black population. This workshop, to be held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane, is a unique opportunity for all AWA members involved in Wagyu breeding and genetic testing. Keep an eye out for the invitation and make sure to attend. You'll hear about these exciting technical updates and learn how to use these new tools that will significantly improve our members' ability to sustainably breed Wagyu.

Genomic Testing

With the rapid progress the AWA is making in genetic and genomic data analysis, I strongly encourage any member who is not already doing genomic testing through the AWA to do so, or they run the risk of missing out on these new and vital tools that will be invaluable in making sound breeding

decisions in the future. The AWA will continue to invest in obtaining our members' maximum benefit from genomic data. Think of genomics as money in the bank; AWA will keep delivering additional value from your investment in the future, but only if you have that data in the bank.

Membership and Service Fees

In my last President’s report, I delivered the message of increasing membership and service fees. I hope this report helps in going some way to explain why this was necessary. Since my last report, I am pleased to say that AWA has seen its highest ever number of new members within a 3-month period. I welcome these new members to the AWA at the start of what will be a new period of innovation and growth in AWA’s services to our members.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or an AWA Board Member.

Laird Morgan AWA President

CEO update

Delivering new projects and core business

Report from the Office

Within the AWA Office, I am pleased to report that we have made significant progress on a range of new projects, including:

New Abacus Bio F1 Terminal and Fullblood Terminal Selection Indexes.

Development of AWA’s internal database systems (Helical).

Execution of a five-year Australian Research Council agreement with the Centre for Predictive Breeding.

Final calculation and testing of Genomic (true) Inbreeding and Genetic Diversity derived from AWA Member stored 100K genomic profiles.

I look forward to introducing these new products to AWA members with our team at the 2024 AWA Technical Workshop to be held on 26 November 2024 at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane. We will be releasing information regarding the timing of the Workshop shortly.

End of Year Reporting

In addition to the delivery of this suite of new innovations, the AWA office team have delivered the FY2024 KPIs, with the following highlights to report:

Herdbook registrations totalled 43,085, 40% ahead of target and 54% ahead of same period FY2023.

Full memberships totalled 1,218, 8% ahead of target, which is and 16% ahead of same period FY2023.

WagyuEdge’24 conference attracted a record 650 attendees, with approximately 200 attendees participating in their first WagyuEdge event.

Parent verified slaughter registrations totalled 33,091 individuals which is 250% ahead of target and 270% ahead of same period FY2023

Annual genetic gain in Carcase Weight and Marble Score EBV for 2023 born calves exceeded 10% increase in both traits compared to 2022 born calves.

Key AWA member performance recording metrics are well ahead of target by approximately 100% for Birth weight, 200-Day Weight, Carcase weight, Marble Score and Mature Cow Weight.

Genomic DNA test requests are 17% ahead of full year targets and 23% ahead of same period FY2023, with 82,479 genomic tests processed in total.

Crossbred Wagyu Tests conducted totalled 11,683, 50% ahead of target.

New genotypes submitted to the Helical Database were 167,000, which is double the genomic DNA testing completing for the same period. Variation is largely due to provision of genotypes by members who had historic DNA testing records conducted privately and some SNP500 parentage testing.

MIJ Imaging was 60% ahead of target at 32,373 Wagyu carcases imaged for FY2024.

The AWA-PTP finished its third sire cohort joining, with fourth sire intake complete. The first AWA-PTP cohort 1 slaughter progeny will be processed late 2024, early 2025.

All regulatory and compliance KPIs were met for FY2024.

AWA 2024 Annual General Meeting

The AWA 2024 Annual General Meeting will take place at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Brisbane, starting at 3:30 pm on 26 November 2024. We will be reporting on the delivery against the AWA annual operational plan KPIs along with completing the business of the meeting. This meeting will follow the AWA Technical Workshop, which will be held in the morning at the same venue.

Changes to AWA Breed Register and Grade Category Bylaws

At the AWA Board Meeting on August 26-27, 2024, the Board approved changes to the AWA Bylaws to separate AWA Breed Register categories and Animal Grade categories.

The AWA Breed Register categories at AWA Bylaw Item 2 include the following Breed Registers:

2.1 Japanese Black Register

2.2 Akaushi Register

2.3 Composite Cross Register

2.4 Slaughter Register

The AWA Wagyu Grades recognised at Bylaw Item 3 include the following Wagyu grades:

3.1 Fullblood Grade

3.2 Purebred Grade

3.3 Grades 1 to 4

3.4 Base animals

These Bylaw changes better delineate the Black and Red Wagyu registries and allow improved management of Black X Red Wagyu cross animals as Composite animals within a distinct register. Composite Cross animals are already able to be identified with a [CC] after their animal name. Programming is underway to allow Akaushi animals are to be identified with a [AKA] after their animal name. This change is more complex to implement and we will advise members when it is complete.

It is a pleasure to provide this report to you.

9 - 11 APRIL 2025 PERTH

Dr Matt McDonagh AWA Chief Executive Officer

The AWA will host its annual international Wagyu conference in Perth for the first time. The event will span three days and feature presentations from Wagyu industry leaders, Q&A sessions and debates. This is an event that should not be missed. Early bird tickets are on sale now!

AWA enters fourth year of Progeny Test Program

Significant project milestones continuing to be achieved for each individual cohort

The Cohort 4 joining period commenced on 6 September and will run through to Autumn 2025, with approximately 1,500 females expected to be joined. Data for these progeny is anticipated to be entered into Wagyu BREEDPLAN as the calves are registered.

Cohort 4 sire nominations closed in May 2024 with 16 new sires accepted into the program for use during the Cohort 4 joining period. Additionally, nine Link sires from Cohort 3 are included, bringing the total number of bulls for use in Cohort 4 to 25. This increases the total number of sires that will be tested directly through the project to 97. The full sire list for Cohort 4 is provided below and on page 12, detailing the nominating herd along with additional information such as nomination type and member category. Their average Index ($) values are also provided to give an indication of their overall predicted performance. At publication, on average the Cohort 4 sires sit in the top 5% of the breed for each of the current Indexes.

COHORT 4

Cohort 4 (Average Index ($) Values)

The Australian Wagyu Association continuously seeks new contributor herds to participate in the Progeny Test Program (PTP). If you're interested in learning more about the program or wish to get in touch, please visit our website for details.

Sire nominations are taken throughout the year. Our website has all the details. As the project progresses, with only three scheduled entry cohorts remaining, there's no better time to get involved as either a Sire or Contributor Herd Owner

Cohort 3

The final joinings for Cohort 3 were completed during autumn, welcoming two new contributor herds during the Autumn Joining period. These herds include Leather Cattle Co, which manages cattle across three properties in Central Queensland, and North Queensland Wagyu (LegaSea), based in Ayr, Queensland.

Currently, Cohort 3 progeny are being born across multiple contributor herds, with crucial calving data being recorded. The calving period for Cohort 3 will continue through March 2025. Sire owners can expect improvements in EBV accuracy as these progeny are registered in the coming months.

Cohort 2

Cohort 2 completed calving in March, with 668 calves currently registered. Significant increases in EBV accuracy have been observed for Birth Weight (BW) and Gestation Length (GL) , with a remaining 273 progeny still to be registered, these accuracies are expected to improve further.

Sire owners can expect accuracy increases in the 200day weight EBV as weaning data starts to be submitted to BREEDPLAN.

Cohort 1

The first of the Cohort 1 steers are approaching the end of their feeding periods, with Net Feed Intake (NFI) recorded for 123 steers, with several others currently on the Vytelle Sense feed intake nodes with Stockyard. These animals have also been scanned using the MEQ LIVE device during their NFI period. For a detailed definition of Net Feed Intake and its importance, please refer to page 28. Net Feed Intake (the difference between the actual and predicted feed intake of an individual animal) ranged between -1.71 and +1.44 across the first two PTP contemporary groups. Animals had an average starting weight of 444 kg and an average weight of 520 kg at the end of the trial, reflecting an average daily gain (ADG) of 1.09 kg across the two contemporary groups. ADG ranged from 0.62 kg to 1.58 kg.

The average daily dry matter intake (DMI) for individual animals ranged from 6.76 kg to 10.91 kg, with an average of 8.59 kg/day. This would indicate that over a 400-day feeding period:

Animals at the top of the range consume 2.32 kg MORE feed per day than the group average. Over 400 days, an individual animal could consume an extra 928kg of feed compared to the average.

Animals at the bottom of the range consume 4.15 kg LESS feed per day than those at the top of the range. Over 400 days, an individual animal could consume 1,660kg less feed compared to the animals with the highest intake.

Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), which measures the amount of feed consumed per unit of weight gain on a dry matter basis, ranged from 5.21 to 12.49, with an average of 8.07, after adjusting for variations in animal age. The variations in NFI, ADG, DMI, and FCR highlight the significant differences in feed consumption and efficiency between individual animals, underscoring the need for selection tools to give producers the ability to make selection decisions in relation to these traits.

The first group of Cohort 1 steers is scheduled for slaughter in November 2024, followed by larger contemporary groups in February 2025. During this time, the AWA team will be busy collecting samples for fatty acid profiles, MIJ objective camera data and near-infrared spectroscopy. The AWA is eagerly awaiting to share carcase data with Sire Owners. The following average accuracy increases have been observed in the Cohort 1 sires.

Are you using the right progesterone device?

Cue-Mate®

RTU (cows) 1.56g progesterone

Reload pods (heifers) 0.78g progesterone

Questions to consider:

Are all devices created equal?

Is there a 'right dose' of progesterone?

When do you use a low dose device?

How do retention rates differ?

Can you re-use a device?

Which device is the most environmentally friendly?

How to make a minimum contemporary group to provide effective data to BREEDPLAN

Unlocking benefits no matter the size of your herd

There is a common misconception that only large herds have the scale to make performance recording effective in BREEDPLAN. This is not the case. Smaller herds can achieve significant benefits from Wagyu BREEDPLAN and animal performance data from such herds is useful for all, not just to that herd.

