CEO update

I look forward to greeting many of you shortly at the 2023 conference in Sydney Australia. The Wagyu Sector has been growing rapidly, with a net full membership increase of 143 new members since our last conference in April 2022.

I hope that many of existing members who share their time and experience at our annual WagyuEdge conferences attend again this year to help welcome and network with our growing membership.

February 2023 AWA Board update

The AWA Board has met for review of the AWA half yearly (July to December 2022) performance against the 2022-2023 operational plan, assess statutory items and consider key items as follows:

1. New Crossbred Wagyu Feeder Check genomic prediction tool approved for commercial release in April 2023 in line with the WagyuEdge'23 Conference. The AWA Board reviewed the latest analysis of data completed by CSIRO along with approving final license agreements for commercial release of the Wagyu Feeder Check tool.

2. New F1 progeny component of AWA-PTP approved to commence in 2023/2024. The AWA-PTP will use semen straws from program nominated sires across Angus females to form large F1 contemporary groups with an additional 30 slaughter progeny per sire. AWA-PTP semen sire nominators will benefit from considerable further increase in EBV accuracies, with carcase trait accuracies increasing from 75% (12 Fullblood slaughter progeny) to more than 90% (12 Fullblood + 30 F1 slaughter progeny). We aim to process an additional 1,100 F1 AWA-PTP slaughter progeny per year to generated significant added value to AWA-PTP sire contributors.

3. Australian Wagyu Association USA breeder tour approved. The AWA will take up to 40 members through key Wagyu breeding ranches and facilities across Canada and the USA in a 2 week tour accessing many of the largest and well known Wagyu operations in North America. The Tour will be timed to finish in San Antonio Texas so that participants can attend the American Wagyu Association Conference 21 – 23 September 2022.

4. A new Bylaw to stop members using other herd prefixes in their animal names was approved. This change was implemented following an increase in members using the prefix of another member in the animal name of their registered animal. The change will reduce confusion concerning presumed breeding of animals based on registered animal names.

5. Company operational performance against KPIs to the end of second quarter FY2023 was reviewed, with progress to date satisfactory against all key work areas. Financial performance was reviewed, noting satisfactory operation against budget year to date with the AWA in a continued sound position.

6. 76 new AWA Member applications were approved for the second quarter, taking total AWA membership to 1001 full members and 126 associate members.

AWA-Progeny Test program (PTP) update

2021-2031 AWA-PTP COHORT 2

Breeding program almost complete

Over the last 12 months, the AWA team have been working with seven different participant herds and have used semen from 70 nominated sires across two breeding years. Final pregnancy rates from Cohort 1 single cycle AI programs were 61% averaged across all herds.

A total of 974 calves have been registered with the AWA so far from Cohort 1, with all breeding data, gestation length and birth weight data for these calves already entered into Wagyu BREEDPLAN. Sites will be collecting 200-day weight and continue collecting data through 2023/24 for Cohort 1 calves.

The AI program for Cohort 2 calves is already well underway with multiple sites already complete for their Cohort 2 joinings. We look forward to providing some initial data on the AWA-PTP at the WagyuEdge 2023 Conference.

2021-2031 AWA-PTP COHORT 3

Sire nominations still open – intake almost completed

The AWA-PTP aims to test 250 sires across 2,000 Fullblood females over a seven breeding cycles. The design of the project will be optimised to obtain optimal progeny numbers from up 40 sires per year (including link sires) within large contemporary groups to maximise the value of genetic information to compare and prove the genetic merit of bulls.

Sire nominations for Cohort 3 were opened in December 2022 and we still have a small number of places available. Nominators of sires for Cohort 3 will be able to benefit from the newly approved AWA-PTP F1 program, seeking to deliver accuracies for sires at above 90% for carcase traits.

Dr Matt McDonagh AWA Chief Executive Officer