Mr Johan de Vos, chairman of the Wagyu Society of South Africa and its subsidiary, Certified Wagyu Beef (CWB), told the Wagyu AGM on 30th September that Wagyu in South Africa has experienced a fourfold increase in consumption of meat over the last year.
Where we used to slaughter 20-30 oxen a week, this has increased to 120-150 per week and based on international trends the society predicts that this trajectory will continue for at least the next two decades. He says that this increase can be objectively proven from CWB data collected at nine abattoirs, spread across the country. Read more from the Wagyu website www.wagyu.org.za Resource Centre or https://www.agriorbit.com/category/agri-news-archive/livestock-news/
“There has been an increased drive for education on breeding and rearing of Wagyu”, Francois Loots said at the CWB AGM. Some of the marketing corporate goals includes:
- Feedback from the market and DALRRD lead to an update on the CWB stickers to include Marble Score classes to be included on retail packaging. The classes are MS1-2, MS3, MS4&5, MS6&7, MS8&9 and MS9+.
- CWB encouraged producers to strategically develop their breeding plan to ensure they are producing an acceptable product for the market they wish to enter. It is our recommendation to make use of British breeds for F1 slaughter progeny. In the case of Bos Indicus breeds F2 slaughter progeny may be preferable. It remains the producer’s responsibility and choice to ensure that their crossbred animals are acceptable for the market.
- Feedlots and weaner buyers have become more interested in polled animals and may be willing to pay premiums for animals without horns. The recommendation is that horns should be disbudded with a hot-iron before two months of age.
- The CWB office has dedicated Mondays to the grading of Wagyu carcasses as most abattoirs are now slaughtering on Fridays. The office has also put an abattoir grading protocol in place to ensure more effective grading of carcasses.
- The CWB office has trained 30 AFS/IMQAS graders with the cameras and have set up 9 cameras nationwide.
- In June CWB set up the first Carcass Camera in Namibia and is also providing the necessary support to the Namibian Wagyu Society in grading their Wagyu carcasses.
- With the increase in demand for product and the challenges seen with transporting cattle and product, a new committee has been established named the ‘CWB Value Chain Logistics’ committee that has been tasked with identifying and resolving logistical challenges that are foreseen.
Read more from the Wagyu website www.wagyu.org.za Resource Centre