The Basics

The most important concept to understand when considering effective use of data in BREEDPLAN is Contemporary Groups. If you are planning a contemporary group for the purpose of getting carcase data, a contemporary group is considered to be animals of the same sex, born within the same herd within a 60-day period and managed together as one mob. The seven simple requirements for animals to remain in the same contemporary group from birth to slaughter so that their carcase data can be compared;

Seven requirements for animals to remain in the same contemporary group

1 Born in the same herd and within a 60-day period

2 Represent two or more sires

3 Same sex

4 Same birth number (single calves not compared with twins)

5 Same birth status (Natural/AI calves are not compared with ET calves)

6 Have been measured on the same day (eg ; 200-day weight same day, killed on same day)

7 Run under the same conditions from birth to slaughter

Making a minimum effective contemporary group to test sire progeny

The following example assumes a 100% calving rate and equal split of male and female calves with all progeny surviving and the male calves being a contemporary group whole of life plus the female calves being a contemporary group whole of life. Let’s consider the minimum model to create a contemporary group whose data can be used in BREEDPLAN.

Contemporary group size impacts performance record effectiveness

The impact of contemporary group size on the effectiveness of performance is illustrated in Figure 1. The effectiveness of performance is the relative contribution that an individual performance record will have on calculation of EBVs within BREEDPLAN. As illustrated in the graph, the greatest increase in effectiveness is observed going from one animal to two animals in a contemporary group. That is, a record of a single animal is not effective because it can’t be compared to anything.

A performance record in a contemporary group of two is 50% effective, so starting to contribute to useful data as the minimum contemporary group size. Once five to ten animals are represented in a contemporary group, the data is 80% - 90% effective. Having larger contemporary groups continues to increase the effectiveness of data, but the added value diminishes.

Figure 1 refers to the relative impact that an individual performance record will have on contributing to the accuracy of the EBV.

A record of a single animal is not effective because it can’t be compared to anything

Using performance recording to improve the females’ EBVs

An often overlooked fact in genetic improvement is that half of the genetic improvement comes from the cow base of a herd. The cow base of the herd also remains long after you have changed your bulls. Performance recording of the cow and its progeny can significantly affect EBVs and increase the accuracy of EBVs for the cow herd.

The EBVs of the cow herd and their accuracy have an equal outcome on the EBVs of the progeny (compared to the bull used). Performance recording progeny within small contemporary groups to improve EBVs for your cow herd can increase EBV accuracy for your young breeding stock, particularly through use of 100K genomics SNPs. Once a cow has progeny performance recorded, this data contributes to informing the genetic merit of the cow and future progeny. A minimum of 2 animals is required in a contemporary group, but again, four or more animals provides an improved effectiveness of data.

Considerations for capturing and using carcase data in performance recording

The Wagyu industry is unique among the performance recorded breeds in that there are a high volume of cattle processed annually for which slaughter data relating to the final carcase outcome is captured by supply chains. In many instances, accessing this information for the purposes of submitting it to the AWA for use in Wagyu BREEDPLAN to improve EBVs requires arrangements through the supplychain back to the original animal breeder to be agreed.

This is happening on quite a large scale, and contributes data underpinning the genomically-enhanced BREEDPLAN EBVs.

If you are seeking data from supply chain partners for submission to Wagyu BREEDPLAN, in addition to ensuring you can obtain this data, you need to also ensure that the contemporary group structure you have created on-farm is maintained through the supply chain.

For example, if you have a group of 10 animals born in a contemporary group and managed as one group for the purposes of proving two or more young sires, these animals need to be kept in a contemporary group until slaughter. That is, the contemporary group needs to be maintained whole of life with the animals being processed on the same day in the same facility. It does not matter if the animals are mixed with other animals in a feedlot pen or trucked with other animals to slaughter, as long as the animals are all handled the same way.

In BREEDPLAN, the inclusion of carcass data is limited to animals slaughtered at or before 1200 days of age. This age cut-off ensures that the data used for EBV calculations is from animals within a standard age range for more consistent and meaningful comparisons.

Animals must be slaughtered on the same day in the same facility

Research conducted through the Beef CRC in the 1990’s found that the largest impact on meat eating quality and grading outcome, was the variability within and between processors on the day of slaughter.

This means that the transport, lairage, processing and chilling conditions, can have the largest impact on the eating quality and grading outcome. An example of this for Wagyu, is that applying different chilling times, different chilling temperature protocols and having different numbers and arrangement of carcases in a chiller, can greatly impact meat temperature and marbling appearance. Likewise, the temperature at which the cut grading surface is graded, can also impact marbling appearance. These factors can all change day to day within a processing plant and are certainly different between processing plants.

If the contemporary group is split and slaughtered on 2 different days, this will create 2 subgroups and reduce the effectiveness of this data. In this situation, it is vital to report that the groups have been split, because there are likely to be significant differences in the carcase grading conditions used between the grading days and this may negatively impact your BREEDPLAN results if it is not accounted for.

Seeing Red: Understanding Akaushi Cattle

The US Perspective

Within Australia, Akaushi cattle make up less than 1% of registered Wagyu cattle with the Australian Wagyu Association. However, in the USA, Akaushi's influence is significant, with estimates that they may contribute up to 30% of Wagyuinfluenced cattle, particularly in Southern USA states.

We've spoken to Legendary Akaushi and Heartbrand, two of the largest Akaushi herds in the USA, who have contributed to this article.

Characteristics of Akaushi

Akaushi cattle, also known as Red Wagyu in Australia, were brought to the US alongside Black Wagyu in the 1970s and 1990s. With only about 20 animals forming the base herd outside of Japan, these red beauties have adapted well to the open pastures of America. Unlike other Wagyu-type cattle, Akaushi cattle are known for their weight gain, milk production, and muscle mass, thriving in both pasture and feedlot environments. This makes them a popular choice for ranchers across the country.

Akaushi bulls are particularly prized for their soundness, with strong legs and feet that allow them to navigate rough terrain easily. Their fertility is another standout feature—Akaushi bulls mature early and can cover more cattle than their European counterparts. Many commercial cattlemen choose Akaushi bulls for crossbreeding, producing F1 Wagyu beef that significantly improves carcass quality. These bulls not only improve the genetic quality of their herds but also offer longevity, with many Akaushi cows remaining productive well into their teenage years. At Legendary Akaushi, some cows are still breeding and calving at 18 years old, and we've even flushed embryos from 20+-year-old cows, ensuring that their superior genetics live on.

Akaushi’s performance also shines in the grid-based pricing system that’s becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. beef industry. Ranchers are rewarded with premiums based on USDA Grade and Yield Grade, and Akaushi bulls consistently deliver. Pairing Akaushi bulls with high-quality Angus cows routinely results in over 85% of carcases grading Prime. Plus, their excellent Yield Grades prevent deductions that can otherwise reduce profits on the grid. In short, Akaushi cattle are helping commercial producers hit quality and yield targets with ease.

AKAUSHI vs WAGYU

Wagyu is a collective term for all Japanese cattle. “Wagyu” translates simply enough as “Japanese cow.” Akaushi is a specific Wagyu cattle breed, separate and distinct from other Japanese cattle breeds. Wagyu is known around the world for its unbelievable taste, texture and tenderness. Akaushi also delivers this unbelievable taste, texture and tenderness.

Most cattle store much of their fat under their hide. Akaushi are one of the few breeds that naturally deposit fat intramuscularly. The distribution of marbling in Akaushi beef – which is the fat throughout the meat – improves tenderness and flavour intensity.

>>>

Legendary Akaushi Nebraska and Wisconsin, USA

Founded in Legacy. Powered by Data. Legendary Akaushi was founded in 2015 under the vision of Bill Fisher, with a mission to preserve the prized Wagyu and Akaushi genetics that have shaped the beef world. Since then, Legendary Akaushi has been a trailblazer, breeding and showing multiple champions, including SOR Hiromitsu 1090D, a two-time Grand Champion at the Houston Livestock Exposition and Wagyu Champion of the World in 2018, and LAG Kahlua 2158F, Ms. World Wagyu 2020.

In 2023, tech mogul Steve Cottrell took the reins, relocating Legendary Akaushi's operations from Texas to Nebraska and Wisconsin. Steve’s vision? To push the boundaries of cattle genetics and ranching, blending modern data science with the legacy of Akaushi cattle. With a focus on creating new maternal lines and precise data tracking, the ranch continues to innovate while staying true to its roots.

The Nebraska ranch, spanning 6,000 acres, serves as the headquarters for Legendary Akaushi's Fullblood Akaushi herd. Here, we focus on embryo production, using cuttingedge technology to maximize the genetic potential of our cattle. With a GrowSafe Feedyard and ultrasound protocols in place, we are constantly collecting data to identify the most efficient, high-marbling animals. This precision allows us to offer elite genetics to our clients, helping them improve their own herds through high-quality embryos and bulls.

Akaushi cattle’s versatility, from pasture to plate, coupled with their exceptional fertility and performance, makes them the ideal choice for modern ranchers. Whether you’re raising cattle in the heat of Texas or the cold of Canada, Akaushi cattle deliver on every front, providing long-term value and unmatched quality in the beef industry.

Legendary

people at

Legendary

At Legendary Akaushi, the people are the backbone of their success, each bringing unique expertise that enhances the quality and operations of the ranch. From breeding to data science, the team’s dedication to excellence ensures that they continue to lead in the Akaushi and Wagyu industries.

Steve Cottrell Visionary Leader & Data Innovator

Steve Cottrell, a successful tech entrepreneur, brings his passion for innovation and data-driven strategies to the ranch. His tech-savvy approach sets Legendary Akaushi apart. Under his leadership, the ranch has implemented precise data collection methods to optimise cattle genetics and enhance overall herd quality. His focus on integrating cutting-edge technology with traditional ranching ensures that Legendary Akaushi remains at the forefront of the industry.

