Wagyu

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Wagyu

refers to several breeds

Beef cattle

Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production . The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot a [cow, calf, hiefer, bull, steer] are known as feeder cattle, and are larger than other cattle....
of cattle

Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
genetically predisposed to intense marbling

Marbled meat

Marbled meat is meat, especially red meat, which contains various amounts of intramuscular fat, giving it an appearance similar to a marble pattern....
and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat

Unsaturated fat

An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there are one or more double bonds in the fatty acid chain. A fat molecule is Monounsaturated fat if it contains one double bond, and polyunsaturated if it contains more than one double bond....
. The meat from wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and thus a high market value. Several areas in Japan are famous for the quality of their Wagyu cattle, and ship beef bearing their areas' names.

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Encyclopedia

refers to several breeds

Beef cattle

Cattle

Marbled meat

Unsaturated fat

Kobe beef

refers to beef from the black Tajima cattle breed of Wagyu cattle, raised according to strict tradition in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Kobe beef is renowned for its flavour, tenderness, and fatty well-marbled meat....
, Mishima

Mishima beef

is a type of beef produced in Japan that is much rarer than Kobe beef. It is named after the tiny Mishima Island in the Sea of Japan 40 km northwest of Yamaguchi Prefecture....
and Ohmi beef.

The wagyu cattle's genetic predisposition yields a beef that contains a higher percentage of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids than typical beef. The increased marbling also improves the ratio of monounsaturated fat

Monounsaturated fat

In biochemistry and nutrition, monounsaturated fats are fatty acids that have a single double bond in the fatty acid chain and all of the remainder of the carbon atoms in the chain are single bond....
s to saturated fat

Saturated fat

Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only Saturation fatty acid radicals. There are several kinds of naturally occurring saturated fatty acids, which differ by the number of carbon atoms - from 1 to 24....
s.

History

Japan

Wagyu were initially introduced to Japan as a beast of burden to help cultivate rice during the 2nd century. The Wagyu has close ties to the Korean Ox. As a result, the Wagyu developed a strong and bigger front end. By order of the Shogun

Shogun

is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The Japanese word for "general", it is made up of two kanji characters: sho, meaning "commander", "general", or "admiral", and gun meaning military troops or warriors....
, the cowherd in Japan was closed and eating meat from any four legged animal was prohibited from 1635 to 1838. Because of Japan's rugged terrain and isolated areas, different breeding and feeding techniques were used such as massaging or adding beer

Beer

Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and Fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal?the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used....
or sake

Sake

Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.This beverage is called sake in English, but in Japanese language, sake or Honorific speech in Japanese refers to alcoholic drinks in general....
to their feeding regimen. It is suggested that this was done to aid in digestion and induce hunger during humid seasons but appears to have no effect on the meat's flavor. Massaging may have been to prevent muscle cramping on small farms in Japan in which the animals did not have sufficient room to use their muscles.

There are four major breeds of wagyu (wa
Wa (Japan)

Japanese language , is the oldest recorded names of Japan. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character ? until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with ? "harmony, peace, balance"....
means Japanese, and gyu means cattle, or simply "Japanese cow"): Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, Japanese Polled, Japanese Shorthorn, and Kumamoto Reds. Japanese breed names include: Tajima

Tajima cattle

is one of the types of black Wagyu cattle in Japan. Many tajima cattle are born in Hyogo Prefecture and raised as stock for famous beef such as Kobe beef and Matsuzaka beef....
, Tottori, Shimane, Kochi and Kumamoto. Kumamoto Prefecture

Kumamoto Prefecture

is a Prefectures of Japan of Japan located on Kyushu Island. The capital is the city of Kumamoto, Kumamoto....
(???)is famous for their red wagyu cattle. The more famous black variety has their origins in Kobe.

America

In America, Japanese wagyu cattle were bred with Angus cattle

Angus cattle

Angus cattle is a term that refers, in much of the world , to either or both of two types of naturally hornless cattle. Since the 1950s, these types have been regarded in the United States as separate breeds; they are:...
to create a crossbred animal that would be more able to survive the U.S. climate and ranching methods. The meat of this crossbreed was more marketable to the American buyer. To the American buyer, the meat of the Wagyu cow was "too white." The meat of the the crossbreed provided the balance of marbling and red meat desired by American buyers. This crossbreed has been named American Style Kobe Beef and was originally produced for export to Japan but is now available world-wide.

Designed to mimic the diet that Japanese cattle were receiving, wagyu cattle in the United States are fed a mixture of corn

Corn

Corn may refer to:...
, alfalfa

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop. In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand it is known as lucerne and as lucerne grass in south Asia....
, barley

Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
,and wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry wikt:stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat....
.

As of 2007 the U.S. cannot ship wagyu beef to Japan as Japan requires that beef imported from the U.S. be from cattle not older than 20 months (wagyu cattle are usually slaughtered at 30–35 months).

Australia

Australian Wagyu Association is the largest and most proactive Breed Association outside Japan. Both Fullblood and Wagyu cross cattle are farmed in Australia for domestic and overseas markets, including Japan, Korea, the United States, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and the European Union.

Australian Wagyu cattle are grain fed for the last 300-500 days of production. Although less than 100,000 of the 28.8 million head of cattle in Australia are Wagyu or Wagyu infused, the long feed nature of Wagyu production takes up 40% of Australian feedlot space in any given 12 month period.

External links

Associations

Additional information

Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University
, Professor Kiyoshi Namikawa, Department of Animal Sciences, Kyoto University - Kyoto, Japan, circa 1985