Australian Wagyu Forum
Overview
This section looks at the modern state of the Japanese Black Wagyu herd, now challenged by diminishing genetic diversity caused exclusively by intensive selection for a single (meat quality) trait. We skim the Japanese animal science that identifies this challenge…
Continue reading
Modern Bloodline Performance Differentiation
How much have the domestic Japanese Black Wagyu herds of today lost prefectural differentiation and become genetically homogenous, with performance consistency?
Although the identification of a threatening genetic convergence towards a homogenous, inbred Japanese herd has fueled a prominent thread…
Continue reading
Comparative Calf Performance Analysis – Hyogo (Tajima) vs Tottori Prefectures
Potent evidence of performance differentiation by prefectural origin is in the calf analysis below. Authored by leading Japanese animal scientists using official data, this compares 1994-2002 drop progeny from two dominant ‘cradle prefecture’ herds. First published in a highly…
Continue reading
Modern Prefectures Maintain Unique Tsuru Genetics
Another thing that is indisputable in Japanese Black breed development since the 1960s is the overwhelming impact of a ‘Tajima’ trend, which accelerates sharply after 1991. The following, simplified chart from Honda et al (2004) reveals the contribution of founders…
Continue reading
The Tsuru Tradition Continues
The ‘tsuru’ tradition involves an emphasis on female selection and is a unique Japanese ‘take’ on in-breeding.
Continue reading
Continue reading
Prefectural Bloodlines In US/Australia Original Imports
Finally, brief consideration might be given to the impact of post-1960s Japanese breeding fashions on the selection on the live export groups leaving Japan in the 1980s and 1990s – the founder cattle of modern American and Australian Wagyu herds.…
Continue reading