Watch: inside a farm in Japan finishing over 300 Wagyu cattle

Over 300 head of cattle are finished per year on Mori Farm in Kyoto, Japan.

All of the cattle are Japanese Black Wagyu or Wagyu-Holstein crosses.

The farmer, Kazuo Mori, buys weanlings at seven or eight months of age and finishes them around 30 months.

The farm finishes bullocks, with a small number of breeding stock also kept on the farm.

Animals are fed a mix of different hay and grain depending on their age. For example, animals aged 12 months are given hay made from Timothy grass.

The cattle are housed year-round on wood shavings in timber sheds, with fans to help with ventilation.

Mori Farm has 10 breeding cows on the farm, one of which had a two-month-old calf when the Irish Farmers Journal visited this week. The calves are weaned at three months of age.

Most of the beef is sold to Ginkakuji Onishi, a meat processor.

Wagyu cattle kill out a higher average weights compared to Irish animals with carcases weighing from anything upwards of 400kg.

Japan kills out around one million cattle per year.

For more on the farm and the cattle market in Japan, pick up next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.

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