Pictures of my cows

farmerjan

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Most of the beef that comes from Wagyu are fed special diets. The "massages" are somewhat exaggerated but for animals in confinement it has been done. They are fed a special rice hay and other things. Much of tenderness is in the genes, some is in the feeding.
Wagyu are the most tender. Jerseys are the 2nd most tender beef in all tests done. Then Guernsey, then the different beef breeds, with Angus and Hereford considered the next 2.

I like my jersey beef and they are alot more affordable to get and raise. We have looked at some Wagyu semen to cross on some of the dairy x beef cows and I may try some next year. Much semen is sexed now and you can get semen that is 90% accurate for either a female or a male calf. Not all breeds or sires within a breed are available, but there are some.
 

Baymule

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I've had Wagyu steaks and they were fabulous. So good!

I have one of those meat mallets.....used to have 2 of them. I'd buy the family packs of round steak, untenderized. I gave each kid a mallet and let them beat the crap out of that round steak. They yelled POW! POW! POW! at the top of their little lungs with each whack. DD was 11 years old when she finally asked, "Just what kind of meat is Pow-Pow steak?" :lol:
 

greybeard

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I used to...long long ago..use the mallet. I didn't care for flattened out meat and blood spatter. Now, the device I use is similar to one of these. A Jaccard with 56 knives.
jaccard-meat-tenderizer-professional-45-blades-16.gif
 

jhm47

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I crossed Wagyu with some of my cows. The calves seemed to be small, and didn't have much vigor. They were a lot smaller than my regular calves at weaning, even when raised by my better cows. I sold some to neighbors who were very curious about them, and raised a couple myself to butcher. They were very slow growing, and my "regular" calves reached slaughter weight far sooner than the Wagyu. The neighbors got impatient and slaughtered theirs at about 900 - 1000 lbs. They said that the meat was good, but not as spectacular as they expected. I kept mine to about 1450 lbs, and the meat was exceptional. It was very tender, extremely well marbled, and tasted great. However, they ate enormous amounts of corn, took over two years to reach slaughter weight, and I don't feel that they were vigorous enough to be a realistic breed that I'd want to raise. JMHO!
 

RollingAcres

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Wagyu are the most tender. Jerseys are the 2nd most tender beef in all tests done. Then Guernsey, then the different beef breeds, with Angus and Hereford considered the next 2.
And here I thought Jerseys are just dairy cattle. Don't get me wrong i know that the ground beef sold in stores are often from dairy steers of some sort unless specified as Angus.

Just what kind of meat is Pow-Pow steak?" :lol:
Pow-pow steak, i like that! :lol:
 

farmerjan

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@jhm47 , Interesting that you tried some Wagyu . I do know from extensive reading on them, that the average age is 30 months when they are butchered. That translates into alot of feed. Yes, they are smaller, many are "dairy looking" with not alot of "beefiness" to them. I don't have any direct experience with raising them but do know that they are usually smaller at birth. I did not know that there were "hardiness" issues.
I have heard many people say that jerseys are not hardy, but I find that to be the opposite case. The BIGGEST PROBLEM with anyone raising jerseys is OVERFEEDING them milk when they are little. I find jersey calves to be very vigorous and "tough" but I don't try to feed them like they are holsteins or other crossbreds. They are usually quick to learn what grain is for also. They do better on a nurse cow where they can get frequent feedings of not so much milk at one time. I raise alot of jersey and jersey cross calves. It also depends on whether they get a couple of good feedings of colostrum before they are sold off the farm. That is true for any calf, but I find that the ones I am now getting off one of my farms, are some of the best calves I have ever gotten. Those calves do not even get taken from the cow for 24 hours; they are getting all the colostrum they want in small "doses". And he continues to feed the cows milk to the calf until it is either sold, or kept to be raised up (heifers). He also does not feed milk replacer, but whole cows milk to his calves.

@RollingAcres ; yes jerseys are a dairy breed. But the bull calves do make very good beef. That is all I have put in my freezer for 20 years. The thing about them is most people want to see a "beefy" animal to take to butcher.... and angus have been touted as "the beef breed". Jerseys do require some grain until they are over a year old, but do finish very good on grass once they get over that growing stage. If you leave them on a cow until they are in the 5-600 plus range, they will do good on mostly pasture with very little supplemental grain. The thing with most "dairy breed calves" everyone tries to get them "off the bottle" asap; then if you do not feed enough protein as in grain, they get very pot-bellied and it takes a long time for them to look like anything. If you ever see say a holstein bull calf that someone has grafted on a beef cow that lost her calf, they are very nice and well filled out when they are weaned in the 6-8 month range and will continue to "go forward" from there. They will require a little supplementation, but nothing like a calf weaned at 8-12 weeks and expected to grow and not fed more than mostly hay.
 

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