Michelle Johnson Breeding Specialist and Ranch Operations Expert

Michelle Johnson is the General Manager of Legendary Akaushi, known for her expertise in breeding and ranch operations. With years of experience in managing elite Wagyu genetics, she has elevated operations to global prominence. Michelle oversees day-to-day ranch operations and ensures the highest standard of care for the cattle, contributing to the production of top-tier seedstock and beef.

Aaron Harris Data Science and Operations Expert

Aaron Harris leads the data and operations side of Legendary Akaushi, utilising his background in data science to advance cattle performance. He focuses on using genetic data to improve the quality of the herd, ensuring that our breeding decisions are backed by the latest analytics. Aaron’s work in setting up systems for data collection allows us to breed animals with superior traits that translate into high-performing cattle. His ability to marry agriculture with data science plays a critical role in refining our breeding program and driving overall efficiency.

The Ranch Hands The Heart of Daily Operations

The ranch hands at Legendary Akaushi are the unsung heroes who ensure the smooth operation of the ranch. From calving to feeding and monitoring herd health, their dedication and expertise are vital to maintaining high standards and producing world-class Akaushi cattle.

Each member of the Legendary Akaushi team brings a specialised skill set that contributes to the overall success of the ranch. Together, they ensure that Legendary Akaushi continues to produce world-class Akaushi cattle, combining the best of traditional ranching with modern technology and data-driven innovation.

>>>

Expanding operations

With his acquisition of Legendary Akaushi and ShowMe Wagyu, Steve needed more ground to accommodate his expanding herd. Steve’s 1,500-acre Wisconsin ranch runs smaller Fullblood Akaushi herds and serves as a development hub for bulls and heifers. Meanwhile, the 6,000-acre Nebraska ranch has become the headquarters, housing the Fullblood herd, overseeing embryo production, and conducting cutting-edge research with a GrowSafe Feedyard.

In total, Legendary Akaushi runs around 350 Fullblood Akaushi cows and 500 commercial cows, with state-of-theart facilities for embryo production, data collection, and sales coming online soon. The future is bright, and Legendary Akaushi is positioned to lead the industry forward.

Partnering for success with AuWA

Legendary Akaushi Ranch recognizes the critical importance of collaboration in advancing the Akaushi and Wagyu cattle industries. The ranch has formed strong partnerships with the Australian Wagyu Association (AuWA), recognized as the true gold standard in the Wagyu industry, as well as other top producers. By working with AuWA and leveraging their industry leadership, Legendary Akaushi gathers and analyzes performance data that is essential for the breed’s development, broader adoption, and continued success. At present, there is limited performance data on Akaushi cattle, but Legendary Akaushi is committed to changing that. Through its involvement with BreedPlan, the ranch aims to normalize Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) and Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) for Akaushi, allowing producers to make better-informed decisions. By comparing Akaushi with Black Wagyu, the ranch seeks to provide valuable insights that will benefit the entire industry.

Legendary Akaushi’s data program is not confined to a single association or method. The ranch firmly believes that on-the-ground data is the most valuable asset in driving improvements. Over the next few years, Legendary Akaushi will share its data insights through podcasts, blogs, and industry reports, helping other producers refine their programs and prove the value of their cattle. The ranch also plans to work closely with its clients and small producers, assisting them in showcasing the potential of their own herds. The AuWA has been an excellent partner for Legendary Akaushi, and the ranch looks forward to expanding Akaushi’s presence in the herd book while continuing to compare the results of different breeding programs. Legendary Akaushi’s commitment to data-driven success and collaboration is a key factor in advancing the breed for the future.

Heart Brand Akaushi Beef

Texas, USA

HeartBrand Certified Akaushi Beef begins with family. The company was founded by fifth-generation Texas cattle ranchers Ronald and Jordan Beeman, and they’re committed to delivering the best beef eating experience. HeartBrand Beef is extraordinarily tender and can be cut with a butter knife. Its intense marbling results in a distinct, buttery flavor.

HeartBrand was the group that originally imported the Akaushi cattle from Japan to the United States in 1994. The original HeartBrand group grew the Akaushi herd tremendously from the mid-90s to 2006 where the Beeman family became the new owners of the Akaushi Cattle.

HeartBrand headquarters is in central Texas between Houston, San Antonio and south of Austin about an hour. The Cattle headquarters is located here as well as accounting and our meat sales offices. We have about 15 different feedlots located in South Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, California, Colorado, and Missouri, but the largest is in the Texas Panhandle. We harvest our cattle at Caviness beef packers in Hereford, Texas every Thursday morning and in Brawley, California about once a month.

The HeartBrand operation sells approximately 500 bulls and 300-400 females across the globe annually. As well as elite embryos and semen into purebred herds and semen for commercial dairy use. United States commercial producers that use Akaushi bulls can offer those offspring back to HeartBrand for their beef program.

The feeding program, is all natural in the sense that the animals never can be treated with a hormone implant, and in the finishing feedlot phase, they cannot be fed antibiotics, animal byproducts, or hormones. HeartBrand has a team of beef salesman and work with big box distributors to distribute HeartBrand Beef throughout the United States as well as about 15 to 20% export.

Legendary Akaushi continued

I have been fortunate enough to attend multiple Wagyu conferences in Australia and have been impressed with the members as well as great leadership. I look forward to attending this year’s Wagyu conference in Perth as a presenter and look forward to any relationship we have together.

JOJO CARRALES VP of Cattle Operations, HeartBrand Beef

The HeartBrand team believe that the Akaushi Cattle have been the best option to increase marbling, tenderness and flavour without sacrificing performance production traits like growth, conversions, muscle and reproductive efficiency.

HeartBrand cattle are on grass until they are 500-700 pounds, then transitioned to a higher energy feed that gives them intense marbling. Mother cows live on grass their entire lives.

Akaushi beef has a higher concentration of monounsaturated fat which the American Heart Association notes can lead to lower cholesterol, the prevention of coronary heart disease and weight loss? Akaushi beef is also a natural source of oleic acid which gives HeartBrand Certified Akaushi Beef its buttery taste and is good for the heart.

Experts that support health claims of HeartBrand Beef

Dr Stephen Smith is a professor of meat science in the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University and has conducted research on the health benefits of Akaushi beef.

Dr Smith teaches meat science, nutrition and physiological nutrition courses. He also conducts research on the growth and development of adipose tissue, particularly in the bovine species. He has investigated the limitation of cattle to marble and has used his background in molecular biology to investigate lipid metabolism in the bovine muscle.

Dr Smith has received national and international recognition, including receiving the American Society of Animal Science Southern Section Outstanding Young Animal Scientist Award in 1988 and the Animal Growth and Development Award in 1999

Dr Smith is a member of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Food Science and Technology and the Intercollegiate Faculty of Nutrition. Professional memberships include the American Society for Nutrition, the American Meat Science Association and the American Society of Animal Science.

Why have I never heard of Akaushi?

Previously, Akaushi beef had been limited solely to Japan, where herd size and beef supply had been restricted by the scarcity of grazing land. In 1994, a group of ranchers brought eight cows and three bulls to Texas, becoming the first breeding nucleus outside of Japan.

HeartBrand Beef has taken great care to diligently maintain Akaushi genetics by replicating Japanese production systems, management practices and breeding programs. Their herd is now more than 14,000 head strong.

Benefits of Akaushi genetics to your herd?

Bull longevity typically live 10+ years and often double the quality grade in USA beef production.

Cow longevity, on average, is eight years of calving. Cows are known for their high fertility, calving ease and quality udders, feet, and legs.

Environmental adaptability. The Akaushi breed is successful across all climates, including cold, heat, high altitude, etc.

Increased consistency in both cattle and meat type. Hybrid vigor allows for rapid improvement in just one generation.

MARBLE SCORE +4.0

LEVUCELL SC rumen specific live yeast improves meat yields up to 7% and feed efficiency up to 6%. We have the science to prove it. LEVUCELL SC. No other yeast works the same.

Net Feed Intake Fellowships available for AWA members

Receive $10,000 to support implementation of NFI recording infrastructure

Net Feed Intake (NFI) is a measurement tool used to assess the efficiency of feed conversion in animals. It is calculated by measuring the total amount of feed consumed and comparing this to the amount we would expect to be consumed given the growth and maintenance energy requirements of the animal. Energy requirements for maintenance vs growth

When feed is not available to animals, they loose weight very quickly. This is due to the constant energy requirements to fuel the body. We only see this energy demand visibly, when feed is limited and animals start to lose weight and body condition. The energy requirements of the body are constant (every day) and must be met before any feed energy can be used for gain of body weight as added bone, muscle and fat.

Larger animals have larger bodies with more kg of bone, muscle and fat. Larger animals require more energy to maintain their bodyweight compared to smaller animals. The following figure is from a review article of Cabezas-Garcia et al. (2021) Animals 11(6); 1642;

The red curved line through the centre of the four published models in Figure 1, is the average relationship between liveweight and maintenance energy

requirements (MEm) for non-pregnant and non-lactating cattle. This demonstrates that a 500kg animal (e.g. a growing steer), requires approximately 56 MJ/day to maintain its liveweight. In a feedlot feeding a ration of 12 MJ/kg, this equates to 4.7kg of feed.

If the average feed intake of a 500kg steer is 10kg/day, approximately half of its daily feed intake is going towards maintenance. Therefore, of the 10kg eaten, only half is going towards growth of bone, muscle and fat. For non-lactating, non-pregnant females we can compare that a 600 kg animal would require approximately 62 MJ/day to maintain its bodyweight, around 6 MJ/day more than a 500 kg animal.

What is Net Feed intake used for

Net Feed Intake is a weight corrected measurement of feed intake, being the difference between what an individual animal actually eats each day over a typical 49 to 70-day test period, compared to what you would expect it to eat based on its weight, maintenance requirements and its measured growth rate.

Animals with negative NFI are actually more efficient, because they eat less than you would expect based on their weight, maintenance requirements and their growth rate. Animals with positive NFI are less efficient, eating more than expected based on their weight, maintenance requirements and growth

Review article

rate. Net Feed Intake is used to identify animals that are more or less efficient at gaining weight once maintenance energy requirements are taken into account.

