DRY CRIK Journal

1st Calf, Angus Cross, 3 yr. old heifer - #830

1st Calf, Wagyu Cross, 2 yr. old heifer - #9136

Robbin and I fed our heifers this morning checking for calves and calving problems. In years past, we always waited to breed our replacement heifers as two year olds, so that they’d calve at three. That meant we had to keep them sequestered away from our bulls to keep them from being bred as yearlings – an impossible task. This year, as an experiment, we bred the yearling heifers to a Wagyu bull, a Japanese breed from which Kobe beef is produced. Known for its marbling characteristics, we were looking for the Wagyu’s low-birth weight, not exactly sure what the calves would look like. We rented the Wagyu bulls from Snake River Farms http://www.snakeriverfarms.com/ who have contracted to buy all the calves when weaned.