PASSION FOR PRIME UPDATE | CONTROL YOUR COSTS | AMERICAN ROYAL | GROW THE SHOWGETTING TO KNOW | A WAGYU SUCCESS STORY | 2015 SOFI AWARD WINNER | WEBINARS | CATTLEFAX

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

American Wagyu Association

JULY- From the -

Have a Wonderful

eNEWS

Taste Excellence

Official Publication

www.wagyu.org208-262-8100

EDITORPaul Redneremail pcredner@hotmail.comphone (719)331-6531

PUBLISHERAmerican Wagyu AssociationMichael Beattie - Executive Directoremail office@wagyu.orgphone (208)262-8100website www.wagyu.org

CONTRIBUTORSPaul Redner, Michael Goodell,Southern Beef Technology Services,Tropical Beef Technology Services,Americanroyal.com, Matt Cawood,specialtyfoods.com, Cattlefax

GRAPHIC DESIGN / ADVERTISINGJon Hayenga - Creative Directoremail graphics@wagyu.orgphone (208)262-8100

DISCLAIMERAmerican Wagyu Association, Inc (AWA) makes no statements, representations or warranties about the accuracy or complete-ness of, any information relating to third party advertising and/or, inquiries made through this medium; and, disclaims all responsibility for information and all liability (including with-out limitation, liability in negligence) for all ex-penses, losses, damages, and costs you may incur as a result of information being inaccu-rate or incomplete in any way for any reason. Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden without prior written permission to the AWA.

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

2

The 2015 Passion for Prime Event was a great success with nearly 100 attendees from all over the country. This year’s event was held at the beautiful White River conference center, attached to the flag ship Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri. This years’ event presented 12 speakers; with topics ranging in feeding Wagyu, herd health, cattle testing, and promotion of your cattle. There were many commercial cattlemen in the group wanting to know more information about the breed. This shows excitement and potential growth of Wagyu cattle.

“ We are at the ground floor of this breed, with lots of room for growth, and to just keep up with the

demand ” - Dr. Horner, feed specialist

One highlight of the event was the announcement of the 2016 Passion for Prime Consignment Auction, to be held at the Missouri State University Darr Agricultural Center. MSU representatives were on hand to promote the event and the sale will be run by JDA.

The speakers agreed that the 2015 Passion for Prime event was one of a kind and they were happy to be a part of the experience.

MISSOURI EVENT “PASSION FOR PRIME” - UPDATE

The AWA Board of Directors and Staff want to express our deepest sympathies to staff member Jon Hayenga for the loss of his mother. Jon is our graphic designer and is responsible for the layout and assembly of this monthly newsletter.

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

Most of us in the Wagyu breed talk about the premiums we receive for our product at every turn. Selling F-1’s, selling fed animals, selling beef or the cost of a Wagyu steak all bring a premium. We all attribute the added dollars strictly to the very excellent product we are producing, and no doubt that’s the biggest part of it, but let’s talk a bit about the costs and why the prices we get are at least partially related to the higher costs we experience on a day to day basis.

First of all there’s the higher than average costs to get into the business. This direct cost is considerably greater than jumping into the commercial cattle market or even the purebred aspects of another breed. So your entry costs right off the bat are greater. Now you wean your first calves. Despite the claims of many of your fellow producers the Wagyu cow will normally weaned a calf of lesser weight than the average beef breed. Since the basis of our pay is most often weight that’s another indirect cost we’ll have to absorb. Feeding the animal out makes you aware of feed efficiency, longer feed times, etc.

So the breed has some inherent costs that are above and beyond the market. Couple these with your registration feeds and genetic abnormality testing and we’ve got a pretty heavy load going into the game. So we really can’t go blindly forward recklessly incurring added costs. What that means is you simply have to watch the cost of your feed, examining the options that

may be available in your feedlot. Look at the length of time on feed. Learn when you can expect to get to the degree of finish you desire, and don’t feed any longer than you have to. Remember feedlots are losing money right now feeding their own cattle, but they’re not doing that on yours. Watch your specialized add-ons or supple-ments. Make sure they’re cost effective. Watch your in process testing. It’s always good to have more informa-tion but at what cost?

I suppose what we’re saying is that despite the fact that we’re in a very unique position and a very favorable one it’s still back to basics when it comes to business. Control your costs.