Relationship between NFI and other traits

The following table is adapted from the 2008 R. Bras. Zootec (37: 269 – 279) review publication of Paul Arthur and Robert Herd, two of the leading scientists in the Net Feed Intake research field over the last 20 years. This tables shows the heritability of Net Feed Intake (also called Residual Feed Intake: RFI) and its relationship to other intake and growth traits in Wagyu cattle compared to other breeds. This table shows that Net Feed Intake and Feed Conversion Ratio are both under some genetic control (low to moderate) and that there are positive relationships between Net Feed Intake and growthrelated traits such as Average Daily Gain, Liveweight and Feed Intake itself. So in a general sense, selection for NFI selects for animals that eat more and grow faster. The table also shows that there are significant negative correlations between NFI and rib eye area and carcase marbling score. This means that direct selection for NFI could result in a correlated reduction

in eye muscle area and marbling. This is not surprising considering the high energy density of marbling fat within the ribeye and energy requirements for marbling deposition during growth.

Why is NFI a useful tool in cattle breeding

Cattle with a lower NFI are able to gain weight and grow at a similar rate to cattle with a higher NFI, while not consuming as much feed in the process. Animals with a low or more negative NFI are considered more desirable because they require less feed for growth and weight gain, compared to animals with high or more positive NFI. This selection tool is highly valuable to producers, because it allows them to select animals based on their true feed efficiency, allowing them to run a highly productive operation while also cutting unnecessary input costs.

By evaluating this factor, producers can improve their overall herd efficiency and implement feeding strategies that ensure their cattle are getting the right level of nutrition, leading to cost savings and improved efficiency in the herd.

Why the development of an NFI EBV is important for the industry?

The AWA has been actively working with industry partners to capture NFI records for more than five years. There are now around five producers/feedlots with Vytelle NFI bunks recording data consistently. A major focus of the 10-year AWA-PTP is to capture much needed data to create new EBVs and tools for members to make informed breeding decisions into the future.

We already understand that NFI is a moderately heritable trait and is positively related to feeding intake and growth rate. We know from prior literature, that NFI may be negatively correlated with marbling and eye muscle area. Although these correlations are relatively strong, we expect that there will be significant variation in NFI at any particular level of marbling EBV. Therefore, a goal may be to identify animals with high marbling and high eye muscle area genetic potential, that are relatively more efficient (as measure by NFI) compared to other animals with similar eye muscle area and marbling EBVs. Currently, we have close to 2,000 NFI records on registered Wagyu cattle. These records are being used to understand the genetics of Net Feed intake and how this trait relates to other Wagyu traits as measure in our Wagyu population. We are analysing this data now to see if a NFI EBV for Wagyu can be implemented and how this EBV could be used to better inform Selection Indexes to account for individual differences in expression of NFI as a trait through Wagyu production systems.

What is the Wagyu NFI fellowship?

The NFI Fellowship offered by the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA) is a new and innovative grant that provides $10,000 to go towards supporting members in implementing Net Feed Intake recording infrastructure into their operation. Any eligible AWA member is able to apply, with the intention of using Vytelle/ GrowSafe feeders and implementing a four-node or higher number NFI recording system. The grant can be used to complete the implementation of this system (not including capital costs), offset management costs and running costs over a three-year period, to incentivise recording of Net Feed Intake on registered animals. The AWA then would also utilize this data to support the development and implementation of an NFI EBV.

Through a four-node system, a member could run three trials per year of 40 animals per trial, totalling 120 animals per year. If AWA awarded two Wagyu NFI Fellowship grants per year for three years, it would enable cumulative testing of up to 1,440 animals

over the three years, leaving an ongoing testing capacity of 720 animals per year.

The AWA is already working with AWA-PTP contributor herds to make them aware of NFI testing and promote the benefits of NFI testing to them. The AWA may prioritise access to the grant to AWA-PTP herds or by members who commit to testing AWA-PTP progeny or large numbers of registered progeny and provision of this data to the AWA.

Our first NFI fellowship recipient – Travis Meade

Travis Meade started with a small-scale Wagyu enterprise and now owns about 180 Fullbloods, 250 commercial Angus joined to Wagyu Bulls and 180 Angus recipient cows. He aims to expand further, hoping to reach 1,000 Fullbloods and continue growing his commercial Angus herd for their F1 operation. Travis's AWA Membership prefix is BEECHY, and his Wagyu herd is named "Beechy Wagyu".

Located in Colac, Southwest Victoria, the property named 'Beeac' covers 4,300 acres of highly productive land and is home to a newly implemented NFI facility. Travis is eager to understand the variations in feed intake and potential ADG of different genetics under a controlled environment, so he chose to use Vytelle NFI bunks. He believes it "will be key in the future, with the current trends towards reducing methane output and its correlation to feed intake."

Although Travis doesn't have the correlation data between NFI and carcase performance yet, he is "very keen to see it; it could be a game changer regarding improving the efficiency of Wagyu cattle". The NFI facility can test roughly 400 cattle annually, and the bunks are fully booked until May 2025. The Beeac facility has already started taking bookings for 2025 from external clients.

Travis's current aim is to test approximately 120 cattle this year (2024) and ramp that up over the next few years. We asked Travis how many make up a pen full for a testing period if members wanted to contact him about getting their stock tested; he answered depending on the sex and weight of the cattle, they can test 40 steers or heifers per pen and when bull testing is conducted, the number is closer to 32 per pen. They currently have two pens, allowing them to test up to 80 animals simultaneously. The total time for animals on the property is 63 days, including a 14-day warm-up period for rumen adaption and a 49-day trial. With the facility fully booked until May 2025, interested parties should get in touch to reserve a spot for 2025 and beyond.

Travis Meade's newly implemented NFI facility.

Q540, a modern-day carcase super sire with over 400 registered progeny. He has a +4 Marble Score making him one of the highest ranked bulls in BREEDPLAN.

Wagyu BREEDPLAN – SEPT 2024 RUN 2

Sunnyside Q540 has a strong lineage (G113 and F126), is free of genetic conditions and an extremely placid nature.

If you’re looking to improve carcase traits within your herd, consider using his semen, which is available for domestic and export use.

Bulls sired by Q540 are available now for purchase. www.sunnysidewagyu.com.au

Sustainability and profitability

ACC's commitment to continual innovation and value-add

Australian Country Choice (ACC) is the largest family-owned vertically integrated beef producer in the world. With pristine cattle raising operations across Queensland, through to its state-of-the art export processing facility, it is a true innovation driven Australian Agricultural success story.

Part of ACC’s continual innovation and value-add has been the establishment of a Wagyu Herd in 2017 and pivot in strategy to capture increased value and profitability through production of luxury Wagyu beef to support leading global export brands.

ACC has relied heavily on genomic and production data to drive genetic selection within its Wagyu program. Ryan Carter, the Senior Manager of Southern Breeding at ACC said that “it has become increasingly apparent that continual analysis of this data, coupled with phenotypic assessment, is critical to producing a consistent and reliable product whilst continuing to grow scale of production.

ACC has been an early adopter of the Wagyu Feeder Check DNA tool developed by the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA) in partnership with Neogen Australasia and CSIRO. Ryan said that “ACC have found the Wagyu Feeder Check to be an extremely helpful tool to evaluate our terminal progeny for specific production traits, allowing for informed decision-making well before carcase results are available.”

“We have processed a total of 5,923 Wagyu X samples through the Wagyu Feeder Check and have received carcase results for 2,097, providing compelling data to back operational and production measurements. These animals range from steers killed in 2021 through to our 2023 weaners, encompassing F1 Wagyu x Angus through to high content purebred steers. Currently, Tissue Samples are collected at around 12 months of age, with results back before feeding program entry.”

The Wagyu Feeder Check is a commercially available tool that provides data on the genetic merit of Wagyu content animals for key traits including carcase weight, average daily gain, marble score, eye muscle area and rump fat. Genetic merit scores (Molecular Breeding Values; MBVs) are provided between 1 and 10 (10 being highest) for each trait and can be obtained at or before feedlot induction to improve animal management.

Ryan said that “comparison of Kill Results with Wagyu Feeder Check MBV data on the slaughtered steers demonstrated strong correlation between the MBV Rank of each animal and their actual production outcome for each trait across the cohort”. This was best demonstrated by grouping animals by their graded/ actual marble score and assessing the MBV rank from the Wagyu Feeder Check across that group.

“ ACC have found the Wagyu Feeder Check to be an extremely helpful tool to evaluate our terminal progeny for specific production traits, allowing for informed decisionmaking well before carcase results are available. ”

Ryan Carter, ACC Senior Manager, Southern Breeding

The graph (above) represents the percentage of animals given an MBV 5 or lower ( blue bars) and MBV 6 or higher ( grey bars), at each graded marble score (AUSMeat Marble Score). In the ACC carcase data, of all carcases that graded AUSMeat Marble Score 9, 16.05% were predicted to have lower expression of marbling as they were evaluated to have a Marbling MBV Rank of 5 or lower. Counter to this, the MBV Rank 5 and below cattle accounted for 91.74% of carcases which marbled 3 and 92.31% of carcases which marbled 4. Wagyu content carcases that grade marble score 4 or below are estimated to cost the industry $1,000 per head on average.

Prior analysis conducted by the AWA suggests that removing the bottom 10% of crossbred Wagyu Feeder cattle could save the industry $22 million per year in improved resource use efficiency. ACC have also used the Wagyu Feeder Carcase Weight rankings in a similar analysis, that shows a strong trend between achieved Hot Standard Carcase Weight to the CWT MBV from Wagyu Feeder Check was seen in the ACC data.

Grouped into 25 kilogram weight brackets, 94.12% of carcases between 550kg and 575kg were produced by a Carcase Weight MBV Rank 6 or above animal ( grey bars) , as well as all four 575kg + carcases. Of the 155 carcases in the 500kg to 525kg group, only 12 were produced by an animal with an MBV Rank of 5 or below ( blue bars) for 7.74% of the bracket. Christian Coffey, ACC’s General Manager of Rural Properties described the future added value of using the Wagyu Feeder Check Tool, saying “We also receive DNA parentage information to provide precise throughchain verification of Wagyu content and to link data back to Fullblood sires through sire verification.

