Wyoming Wagyu

A species of Japanese cattle calls Jackson Hole home.

// BY JIM MAHAFFIE

When wagyu beef—literally “Japanese cow”—appears on restaurant menus or at a local market, you might try it for a special occasion or to sample something different. Grilled, roasted, or seared, you can taste the tender texture and buttery beef flavor immediately. That’s what happened for Colby Carpenter, a former longhorn cattleman in Texas. Curious, he cooked some wagyu tomahawk steaks over charcoal and was an immediate convert. In 2019 he and his father, Scott, moved Carpenter Cattle Co. to the Jackson area to raise and sell the choice beef.

Wagyu differs from other beef because it has intramuscular fat that’s marbled throughout the muscle. In other cattle breeds,

“Several unique opportunities combined into one big move,” says Carpenter about why they did wagyu in Wyoming instead of staying in Texas. “No one was producing fullblood wagyu in Teton County. We found the perfect ranch property. My sister was a Sotheby’s agent in Jackson, and my wife is originally from Cody. Plus, the mountain climate here is similar to the Japanese highlands where wagyu cattle thrive.”

In Japan, there are four breeds of wagyu: Japanese black, Japanese brown, Japanese shorthorn, and Japanese polled. Until the early 20th century, these breeds were draft animals and not prized beef. Black, brown, and polled wagyu were certified as indigenous Japanese beef in 1944; Japanese shorthorn wagyu received that certification in 1957. Japan today restricts exports of wagyu—only black and brown are available outside the country—and has declared wagyu a national treasure. Black and brown wagyu cattle