Wagyu gene checker identifies cattle you shouldn't feed for long

The luxury beef sector estimates it can avoid about $1000 a head in wasted feedlot ration costs by identifying crossbred animals whose meat is unlikely to achieve high marbling scores and other meat profitability traits.

By using a three millimetre ear tissue sample to select the 10 per cent of first-cross cattle with lowest performing feed conversion traits, the Australian Wagyu Association has forecast long feeding programs would save up to $22 million in a year.

Pushing those low performing Wagyu-cross progeny through a 350- to 400-day feedlot program was wasting a valuable feed resource, particularly in dry seasons when grain prices were at a premium.

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The new Wagyu Feeder Check screening test will also enable stud breeders and crossbreeders to identify sires with low performance traits and remove them from the breed's gene pool, potentially saving a further $36m over four years.

Of the 1.3m beef cattle on feed in Australia, at least 250,000 are Wagyu-crosses.

Wagyu association chief executive officer, Dr Matt McDonagh, said poor performers were costing lot feeders more in rations than the animal's carcase might be worth.

Therefore, those selected by the feeder check genetic decoding tool as likely to have marbling scores below five would be best suited to a short 150-day regime.

"Even in a shorter feeding program they will still be producing high quality beef cuts, but they won't be wasting resources in the hope of performing even better over the longer term," he said.

"At the moment the supply chain builds in a discounts across all animals to account for some cattle in long feeding programs not meeting compliance (high marble scores expected after 350 days)."

He said the waste and extra feedlot management costs were subsequently factored in across the board, eroding payments to producers and lot feeders.

Crossbred producers and feedlots have already started using the breed society's new genomic screening platform, launched at April's Wagyu Edge national conference after commercial trials concluded a few weeks earlier.

The feeder check test was developed with the CSIRO backed by "considerable" funding from the Wagyu Association.

It has been commercialised, at $45 a head, by US-based animal genetics company, Neogen.

The tool's development involved evaluating 6000 crossbred carcases and 2000 full blood steers and blind tests on a further 1500, with eight feedlot-processor supply chains across Australia co-opted to give data feedback.

Five core Wagyu profitability traits have been targeted by feeder check - feedlot average daily weight gain; carcase weight; subcutaneous fat; eye muscle area, and Ausmeat marbling scores.

Most recent tests showed animals predicted to be in the top 10pc for genetic profitability traits had an average marble score of 7.8, while those assessed by feeder check to be in the bottom 10pc had marble scores averaging 3.7pc.

Dr McDonagh said Wagyu Feeder Check's goals - to improve resource use efficiency and breed profitability - were effectively forced on the association "in the middle of one of the worst droughts ever seen".

Feed grain prices, at more than $500 a tonne, were "through the roof".

"There were questions about the sustainability of the feedlot sector for using so much grain to feed cattle, including whether feeding Wagyu cattle would be a viable option going forward," he said.

Feeder check now ensured any investment in Wagyu lot feeding would only go to the crossbred cattle most likely to be valuable performers.

As producers saw that value he expected 50pc to 70pc of the Wagyu industry would be using feeder check within five years.

Genetic identification tests would not only optimise resource use efficiency, but help the breed's drought adaptability and boost profitability and resilience for breeders and others in the supply chain.

Neogen's international business vice president, Jason Lilly, said within days of tissue samples being taken as stock arrived at a feedlot, or before leaving a breeder's property, genome sequencing would identify which animals would grade best and which should be managed differently.

To build up a reference data bank of test results and an animal's eventual meat trait characteristics for Wagyu Breedplan and other profiles, the association will pay breeders or lot feeders a $5/head test rebate when cattle are eventually slaughtered and their scanned carcase information is available from the abattoir.

Association president and NSW Northern Tablelands Wagyu stud principal and crossbreeder, Charlie Perry, believed feeder check would be "the most impactful thing to happen in our industry since the introduction of estimated breeding values".

"Whether it be the recent high prices for cattle, the cost of feed or competition from high marbling Angus cattle, a Wagyu which has spent 380 days on feed and has marble scores at only two to four provides a real challenge to the profitability and sustainability of our industry," he said.

Feeder check would also enable producers to identify sires producing progeny with a high genetic potential for value and use them more extensively, or alternatively, those which were an economic drag across the supply chain.

Neogen's Dr Lilly said less than a decade ago it would have been impossible to believe such tests could identify an animal's genetic markers for meat productivity for less than $50.

"Not so long ago it would cost $1 billion to sequence a breed genome," he said.

Asked who was most likely to pay the test costs, Dr McDonagh said it could be a case of cost sharing across the supply chain.

"How it evolves may initially depend on the producer's relationship with their supply chain partners - but ultimately each player in the supply chain will share the benefits."

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