Sires with progeny that showed favorable results in kill data analysis were also identified based on their average progeny MBV rankings. Among 99 sires, the top ten, with the highest average progeny MBV Rank, achieved an average graded marble score of 7.11 across 242 carcasses. In contrast, the

bottom ten sires achieved an average score of 5.3 across 281 carcasses. The MBV’s on the progeny along with the Sire Verification translates to predicted Sire performance. This can be used as part of the bull selection criteria when joinings are being decided, giving the ability to predict the potential genetic performance of a sire well in advance of kill data analysis. These sires have the potential to directly influence up to four generations of progeny. With Wagyu Feeder Check, conclusions can be drawn on the future usage of the bull before kill data is analysed.

ACC CEO Anothy Lee said “We see the Wagyu Feeder Check tool as an important improvement in sustainability of our production, by only targeting animals to the ACC Wagyu program that will achieve the high quality standards for Wagyu beef. ACC is using this information to improve its Wagyu production supply chain, identifying low profitability animals that will not meet the requirements from long-feeding programs.”

www.comcater.com.au

contactus@comcater.com.au

Through strategic investment in breeding programs and identification of elite genetics, SHIMA Wagyu is uncompromising in its pursuit of excellence, sourcing the most proven and dominant bloodlines available across the globe.

To date, we have drawn on the TAJIMA genetic sires –MICHIFUKU, ITOSHIGENAMI, KITATERUYASUDOI, SANJIROU, TERUTAINI40-1 and SHIGESHIGETANI – to infuse powerful marbling traits through the herd’s breeding females.

These sires have been crossed with TOTTORI and ITOZAKURA-based females to ensure high growth, while aiming to maintain 50-70% TAJIMA bloodlines in offspring.

The genetics of renowned Japanese cow, SUZUTANI, have also been integrated. Every month, carcase data is analysed and measured to track genetic performance.

Shima Wagyu processes 500 carcasses monthly, genetically tracing and analysing data from live weights to final carcass measurements. This data, linked to genetics, is captured throughout our feedlot programs, optimizing quality and efficiency.

Shima Wagyu combine the power of world-class proven genetics with discerning selection for high marbling and strong growth rates to produce consistent, high-quality Wagyu livestock.

“We have integrated a selection of very growthy sires into our breeding program, whilst continuing to maintain our emphasis on high marbling.”

Fertility is our most important trait in Northern Australian Wagyu breeding

Taking a closer look at how CPC has developed

The Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) was started in 1983 by the Packer Family as a predominantly northern Australian cattle operation, and has since expanded into Indonesia with live exports and slaughtering. We have about 300,000 head of cattle across nine property aggregations, covering 3.5 million hectares of mostly high rainfall land, of which 20,000 is set aside for cropping. We also have two feedlots in Indonesia that can turn over 90,000 cattle a year.

CPC maintains environmental, social, governance and climate projects through emissions reductions in our cattle, savannah burning and biodiversity projects a few hundred km north of Cairns. If you go back a few years, we were worried about the endangered species on our property limiting our production. This year, we’re spending a fair bit of money to look for them because there are paid opportunities to look after animals like golden-shouldered parrots, bilbies and koalas – animals we would have never hurt, but we didn’t want to find a few years ago.

People are also an important part of our business. We have approximately 200 people in Australia and around 600 in our Indonesian team. We implement early weaning to avoid double handling of our cows and calves, which has improved productivity. We export cattle from the northern stations, and some of our Central QLD stations supply cattle for the boxed beef and feedlot markets.

Where CPC began, ten years ago

A lot of CPC’s market strategy stems from this map. With northern Australia being so close to Asia and its ~4 billion inhabitants, we pay close attention to the long-term demand coming out of the region for food and fibre. We still pay attention to the EU & US markets but our focus is much closer to home.

Ten years ago, we sat back and asked ourselves, "Where are our markets?". We found that our markets were in Indonesia with cattle weighing 500 to 600kg live weight, as well as in Australia, with slaughter cattle weighing 500 to 600kg live weight, and cull cows going to multiple markets weighing 350 to 500kg. We worked backwards and wondered why we were buying 1,200kg bulls, and why did we have 800kg cows walking around the paddocks that weren't giving us a calf every year.

Story by Troy Setter CEO, Consolidated Pastoral Company

>>>

Then we looked at the challenges for northern Australia, like uncontrolled joining, lactational anoestrous cows that wouldn't get back in calf if they had a calf on them, and, of course, difficult conditions. We also looked at our genetic gain, and it was lower than CPI, though most of northern Australia was at that time – and still is today. If you look at the average profit through benchmarking in northern Australia's beef situation analysis reports from 2001 to 2012, it was $6.16 per animal equivalent. The top 25 businesses had profits of $61.96, ten times what we saw. We wanted better incomes through better herd productivity and lower operating expenses. Our new focus was on productivity.

Breaking old habits

If you look at heifers in northern Australia, the relationship between weight and pregnancy is straightforward – the higher the pre-joining weight, the higher the rates of pregnancy. But this was causing people – including ourselves – to go for bigger heifers, thinking if we got heavier heifers we’d get more calves, which actually resulted in heifers calving at older and older ages. We decided it was not about breeding heavier heifers: it was about finding and breeding heifers that get pregnant at lighter weights. Putting that together for us at CPC, with our challenging strong wet/dry cycles, low quality soils but cheap land, we were looking at around $1,500 per AE back then. Today we’re looking at around $2,500 an AE. These are low production costs compared to somewhere like southern Australia. If you look at weaning at 180kg, by the end of that first year they might gain another 40kg and an additional 90kg in their second year, getting you to 310kg. Most of those heifers were not getting in calf until at least three years of age, and then they were missing a calf when they should be having their second calf.

The granularity of this data is important when you consider how important every kilo is, how important it is to find females and bulls reaching puberty early to increase productivity. We ran the numbers and found a CPC heifer that had a calf at three years of age was costing us $205 by the time we weaned that calf. But if she calved at two, we were making $30, all costs in. That became our benchmark: We needed to get our heifers calving at two years.

You've probably heard of the argument of calves versus kilos, and I'm here to tell you it's calves that pay the bills. By way of example, if in a herd of 10,000 feeder cows, you choose to take a 20kg weight gain per head, you end up with an additional $210,000. If, instead, you choose an additional 5 per cent calving, you'll end up with 500 more calves and

make an additional 30 per cent revenue when all is said and done, or approximately $273,250. At least, that's how it works for us in the north: More calves beats more weight. But we were greedy and wanted both. We found it helpful to calculate that it costs about $285 to cull a cow that doesn't produce a calf. We would keep the cow for a year; then, you put her on a truck. If you've got a branding rate of around 60 per cent, that's a lot of cows you're loading onto the truck. We had to break this trend but also wanted our steers to grow faster. We aimed to have younger steers because keeping them on the property longer was expensive. It is common knowledge for anyone in the feedlot industry or those involved in breeding, backgrounding and growing cattle in southern Australia. In the northern regions, land is cheap, and the cost of capital was not a major consideration. The prevailing thought was, "They'll recover and get bigger next wet season". We wanted to change this way of thinking as quickly as possible.

I want to discuss the impact of IMF in northern Australia. As we progressed, we noticed we were culling our cows on pregnancy. If we weren’t in a wet season or the cows weren’t pregnant, they went onto a truck. We did this for a couple of years to try and tighten up the herd, and what we found was that our older cows had a lot of marbling – scoring 2’s and 3’s. We dug around, and our research found 12 to 15-year-old cows that were staying in the herd (mostly) had this level of marbling when killed. Looking at the value of IMF in terms of getting more productivity into the cows, as the cows lost weight during the North’s dry seasons: If they burned fat, they’d keep cycling; if they burned muscle, they stopped

Image courtesy Consolidated Pastoral Company

At CPC, we aim to create cattle that perform well in northern Australia, increasing our fertility and productivity. We wanted our carcase yield up, and we wanted to get a view of what the customer wanted.

cycling. As a result, we decided we wanted to look for positive rib fat and positive IMF. How did we go about fixing this? Our answer lay in composite animals.

A pinch of this, a dash of that

We started with our Brahman as the base. Brahmans are tough cattle – they can walk long distances, handle droughts well, and don’t eat much. Brahmans are easy to sell when things get tough, and the cattle price is good. When the cattle price is challenging, Brahman heifers are hard to sell. Operationally, they prefer to be led rather than pushed.

We obtained some Boran genetics from Kenya. These animals are well-adapted to tropical climates, have high fertility rates, mature early, and can walk long distances. They are resilient to drought. While there are limited market options for selling their meat due to its less-thanideal eating quality, they are excellent mothers. They can be impatient, have a low tolerance for incompetence, and dislike repeating tasks. Overall, they are a good cattle breed. We wanted fast young growth, predictable performance and an excellent longer-term focus on feed conversion efficiency, so we put some Angus in. Finally, wanting to fix the fertility and get market differentiation, we included Wagyu to round out our composite. It took a bit to convince the board who had bought a Brahman herd. We had been breeding Brahman for a long time and had one of the oldest Brahman studs in Australia at Allawah. When I came in and said we would start putting Wagyu into our composite, it was a challenge for the board, but ultimately, the numbers spoke for themselves. And they keep speaking today.

The Wagyu helped us fix up the udders. Some of our Brahmans had an issue with big, bottled teats when calves were born, and our Wagyu fixed that quickly. Anyone in the feedlotting industry knows Wagyu can be a real pain in the neck, being in calf at really young ages, but that early puberty proved to be a great boost for our composites. If you have something in calf at six months, join it with something that gets in calf at three years, and you land roughly where we wanted to land. It was like fixing a watch with a hammer, but it worked! We ended up with a

composite that’s Brahman based with Angus, Wagyu and Boran in a four-way cross.

