We feed our steers for a long time, on a diet reflecting Japanese traditions. We never ‘push’ for rapid weight gain with a high-concentrate diet. Whether grass-fed or grain finished, our steers’ daily ration always consists mainly of hay and alfalfa. University studies have shown that the benefits and unique qualities of Wagyu develop over long periods of time, whether fed on grass or grain. Their amazingly intense marbling develops over time, and their fatty acid composition changes with time, developing the unique flavor and other eating qualities of Wagyu beef.
Whether finished on grass or grains, we keep our Purebred and Fullblood Wagyu steers at least five hundred days after they are weaned. We sell our fed steers when they are between twenty-four and twenty-nine months old.
Our grass fed Wagyu steers are finished in the wide array of forages our ranch offers us through the summer and autumn months. We do offer grain finished Wagyu as well, adding a ration of corn, barley, sunflower meal and soybean meal to the grass and hay-based diet. We are also moving toward fattening our cattle increasingly with feedstuffs that do not aggravate food shortages for humans. Oilseed meals, particularly cottonseed meal and sunflower seed meal, are especially promising. These feedstuffs are what remain after the edible oils are pressed from these seeds for food production. The remainder is a high-protein, high energy feed that the cattle love.
Each of our calves roams through our pastures at its mother’s side. We do not tamper with their diet; in fact, we cannot, as we turn them out with their mothers as they graze. Cow and calf pairs roam freely over thousands of acres of spring and summer pasture. Although they do sample grass and other forage, the calves continue to get most of their nutrition from their mothers’ milk. It is the best diet. When weaned at roughly six months of age, each calf weighs between three hundred and five hundred pounds.
Our Wagyu veal calves are available in limited numbers in the autumn and winter months.
At present, we are unable to sell our beef by individual cuts. We sell our Wagyu beef and veal only by the side or whole carcass. Kosher Wagyu and Halal Wagyu are available. Please contact us with your requirements.
After an unusually snowy winter, we had a superb summer for grass in 2016, both in the river valleys and in the normally more arid rangelands. Both of our main rivers, the Little Snake River and Savery Creek, were in flood this spring, owing to tremendous snowpack in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This year, the turbid floodwaters irrigated our hay fields, depositing a healthy measure of clean, mountain soil and nutrients in addition to moisture, and the grass is incredible. Our steers are spending the early part of each day grazing the nutrient-rich forages among the sagebrush and cactus roses, returning to the bottomland to fill up on sweet, green grasses before settling down for the evening. This looks like an amazing year for grass-finished Wagyu beef. Accordingly, we plan to keep our steers on forage until late summer and even into the autumn to take advantage of these exceptional conditions.
Please contact us for current availability
and prices for Wagyu steers and veal calves.
Wagyu Offal: please contact us with your requirements.
For example, see D.K. Lunt, et. al., “Production Characteristics and Carcass Quality of Angus and Wagyu Steers Fed to US and Japanese Endpoints”, Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances 4 (11): 949-953 2005. Also, K.Y. Chung, et .al., “Lipid characteristics of subcutaneous adipose tissue and M. longissimus thoracis of Angus and Wagyu steers fed to US and Japanese endpoints”, Meat Science 73 (2006): 432-441.