May 11, 2020

Wagyu beef producer Mayura Station buys 4 embryos at world record price

Wagyu beef producer Mayura Station, based in Millicent, South Australia, is reported to have paid a world record price for genetic material.

ABC News reported that the Mayura bought four embryos for $23,000 each, or a total of $92,000, from Canada, which will become breeding stock for its herd.

Managing director Scott de Bruin said the price paid was worth it, because "[t]hese are really high-marbling genetics. They will help us keep improving our marble score, which is the intramuscular fat within the muscle".

De Bruin further said: "These embryos are likely to produce two calves … it's only a small number of stock but these animals can then have an influence on your breeding programme by continuing to improve the quality of the meat that their progeny produce."

The embryos were auctioned off at the Australian Wagyu Association's 2020 Elite Wagyu Sale, which sold $1.26 million worth of genetics to buyers from 11 countries.

De Bruin revealed that only a small amount of elite Wagyu breeding cattle were in existence, adding that in Australia, Mayura Station has been leading the world outside Japan in doing genomic improvement and genomic descriptions of its cattle".

While the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the market for Wagyu beef, Mayura is looking to the long term, when "supply into Southeast Asia and high-quality restaurants…reopen."

"It's very important that we continue with the strategy that we've put in place," De Bruin stressed.