Operationally speaking, what does that look like for us?

We run an elite genetics herd at our Allawah station, with a few thousand performance-recorded cows. We also run an IVF program with our best cows, and we’re crisscrossing Brahman, Angus and Boran there. They go into two multiplier studs in the northern Territory, where the cattle are produced under harsh, challenging conditions and then put out into the commercial herd. We feed the information back into the program, particularly the data from our two feed lots.

We aimed to create cattle that performed well in northern Australia, increasing our fertility and productivity. We wanted our carcase yield up, and we wanted to get a view of what the customer wanted. When we sat down ten years ago and tried to determine what we thought the future market would want, we were confident that eating quality would continue to grow and that productivity would be a big focus.

Looking at our data, it was clear that our yearling joining rate was too low. Our Brahmans needed to have their first calf at two years, not three. At that point, our pure Brahman calves also had a survival rate of about 75 per cent, which is about 10 per cent below the average for northern Australia. It was simple crossbreeding and selection, which delivered a huge lift in our first calf heifers at two years old. We went about this by tallying up the data. From 21,000 cows, we found that composites with Wagyu content had a 7 per cent higher pregnancy rate than purebred ones. In yearling heifers, composites with Wagyu content had a 23% higher pregnancy rate than composites without Wagyu content. We’re seeing higher fertility rates at lighter weights in the Wagyu bulls, too: At the end of 2023 there were 1,000 young bulls in our commercial herd which passed their semen tests and physical tests. The Wagyu composite bulls hit puberty earlier and passed at 12 per cent lighter than the bulls without any Wagyu in them. >>>

EBVs and breeding goals

Because we have a four-way composite cross, we run our own EBV system in Australia. It was set just a few years ago, so the numbers look low compared to other systems. Looking at the CPC crossbreds containing Wagyu genetics versus the crossbreeds without Wagyu that we have full EBVs on, there’s about 20,000 head. One thing to call out – and that we need to keep an eye on – are that birth weights are pretty low. In northern Australia it’s a fine line between being too light and too heavy. A lot of the work the Beef Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) did on calf survivability showed that Bos indicus calves from cattle that were too light weren’t making it through to weaning.

Our yearling weight gain is a little light, but through selection we’ll be able to lift and speed that up, and we’re currently focused on putting in Angus, Boran and even Wagyu genetics which have faster young growth. In terms of mature cow weight, we don’t want mature cows in northern Australia that are over 450 kilos with a calf on them. The dollar index we have in place was developed for our systems and wouldn’t work for other people’s businesses – we’re very fertility focused, with some feedlot growth performance in there too.

From a breed content phenotype perspective, our four-way crosses have exactly what we’re looking for. We need a little bit of extra skin, with a slick coat. It’s important we don’t have much hair on the cattle because of ticks, so skin type is also important, particularly skin around the eyes. We don’t want cattle rubbing their eyes, because there’s nothing worse than driving into a paddock full of cows bleeding out of their eyes. We just don’t have any tolerance for that, and with Indonesia being stricter on skin, we’re similarly strict on the cattle in our elite and commercial studs for bad skin and fly bite susceptibility. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve been able to clean up these aspects through breeding.

Structure is important to us, and we’ve learned a lot about the importance of being true to structure. Some breeds tend to get too caught up in perfect feet placement and hooves and things like that. Through the Wagyu cattle our team has learned a lot about what you can tolerate.

Because we have a four-way composite cross, we run our own EBV system in Australia. It was set just a few years ago, so the numbers look low compared to other systems.

We’re trying to breed poll cattle pretty heavily. Any kilo lost from a heifer is a big issue for us – losing 10 to 15 kilos in the first two years of life can actually add six to twelve months to joining. It can mean that a heifer which should be in calf from November through to January is actually getting in calf from June through to September, which we don’t want because the probability of missing their next calf and death later in life is a lot higher if they’re not pregnant over a wet season. Wet cows in northern Australia do not have great survivability.

Image courtesy Consolidated Pastoral Company

A better beef business

What does this all mean for us as a company?

Ten years ago our average age at turn off was 4.2 years. Today we are down to two years, including our cull cows. We’re culling early, but we’ve got higher productive rates which means a lot more calves coming through and a lot more calves being processed and killed at 18 months of age. Some are even younger than that, which has pulled our age of production down further. We’ve lifted our kilograms of beef per hectare by 74 per cent. Cattle standing around taking years to grow, waiting for the next wet season to compensate was costing us a lot in kilos while limiting our marketing options too, through ossification and dental issues, and discounts. Branding rates increased from 51 to 82 per cent, and death percentages decreased from 5.7 to 4.6 per cent.

In our Indonesian feedlots the composite cattle made us an extra $36 profit per head last year. While this has also helped us diversify in the market, it has added complexity to the program too, particularly with Wagyu bulls that want to get out and breed with everything causing challenges with calves and different breed types and market types. There are plenty of feedlots that still aren’t sure about buying F1 cattle and feeding them as short fed, given their performance issues in the past, so it’s important we’re being transparent and clear with these feedlots about what those cattle actually are.

We participate in the Federal Government’s emissions reduction program in a few different ways, including via our herd methodology. From 2018-2022, we took 300,000T of CO2 out of the cattle business. Last year alone, when our genetics and management practices started to kick in – plus

it was a good year in terms of environmental factors – we pulled out 200,000T. We’ve then gone and sold those carbon emission reductions on the market. We also have some biodiversity, regeneration and other emissions reduction programs we can monetise; we don’t work with programs that are not monetised.

The following graph tracks the share of new genetics in our herd, marking the start of our journey back in 2014. At the time we were asking ourselves how long the journey would take, if everything went to plan. Genetics in our business is a long-term commitment, and markets change a lot in longer timeframes. You second-guess yourself. People change. Continual reeducation is important in maintaining course during these times, to remind yourself why you’re doing it in the first place. Summing things up, fertility is the most important trait I think Wagyu can offer for North Australian operations and for CPC. Wagyu are tough cattle too, and toughness – which includes the ability to work year-round – is the second most important trait in our region. Other important traits for northern Australia include slick coated skin and eyes which provide resistance to ticks and flies; horns are a problem for us in young heifers because if we lose that 15-20 kilos it can add an extra six to twelve months to that female’s life, and it can knock around the steers as well; fast young growth and good mothering and, of course, good eating. All of these the Wagyu offer in spades.

Wagyu is an important part of our business and there’s many opportunities for them in northern Australia.

Follow CPC on social media via @conpastco on all channels, and follow Troy on X (formerly known as Twitter) @troysetter

THANK YOU TO ALL THE SUCCESSFUL BUYERS, AND TO ALL WHO JOINED US IN PERSON AND ONLINE FOR OUR ANNUAL SALE.

We appreciate the support and the belief in what we do.

A big thanks to repeat buyers – we will continue to run this event every year –while these genetics are benefiting our own herds and proving themselves every month on the hook – we also believe that they are benefitting the industry as a whole – this was evident in the number of buyers whose primary business is producing Wagyu carcasses.

Lastly a big thank you to Kennedy Livestock for all your hard work in running such a professional sale.

Supply

Uniquely Australian with the essence of Japan

Exploring 2024 WBBC Class 2 Champion Eight Blossom Beef

For a company with just four years of operation in Australia under their belts, Starzen Australia procuring a result of Champion with their Class 2 (Purebred Wagyu Steak) entry in this 2024’s Wagyu Branded Beef Competition was something of a coup.

Their Eight Blossom Beef racked up an astonishing 1092.8 points, almost 50 points ahead of the next entry. Its “exceptional citrus and rich umami mushroom tones, with a smooth, melt in your mouth aftertaste” also contained 62 per cent digital marbling (MBS 9+), with a digital marbling fineness of 7.3 and an eye muscle area of 143cm 2

We wanted to understand more about the operation behind this magnificent meat and just how it came to be, so we sat down with Director, Hirotsugu Shimbayashi.

Starzen began operations in Australia back in 1972, with its original mission being to source Australian beef for its group back home in Japan, which itself began as a cattle trade business in 1948. A long history in the Japanese Wagyu business provided Starzen Australia with a wealth of knowledge and experience when they decided to involve themselves in Australian Wagyu in 2020.

Based out of Brisbane, Starzen Australia’s Wagyu are grazed in the pristine environment of Southeastern Queensland, which plays a crucial role in shaping the flavour and character of their Wagyu. Since 2020, Starzen Australia has developed and launched two of their own Australian Wagyu brands: Eight Blossom Beef and Imperial Blossom Beef. It actively engages in contract cattle fattening, processing all products locally and has successfully developed a market in Australia while also exporting the two brands to China. In coming years, they plan to expand globally.

Shimbayashi-San describes how they settled on the ‘Eight Blossom’ brand name: “It references both the lucky number 8 and the 8 parties involved in its production: Farm, Feedlot, Processing Plant, Exporter, Importer, Distributor, Retail, Consumer, all those that make the brand happen.”

Asked to describe their motivation in continually approving their product, Shimbayashi-San says:

“We hope to bring our learnings from the Japanese Wagyu business and combine that with Australian practices to create Wagyu that is uniquely

Australian with the essence of Japan. We are still at the very early stage of what we hope to pursue, creating Australian Wagyu brands as Japanese in Australia.”

The natural landscape on which their cattle graze is one element in Starzen’s trinity of success. The temperate climate and abundant rainfall of Southeastern Queensland create an ideal environment for raising cattle, allowing them to not only thrive, but flourish. From fertile soils to crystal-clear waterways, every aspect of the region's landscape contributes to the health and well-being of their cattle, resulting in meat that is tender and bursting with flavour.

The second element is a specialised diet. Starzen has developed a proprietary feeding program tailored to the unique needs of their Wagyu, ensuring they receive the perfect balance of nutrients to promote optimal growth and marbling. Starzen is also currently trialling asparagopsis and is undergoing baseline assessment to allow them to determine future sustainability projects for the brand.

