Farming 52ha on the edge of Dungannon, Co. Tyrone is Steven Thompson, who runs a dairy calf-to-beef system and has a total of 220 Wagyu cattle on the farm. He also keeps 250 breeding ewes.

Steven receives Wagyu calves from selected dairy farms at 3-5 weeks of age, providing a calf rearing service for ABP Linden.

The Wagyu calves leave the rearing unit at four months and Steven then finishes these cattle on his farm.

He was first introduced to the breed by Noble Herd, which also kick-started his relationship with ABP Liden.

"The team at Noble Herd provided us with our first introduction to the Wagyu breed and to the ABP Linden Wagyu Beef Scheme," the farmer explained.

“Obviously we had many questions, not least about animal performance, but Noble Herd supported us through the process, providing us with ample information and giving us the opportunity to see the cattle on farms, giving us the confidence to go ahead and place our first order for Wagyu cattle."

The first group of Wagyu animals - 68 weaned calves - arrived at Steven's farm at around 15 weeks of age.

“When they first stepped off the trailer, I had a few questions to answer from my father and even some neighbours,” the Tyrone man said.

“The truth is they don’t look like much at that age."

The calves went straight out to grass, concentrates were fed twice a day for the first three months, in line with the recommended feed plan provided by Noble Herd.

“After this initial period, concentrates were gradually reduced and the calves moved onto our rotational grazing system.

“Our target was to be able to finish the cattle around 22 months of age, with an average kill out of 315kg carcass weight," Steven said.

"Noble Herd has been on hand throughout the rearing process, and by following their recommended feeding plan and having a focus on utilising our grassland, we have found the animals have performed better than expected," he added.

The cattle on the farm are now 20-months-old and within weeks of finishing, Steven is confident that target weights will be achieved.

The price per kilo for Wagyu is an attractive factor in terms of rearing the breed but, over and above that, the scheme, which incorporates a Cost of Production Model, is a big draw for Steven.

“In simple terms; as costs of concentrates, fertiliser and fuel increase these increases are reflected in the price per kilo paid to the farmer," he said.

“Reviewing the figures today we can predict with confidence that we should be able to deliver significantly higher profit per head than our previous conventional beef system.”

Applications are still open for the scheme, which is open to Northern Irish farms only.

Those interested in further information can contact:

Luke Smith (Noble Herd) on; 07515874609, or by email at: [email protected] / [email protected]
Wilson Giffen (Linden Livestock) on; 07736885402, or by email at: [email protected].