3

CONTROL YOUR COSTSfrom the editors desk - Paul Redner

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

A Bar N Ranchcontact Cade Nichols 972-978-9296

A to Z Feeders contact Jim Skartvedt 712-243-4515

Agri Beef contact Office 208-338-2500

Imperial Wagyu Beef contact Lawrence Adams 402-426-8512

Jackman Florida Wagyu Beefcontact Mark Hoegh 903-910-9121

Mishima Reserve Wagyu Beefcontact Shane Lindsay 208-941-3793

Morris Stock Farmcontact Joe Morris 806-922-5274

Raines Farm, LLCcontact J.R. Hayden 318-791-9402

* If anyone else is in the market for stocker calves, feeder calves or fats just send us an e-mail with your contact information and we’ll post you to our buyers list. *

WAGYU CATTLE BUYER$

4

AMERICAN ROYALAre you real proud of your steaks? Think you have a winner? Well there’s an on-going contest, now entering its fourth year, called the American Royal steak competition. Just head over to www.americanroyal.com/events/2015/ steak-competition for the offical rules and entry form. It’ll cost you three frozen rib eyes, but the American Royal is a nationally recognized cattle show of some significance, located in Kansas City. This year the contest will run September 14-18. Good Luck!

Grow The Show

We’ve got 35 animals, so far, for the National Western Stock Show.

That’s about half way there, but we know we can do much more.

If you’re thinking that you might be bringing an animal just call it in.

We really need to make a good show.

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

Since we started this monthly Newsletter last year we’ve regularly published a list of people or businesses that would buy your F-1 calves. It occurred to me recently that we ought to tell our readers a bit about these operations, where they are, who they are, etc.

Starting alphabetically, we visited the A Bar N Ranch near Sherman Texas, and Cade Nichols. For those of you unfamiliar with Sherman, it’s a town of about 45,000, located just south of the Oklahoma line and north of Dallas. Frankly it is right in the path of urban expansion from the Dallas Metro-Plex but still retains a link to its agricultural routes.

The Allen and Nichols Families, (A Bar N), switched their cattle operation to Wagyu in 2009. Cade oversees the cattle operation which includes their F-1 operation in Sherman and a Fullblood operation in nearby Celina, Texas. In addition, the ranch, thru A Bar N Ranch Meats, LLC has branded it’s beef and started a meat supply operation concentrating on the Local Dallas restaurant trade. The Ranch is really a fully inte-grated operation covering all phases of the business.

As to their F-1 operation, the ranch concentrates on their Angus cows and full blood, high Tajima Wagyu bulls, to provide them a prime carcass in as short a time as possible. Like most Wagyu breeders who are feeding out they have experimented with feeding times, and have been able to shorten their finishing age to twenty two to twenty four months. This schedule is somewhat reduced from the accepted Wagyu F-1 norm but has been worked out with the help of Joe Morris, Morris Feedlot, Gruver Texas, and their nutritionist. The goal has been and continues to be “to produce the best Wagyu meat available.” It hasn’t been easy, but the effort has been well worth it resulting in sales to high end restaurants such as Fearings at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, The Ranch Restaurant, Bolsa, and much more.

So, it’s not just Wagyu the ranch is selling, but it’s “A Bar N” Wagyu. They’re selling a branded product with their name up front. That’s why if you want to sell your F-1 calves to Cade he’ll demand a very exact picture of the lineage of those animals. He insists on Angus dams and Tajima bulls and getting the calves into their feeding program as soon as possible.

In addition, as mentioned above, the ranch is continuing to build a solid seed stock operation, thru ET, IVF, cattle purchases and natural breeding with a goal of having two hundred full blood cows in the near future. I’m sure we’ll all be looking forward to the A Bar N’s first production sale.

5

GETTING TO KNOW THE WAGYU CATTLE BUYERSfrom the editors desk - Paul Redner & A Bar N

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

We’ve hard a lot about the successes of Wagyu in Australia, and a lot of that success is based on the commitment the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo.) has to the Wagyu breed. Frankly if we look to the not so far distant past, AACo. was not a real solid operation. They had their troubles in the marketplace and internally, but they have turned it around and are a growing force. Much of this positive direction was fostered by their commitment to Wagyu. Here’s a report from their Chairman that we thought might interest you.

Wagyu takes its premium placeBy Matthew Cawood

AACO has long conjured up images of sprawling outback stations and big herds of cattle, but today the company’s revenue stands firmly on a small, black Japanese animal eating from a feed trough. “Wagyu is our signature product,” AACo chairman Don McGauchie told the World Wagyu Conference at Yeppoon at the weekend. “It is responsible for not only being a good revenue source for our company, but a great deal more importantly, for influencing one of the most significant changes in direction the company has taken in its almost 200 years of history.”

By “good revenue source”, Mr McGauchie observed that Wagyu genetics were involved in 44 per cent of company revenue when AACo reported its half-year results in September 2014.

“Our purpose is to produce the very best beef in the world, and then to get the very best margin we possibly can from that beef,” Mr McGauchie said. “Wagyu is not the only important part of our business, but as our flagship product, it gives us the opportunity to create premium and then super-premium brands that we can leverage for all other beef brands in the stable. “We want to be positioned at the very tip of the price pyramid - whether it is Wagyu, short-fed, live export or even manufacturing beef, we want it to be a premium product in each of the markets within which we operate.”