“Environment is directly linked to the benefits of raising healthy livestock and is closely related to the Group’s business. We report in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and also just received SBTi validation for greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in June 2024.”

Expertise, landscape and diet all culminated in Starzen’s recognition at this year’s Wagyu Branded Beef Competition – the highest level of Wagyu competition in Australia. Of their big win, Shimbayashi-San says: “Our

“ We hope to bring our learnings from the Japanese Wagyu business and combine that with Australian practices to create Wagyu that is uniquely Australian... ”

director who worked many years in the Japanese Wagyu export sector in Japan selected the cut. We hoped for a gold medal but we did not expect to receive the champion title, that was a total surprise to us.

“We were eagerly waiting for the announcement and the moment it was announced, we all shared the joy and sense of accomplishment that night. We were thrilled for this award; it was truly a happy moment for us and it's a great feeling to be able to share that with the team.”

What’s next for the team at Starzen Australia?

“Our next goal is to aim for the gold for our second brand, a single farm operation called Imperial Blossom. We will tread slowly but surely.”

Eight Blossom Beef by Starzen Australia is more than just Wagyu – it is a celebration of tradition, craftsmanship, and the rich bounty of the Southeastern Queensland landscape. From the fertile pastures to the expert hands of the farmers and producers, every step of the journey is infused with a sense of pride and passion that shines through in every bite.

Digital Marbling Percentage (DMp) ≠ Intramuscular Fat Percentage (IMF%)

It’s a weighty topic

What is the difference between visually graded marbling and chemically derived intramuscular fat content?

Figure 1

An example digital carcase camera ribeye image from a Meat Image Japan device showing an analysed ribeye with 100 cm 2

Digital Muscle Area (DMa) and 50.00%

Digital Marbling Percentage (DMp).

With more than 50 AWA members around the world now using digital carcase cameras, we have seen an explosion in data recording on Wagyu carcases along with an increased contribution of this data to the AWA’s genetic analysis.

One of the added benefits we are seeing, is an increase in the sharing of images and data derived from digital cameras, between members and on social media. This is driving a shared understanding of consistency in the conditions in which marbling, marbling fineness and ribeye area measurements are taken, underpinning the importance of standardised data for improving Wagyu quality traits.

A misconception that people have when using the data from digital carcase cameras, is that the Digital Marbling Percentage (DMp) as reported by the camera, is the same thing as Intramuscular Fat Percentage (IMF), which is a labderived measurement of the amount of lipid (fat) in a tissue. This is not the case; they are not the same thing, infact they are very different.

Although scientists comment that IMF% is the ‘gold standard” for measuring marbling, it is not directly measuring the trait that Wagyu consumers are basing their purchasing decisions on. It is correlated to visual marbling (as directly measured by Digital Marbling Percentage), but it is not the trait that consumers or graders see when they visually appraise meat.

A key thing to understand about Digital Marbling Percentage is that it is a direct measurement of the proportion of the visual surface area of the ribeye that is characterised as marbling.

Intramuscular Fat percentage is the amount of fat that can be extracted from meat within a laboratory using chemical solvents to extract total lipid (fat) from non-lipid matter (protein and water). It is literally the proportion of a tissue’s weight that is extractable lipid. That is the key difference. So:

It might sound like these two measurements should be the same, but the way they are calculated gives rise to a very significant difference between the two.

DMp is calculated by tracing the pixels around every detectable fleck of marbling and summing the area of these marbling flecks as a proportion of the total traced ribeye pixel area. If a ribeye has one million pixels within its traced outline and 500,000 of these pixels are determined to be marbling, the DMp will be 50%.

IMF calculation is done by taking a slice of the ribeye surface, removing the water in the sample by freeze drying to determine dry matter weight, grinding the remaining water free sample and then extracting the lipid phase (fat) from that ground sample. The weight of the remaining lipid free sample (mostly protein and cell debris), plus the water that was dried from the sample, provides the non-lipid sample weight. The difference between the non-lipid sample weight and the original sample weight, is the weight of the fat removed from the sample.

So, if a sample weighed 50 grams at the start of the IMF extraction process and it only weighed 25 grams after lipid extraction, the IMF will be 50%.

Unlike the calculation of DMp, which is done on an area basis where the area of fat and the area of lean tissue are calculated equivalently; the calculation of IMF is done on a weight basis where the method used relies on the extraction efficiency of the process where each component of muscle has a different density.

It is the relative density of the components of muscle which produce the underlying difference between DMp and IMF%. There is a small amount of sugar in muscle, but the three major components of meat are protein, water and fat. The relative density of protein is 1.3g/cm 3 , the relative density of water is 1g/cm 3 and the relative density of fat is 0.7g/cm 3

Lean muscle tissue is normally around 76% water and 20% protein, which means that it is around 3% fat and 1% sugars. The relative density of lean muscle tissue is therefore around 1.06g/cm 3 , which is why it sinks in water. Fat tissue is not 100% fat (lipid). Fat tissue is typically around 85% lipid and 15% protein, sugars and water. The relative density of fat tissue (marbling) is around 0.75g/ cm 3

As we know, Wagyu muscle tissue can be much higher in fat content. If we take an individual with 50% IMF (50% extractable fat), it would have relative density of 0.91g/ cm 3 , which is why it would float in water.

But, what would be the theoretical IMF percentage of a piece of meat with a digital carcase camera DMp of 50%? The calculation for a 100 square centimetre average ribeye with a 5mm thin slice across the grading surface would be as follows (see also, Figure 2: a schematic breakdown on determining IMF% on a 50% DMp ribeye slice).

The total volume of the slice is approximately 50ml (100 cm 3 x 0.5cm). 50% of the volume is lean tissue (protein, water and 3% fat) with a relative density of 1.06 g/ cm 3 = 26.5g in weight. 50% of the volume is fat tissue (lipid) with a relative density of 0.75g/ cm 3 = 18.75g in weight. Then the total weight of the approximately 50ml of tissue will be 45.25g.

The total weight of lipid extracted will be 85% of the fat tissue mass (18.75g), which is 15.9g, plus the 3% of the lean tissue mass, which will be 0.8g. The total lipid extracted would therefore be 16.7g, which is a proportionate weight of fat being 36.9% of the sample = 36.9% IMF. So from this calculation, we can determine that in theory, 50% DMp = 36.9% IMF.

In other words, IMF% is approximately 74% of DMp, because DMp is measuring the fat area of marbling, whereas IMF% is measuring the extractable weight of lipids in a tissue. Professor Keigo Kuchida and coauthors published the relationship between IMF% and fat area ratio (DMp) from digital camera analysis in this Journal of Animal Science publication: J. Anim. Sci. (2000) V78: pp799–803.

Figure 3

Relationship between crude fat content measured with the ether extraction method and fat area ratio calculated with computer image analysis of the ribeye image from two experimental stations

(Source: Kuchida et al., J. Anim. Sci. (2000) V78: pp 799-803).

In professor Kuchida’s graph (Figure 3), you can see that the slope of the relationship between IMF% (Crude fat%) and DMp (Fat area ratio %) ranges between 0.741 (74%) and 0.782 (78%) for two different sample stations. This is highly consistent with the expected sample weight to area ratio predicted in the above example.

So then, now that we understand that IMF% is approximately 74% of DMp, and that DMP is a direct measure of the marbling trait that consumers and meat graders assess when evaluating Wagyu, what should the ‘gold standard” for measuring marbling actually be?

FEEDLOT WASTE AGAIN...

Jack’s Creek Wagyu programs have been internationally recognised through multiple World’s Best Steak wins at the World Steak Challenge!

FEEDLOT COVERS

The complexities of nutrition

It’s so much more than the sum total of nutrients

Dr Anneline Padayachee

Factors to consider with beef. When it comes to nutrition, we’re often told about specific nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals. Simplifying foods to a collection of identifiable nutrients is fundamentally flawed: we eat food comprised of a range of compounds including nutrients, not individual nutrients.

Regardless of nutritional composition, if the human body cannot absorb anything, nutritional content is arbitrary. Essentially “dumbing down” food to measurable nutrients ignores factors that affects nutrient release, uptake and utilisation in the human body. When it comes to beef, it’s touted as being a source of good nutrients, namely protein, iron and B12; and not-so-good nutrients like fat. As nutrition goes beyond just a collection of nutrients – it’s about how those nutrients interact within the body, how they’re influenced by the food matrix and their overall role in health. Factors that need to be considered are of the actual nutrients and how much is present, the food matrix, bioaccessibility and bioavailability, nutrient synergies, the modes of cooking and digestive processes. This essay will examine these factors in more detail for beef.

Nutrient types and amounts

Nutrients are split into two groups: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are required in amounts greater than 1g in the body, and can provide energy (kJ or calories) to the body. Micronutrients are required in less than 1g by the body, and assist, support or act as a catalyst to different metabolic functions of the body from the immune system to the tensile properties of skin [1] . While there are a range of factors such as genetics and dietary intake that affect the nutritional properties of beef meat, the nutritional profile of beef (so far) in general is [2] :

Beef also contains a range of bioactive compounds such as taurine, carnitine, carnosine, ubiquinone, glutathione and creatine which have been shown to support a range of functions in the body, particularly those performed by certain amino acids during times of higher capacity e.g. pregnancy and lactation, high performance athletes [2]

Defining the food matrix, bioaccessibility and bioavailability

The food matrix refers to the complex physical and chemical structure of a food, including how its nutrients are organized and interact with one another [3, 4] For example milk and yoghurt have essentially the same nutritional profile and are sourced from the same ingredient: milk. However milk is a liquid while yoghurt is a semi-solid. The physical structure is due to rearrangement of the nutrients and compounds in food, in this case via the process of fermentation. Using beef as an example, a bolar blade roast is the same nutritionally intact vs minced. However the food matrix has been altered during mincing and that can affect digestibility and hence the bioaccessibility (release) and bioavailability (uptake) of nutrients.

In order for nutrients in beef (or any food for that matter) to effect health in the body, nutrients must be released from the food matrix first.

