The Season
What can we say about this season? Obviously it is very wet and very wonderful.
We have had 678mls until the end of August with steady soaking rain on a regular basis. At an altitude of over 800m we are still a few weeks away from the spring flush of green grass. It should be fantastic when it comes.
2021 Calves
We are days away from finishing calving. It has been much easier than last year and we have over 125 Full Blood Wagyu calves on the ground. Sires include the two QGI bulls, LTCFQ122 and ADBFP0879, which we used extensively for this years joining. The preliminary EBVs for these calves are very exciting. Proper EBVs will be available when we finish calving and submit tissue samples for full genomic analysis. We do have raw data on birth weights which average just over 30kgs this year. This is a big step up from last year when we were averaging 28kgs. This compares with Angus calves which typically weigh around 40kgs. Wagyu bulls are terrific as heifer bulls apart from everything else.
Precocious 2 month old Wagyu bull calf
The occasional cold fronts which have come through this winter have caused a number of cases of grass tetany. This has affected many people in our region. It has been disappointing as we have not seen it like this for several years. As a consequence we have been very focused on feeding all of our cows with good dry hay, Licks and Causmag.
F1s for progeny trial
Market The market remains very strong across the cattle industry. There maybe a real shortage of F1 cattle over the next six to twelve months. The F1 grid has prices over $10/kg, live weight, in the target weight range for steers.
Bulls The competition for good bulls has increased across Australia. Basically, there are no two year old Wagyu Bulls available as everybody has sold all of their mature Bulls. Yearling Bulls are still available although some of the better animals have already been snapped up. Our website is up to date with the list of available registered Wagyu Bulls www.koolangwagyu.com.au/bulls-for-sa