If AACo can do it, the wider beef industry can do it, Mr McGauchie said. The challenge is to lift Wagyu above perceptions that it is a cottage industry. For us as a company, nearly $70 million over six months is hardly a cottage industry. At AACo, we are putting serious scale into this industry. We need to leave behind the niche tag.” McGauchie continues to say “There is going to be increasing demand for Wagyu in years to come, so much so that I think we will really struggle to supply that potential demand. I welcome as many people as possible putting really high-class brands into the marketplace, and doing everything they can to support those brands.”

for more information visit www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cattle/beef/wagyu-takes-its-premium-place/2732126.aspx?storypage=0

6

A WAGYU SUCCESS STORY

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

Los Angeles, CA June 30, 2015 - The Specialty Food Association presents their annual Sofi awards to the top products in the 109 billion dollar specialty foods industry.

This year Lone Mountain Wagyu is proud to announce their Summer Sausage was selected as the winner of 2015 Sofi Award for best Appetizer for Antipasto or Hors d’ourves. The winning sausage is featured on the Specialty Food Association’s web site, www.specialtyfoods.com.

This is the first and only summer Sausage on the US market to be made of 100% Fullblood Wagyu. The sausage is made from a blend of cuts including filet mignon, strip loin, rib eye and brisket.

Lone Mountain had two other products in the running for awards, with their sausage links and beef jerky as

finalists in the Frozen Savory and Savory Snack categories respectively. This is a major accomplishment in itself, in that of the 2,735 products entered in the competition only 125 finalists are selected for the 32 award categories.

“We were extremely honored to have three products chosen as finalists”, said Griff Foxley, COO of Lone Mountain Wagyu, “These are our first retail products and we are thrilled with the response they have gotten.”

7

LONE MOUNTAIN WAGYU WINS AT THE 2015 SOFI AWARDS

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

In August 2015 the Southern Beef Technology Service (SBTS) which provides the Wagyu Technical Services, and the Tropical Beef Technology Service (TBTS), will be running a webinar series entitled BREEDPLAN Basics. This series will include five webinars, which will be run each Monday night at 8pm AEST ( 3 am PDT - 6 am EDT ). The date and title of each webinar is outlined below:

1. 3rd August: Getting Started with BREEDPLAN2. 10th August: BREEDPLAN Traits - Weight and Carcase Traits3. 17th August: BREEDPLAN Traits - Fertility, Calving Ease and Other Traits 4. 24th August: Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) in Detail 5. 31st August: Selection Indices in Detail

The webinars will cover a range of topics, including:• How to join BREEDPLAN• Submitting performance data to BREEDPLAN• BREEDPLAN traits - what, when, how?• Understanding contemporary groups • What is an EBV? • What is a Selection Index? • What is accuracy?• Do EBVs work?

You may register for the upcoming webinars by follow- ing the link below and selecting which webinars you wish to attend: sbts.une.edu.au/Webinars/webinars.html

8

BREEDPLAN BASICS WEBINAR SERIES

AN INSIGHT INTO WAGYU & THE JAPANESE INDUSTRY

Courtesy of - Michael Goodell

Here’s a youtube video giving us an insight of Wagyu and the Japanese Wagyu Industry.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPz-kcDkvF4&feature=youtu.be

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

9

- Spring Hollow Farms -

2015 Sponsors

Central Florida is a major convention and family vacation destination. Ocala, Florida, frequently referred to as the "Horse Capital of the World" is an ideal location to host our 2015 Conference. It doesn't get much better than this!

Ocala, FloridaOctober 21 - 23, 2015

www.wagyu.org +1 208-262-8100 office@wagyu.org

E c o n o m i c s a n d T e c h n o l o g y

2015 AMERICAN WAGYU ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

Lone Mountain Catt l e Co .Muddy F lats Catt l e Co .

DOW RanchesT r iangle B Ranch

C lear Creek Catt l e Co .Tebben Ranch

Crescent HarborTennessee WagyuVer mont Wagyu

Wagyu SekaiKuemple Wagyu

PRIME TIMEin the

SUNSHINE

October 24th , 2015

An offering of upscale Wagyu genetics

Live Lots, Embryos & Semen

A wonderfu l t ime t o ge t t oge t her & suppor t t he breed fo l l owing t he A .W .A . Nat iona l Convent ion !

managed by:

Lunch at 11a.m. Auction at 12p.m.

www.jdaonline.com 916/837/1432

Lunch Sponsored by:

....and many more.

Featuring Genetics

from these cutting

edge programs:

LiveAuctions. TVLive on the Internet, Live Audio, Video Bidding

available on:

Interested in advertising in our 2015 Eco-Tec conference booklet? We sell a limited number of ads in our booklet, which is distributed to every person who attends the conference. Just remember ads must be of suitable interest to our attendees and we look forward to a great showing.