Bioaccessibility refers to the proportion of a nutrient that is released from the food matrix during digestion and becomes available for absorption in the gut [5, 6]. Essentially, it’s the amount of a nutrient that your body could absorb if conditions are optimal.

Example in beef: The protein, iron, and other nutrients in beef must first be broken down in the digestive system. For instance, iron in beef (mostly haem iron) becomes bioaccessible when it is released from the muscle tissues during digestion. The more easily these nutrients are freed from the beef matrix, the more bioaccessible they are.

Example in dairy: In dairy, calcium is bioaccessible when it is released from the dairy matrix (casein or whey proteins) during digestion. For instance, when milk is consumed, the calcium must first be released from the protein structure to become bioaccessible. Similarly, fats in cheese become bioaccessible when they are emulsified during digestion.

Bioavailability

Bioavailability refers to the proportion of a nutrient that is not only released from the food matrix (bioaccessible) but is also absorbed into the bloodstream and made available for use by the body [5, 6] . This involves not just digestion but also absorption, transportation, and utilisation by the body’s cells.

Example in Beef: Haem iron from beef is highly bioavailable because it is absorbed efficiently in the intestines. While non-haem iron from plant sources can be bioaccessible, it is often less bioavailable due to factors like phytates that inhibit absorption. The protein in beef is also highly bioavailable, as it is easily digested and absorbed by the body.

Example in Dairy: Calcium in dairy is highly bioavailable, especially when consumed with vitamin D (which enhances calcium absorption). Dairy’s fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) also have good bioavailability because the fat in milk and cheese helps in their absorption. The protein in dairy, especially whey, is very bioavailable due to its quick digestibility and efficient uptake by the body.

Why the difference matters

Bioaccessibility determines how much of a nutrient is potentially available to be absorbed. Even if a nutrient is present in food, if it’s tightly bound in the food matrix, it may not become bioaccessible.

Bioavailability focuses on how well the body can actually use the nutrient after it’s been released. Even if a nutrient is bioaccessible, it may not always be fully bioavailable due to factors like inhibitors or lack of co-factors (e.g., calcium might be bioaccessible but less bioavailable if there’s no vitamin D to aid absorption).

Beef isn't just a collection of protein, fat, iron, and vitamins—it's a complex food matrix where the fibers of the meat, connective tissues, and fats are structured in a way that affects nutrient absorption. For example:

Iron: Beef contains haem iron, which is embedded within the muscle tissue. Its structure within the meat matrix allows for higher bioavailability than iron from plant sources.

Protein: The structure of beef’s protein, bound within muscle fibers, affects how quickly it is digested and absorbed. This is different from, say, a protein shake, where proteins are already broken down and absorbed much faster, leading to different impacts on muscle repair and satiety. Protein in beef also enhances the absorption of non-haem iron in vegetables like spinach and other green leafy vegetables, and egg yolks.

Fat: The fat in beef, like intramuscular fat (marbling), is distributed within the meat, which not only affects flavor and texture but how the fat interacts with other nutrients. It influences the release of fat-soluble vitamins and impacts how beef is digested.

In plant foods like whole grains, the food matrix is more fibrous, which impacts how quickly the body can access nutrients like starch and dietary fibre [5, 7] . The matrix slows digestion, releasing nutrients gradually, which can influence blood sugar levels, satiety and circulating antioxidants [8, 9] . The concepts of the food matrix, bioaccessibility and bioavailability helps explain why whole foods different health effects can have compared to processed foods, even when they have the same nutrients. Understanding the food matrix helps clarify why nutrition is about more than just breaking down foods into individual nutrients—it’s about the way those nutrients are structured and interact within the whole food.

Digestion

Digestion is essentially the process of breaking down food allowing nutrients to be absorbed by the body starting with ingestion in the mouth and ending with defecation at the end of the line, so to speak [10] . The mechanical process of chewing starts the process of breaking the beef meat down allowing enzymes to continue the process [11] . Chewing also stimulates saliva that contains the enzymes amylase (breaks down starch) and lipase (breaks down fats). Although food usually stays in the stomach for only about 4 hours, the mechanical contractions of the stomach muscles and the low pH of stomach acid (around 1.8, but can be as low as 1) breakdown food further into a sloppy soup texture called chyme. This low pH environment is partially due to an immune response killing pathogenic bacteria. However pepsin, the protein denaturing enzyme is released in the stomach creating the perfect environment to denature protein in foods into their individual amino acids [11] . Additional protein denaturing enzymes such as trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase and carboxypeptidases are released in the small intestine as the chyme moves slowly through the 6 metre long small intestine completing the process [11, 12] . The free amino acids are available to be absorbed in the small intestine, after which

they may be used by the body for a range of functions. The protein in beef meat is considered to have a high digestibility with 94% released from the beef meat structure during digestion [12]

Nutrient synergy

Nutrient synergy refers to the way different nutrients in a food or meal work together to enhance each other’s absorption and effectiveness in the body [13] . Rather than acting in isolation, nutrients interact in ways that can increase their overall impact on health.

Example in beef: Beef is a prime example of nutrient synergy, where multiple nutrients work together to improve bioavailability and physiological effects:

Iron and Zinc: Beef is rich in both haem iron and zinc, two essential minerals that support immune function and energy production. The presence of these two minerals together enhances their absorption. Haem iron from beef is already highly bioavailable, but the co-presence of zinc can further support the body’s uptake of these nutrients.

Protein and B-vitamins: The high-quality protein in beef is accompanied by B-vitamins (especially B12 and B6). B-vitamins are crucial for energy metabolism, and having them paired with beef protein helps the body more efficiently metabolize the amino acids for muscle repair and other vital functions.

Fat-Soluble Vitamins and Fat: Beef contains fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A and vitamin E, which require fat for proper absorption. The intramuscular fat (marbling) in beef provides the necessary fat to ensure these vitamins are absorbed efficiently.

Non-Haem Iron and calcium: Non-haem iron is found in plant foods and is more susceptible to absorption inhibitors, including calcium. When large amounts of calcium are consumed with a meal rich in non-haem iron (like spinach or beans), it can reduce the absorption of that iron. The mechanism is thought to be competition between calcium and iron for absorption pathways in the intestines.

Haem Iron: Found in animal products like beef, haem iron is much less affected by calcium. The body absorbs haem iron more efficiently and through different mechanisms, so calcium has a smaller impact on its absorption.

Nutrient synergy shows that the health benefits of foods are greater than the sum of their parts. In beef, dairy, and meals combining both, the interaction of proteins, minerals, fats, and vitamins results in enhanced nutrient absorption and utilisation, leading to more robust health outcomes than consuming isolated nutrients or supplements.

References

Calcium in dairy can inhibit iron absorption, but the effect depends on the amount of calcium consumed, the form of iron (haem vs. non-haem), and the overall composition of the meal. Here's how it works:

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Meal Context: If you're eating beef (a haem iron source) along with a moderate amount of dairy, the effect of calcium on iron absorption is minimal. However, if you're eating a primarily plant-based meal with dairy, the inhibition of non-haem iron absorption could be more pronounced.

Balancing Nutrients: The inhibition of iron by calcium isn't strong enough to cause iron deficiency in most people, especially those who have varied diets. However, if you are concerned about iron levels (e.g., if you're prone to anaemia), it might be worth spacing out calcium-rich foods and iron-rich meals, especially if relying on non-haem iron sources.

Nutrition is evidently not just about nutritional composition. Understanding how they interact with each other in the food matrix, and the factors that affect bioaccessibility and bioavailability during digestion is equally important. Whole foods like beef contribute to health in a more complex and dynamic way than it is often portrayed. Processed foods, as great as they are in terms of food safety, decreasing waste, lowering cost, and improving convenience, essentially are a bunch of packaged ingredients while beef, fish, vegetables, milk are single ingredient foods naturally created with a range of wholesome nutrients innately present. It's about the interactions, bioavailability, and the broader context of the diet, which makes nutrition a multifaceted field.

1. Jones, D., S. Caballero, and G. Davidov-Pardo, Chapter Six - Bioavailability of nanotechnology-based bioactives and nutraceuticals, in Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, L.-T. Lim and M. Rogers, Editors. 2019, Academic Press. p. 235-273.

2. Williams, P.G., et al., Composition of Australian red meat 2002. 3. Nutrient profile. 2007.

3. Parada, J. and J.M. Aguilera, Food microstructure affects the bioavailability of several nutrients. Journal of food science, 2007. 72(2): p. R21-R32.

4. Aguilera, J.M., Food structure revisited. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2024: p. 104459.

5. Padayachee, A., et al., Complexity and health functionality of plant cell wall fibers from fruits and vegetables. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 2017. 57(1): p. 59-81.

6. Le Bourvellec, C. and C. Renard, Interactions between polyphenols and macromolecules: Quantification methods and mechanisms. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 2012. 52(3): p. 213-248.

7. Padayachee, A., et al., Lack of release of bound anthocyanins and phenolic acids from carrot plant cell walls and model composites during simulated gastric and small intestinal digestion. Food and Function, 2013. 4: p. 906-916.

8. Gu, C., et al., Effect of a polyphenol-rich plant matrix on colonic digestion and plasma antioxidant capacity in a porcine model. Journal of functional foods, 2019. 57: p. 211-221.

9. Platel, K. and K. Srinivasan, Bioavailability of micronutrients from plant foods: an update. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 2016. 56(10): p. 1608-1619.

10. Heda, R.T., Toro, F. and C.R. Tombazzi, Physiology, Pepsin., N.C.f.B. Information, Editor. 2023, Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing: StatPearls [online].

11. McQuilken, S., The mouth, stomach and intestines. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, 2024. 25(4): p. 286-292.

12. NHMRC, Protein Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand, including Recommended Dietary Intakes, N.H.a.M.R. Council, Editor. 2006, Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra, Australia.

13. Jammula, R. and S. Fathima, Balancing act: Understanding nutrient interactions. World Journal of Biology Pharmacy and Health Sciences, 2024. 18(3): p. 243-247.