The Wagyu Cattle- Nearly Ready for Slaughter

During the winter my Wagyu cattle were allowed to roam wild on the fells with the Galloways. The conditions were rougher than expected and they were a little bedraggled when we brought them to their new home in January. They have now swapped the rough fells of the west coast overlooking the Irish Sea for the more benign conditions of Grange-over-Sands, and the three mature bullocks have spent the last three months living a life of luxury indoors on a diet of grain getting into condition for the fateful day which awaits all beef cattle. ​

The photo shows the eldest, Paul, who is now in perfect condition and will meet his fate in about two weeks time. It’s now nearly four years since we started the embryo programme to raise the first pure-bred Wagyus in this part of the world. We will soon see whether bringing up the Wagyus in English conditions outside, with a diet mainly of grass will produce the same excellence as the cattle in Japan, which are raised indoors on a diet of grain. My theory is that the excellence is in the genes and that the diet should be irrelevant, but we’ll see.