To learn more about the Eco-Tec conference and to obtain specific details about the conference, please visit wagyu.org/news/2015-annual-conference-october-21-23 for more information. We would like to start getting all of you who wish to advertise in the booklet to start thinking of possible ads that will showcase your business. The sooner we get those ads the better it will be in the long run. If you need an ad done, for the booklet, contact Michael Beattie at the AWA office for help. Our Graphic Designer can facilitate your design needs for a reasonable price.

AWA ANNUAL CONFERENCE BOOKLET

10

DATES TO REMEMBER

2015 AWA conference - Ocala, Fl Oct. 21-23Prime Time in the Sunshine Oct. 24 Hosted by JDA - Ocala, FlNWSS Entry Deadline Oct. 31

2016 National Western Stock Show Jan. 18-23 Denver, CONCBA Trade Show - San Diego, CA Jan. 27-29

HOUSE KEEPING RULES

Tip: Helpful Reminder

Remember it is important to always tag or tattoo your new calves with consistent but unique numbers for your herd. A good way to do this is to include your 3 herd letters and/or the birth year letter. This tattoo or tag should remain the same throughout the animal’s life.

Thank you for your cooperation. ~ AWA Staff

DON’

T FOR

GET..

.

JULY 17, 2015

JULY2015

AWANEWSLETTER

11

WA/OR CO MT/WY CA NV/UT AZ/NM /ID AL AR FL GA LA/MS KY/TN

wts9-108-97-86-75-64-5

8-97-86-75-64-5

utilcn/cutbulls

wts9-108-97-86-75-64-5

8-97-86-75-64-5

utilcn/cutbulls

wts9-108-97-86-75-64-5

8-97-86-75-64-5

utilcn/cutbulls

STEER207-212 205-211 190-195 183-194 189-202 181-189219-224 217-223 204-209 203-214 203-214 207-215229-235 227-234 217-223 216-225 216-225 214-226250-259 248-258 244-253 235-252 240-251 233-245274-285 272-284 269-280 263-279 264-278 261-275308-320 306-319 293-305 292-304 291-310 289-305HEIFER200-208 199-204 191-196 190-196 190-195 189-197213-219 212-218 206-212 205-211 203-211 203-212231-240 230-239 216-225 215-234 214-230 223-235259-270 258-269 238-249 237-249 236-260 236-250278-290 277-289 268-280 267-279 266-280 265-280COWS102-112 98-109 106-114 104-115 99-112 105-11496-106 94-107 96-104 99-108 94-104 95-107130-140 127-139 130-143 121-135 128-141 122-137

STEER201-205 198-213 207-212 214-219 206-210 213-218215-219 206-217 219-224 215-220 217-221 214-219220-225 224-233 229-235 231-237 227-232 230-236238-245 242-250 250-259 255-264 243-250 254-263263-273 269-280 274-285 274-285 270-280 273-284300-310 298-315 308-320 313-325 298-310 312-324HEIFER194-198 197-205 200-205 208-213 201-205 207-212211-216 212-218 213-219 215-221 213-218 214-220218-225 222-230 231-240 233-242 224-231 232-241232-242 230-250 259-270 264-275 239-249 263-274267-270 253-280 278-290 288-300 258-270 287-299COWS107-114 108-119 101-111 99-109 113-121 99-109101-110 98-117 97-107 94-104 107-112 93-103136-142 134-141 128-138 130-140 139-145 130-140

STEER194-198 196-200 190-194 194-198 195-199 202-206200-204 203-207 196-200 200-204 203-207 208-212220-225 224-229 216-221 220-225 213-218 223-228233-240 238-245 230-237 233-240 220-227 233-240255-265 260-270 252-262 255-265 245-255 260-270285-297 288-300 283-295 285-297 268-280 290-302HEIFER193-197 193-197 189-193 193-197 192-196 190-194199-204 203-208 196-201 199-204 197-202 198-203219-226 219-226 215-222 220-227 213-220 208-215229-239 234-244 226-236 229-239 230-240 232-242253-265 263-275 251-263 253-265 258-270 246-258COWS109-118 101-111 112-119 112-119 103-113 102-108105-110 99-105 105-112 105-112 102-112 102-107137-143 130-140 135-143 135-145 134-143 130-136

West — Feeder cattle were steady to $3 lower. Calves were steady to $5 lower. Market cows were $1 lower this week. — Ethan Oberst

Southeast — Feeder cattle were mixed from $2 higher to $4 lower this week. Calves were steady to $6 lower. Market cows were a $1 lower this week. — Ethan Oberst

Central — Feeder cattle were mixed, $3 higher to $6 lower. Calves were steady to $8 lower this week. Market cows were $1 lower. — Ethan Oberst

TX KS/MO ND/SD NE OK IA

West & Northwest Central Southeast