Value of an Elite Female
Trent Bridge K0034: Sold for $200,000 in 2019 Elite Wagyu Sale
Record prices have been recorded for elite Wagyu females in both the USA and Australia over the last three years. What has led to this point can be described as a “perfect storm” due to a variety of different factors. A combination of advances in reproductive technology, increased accuracy of GEBVs, an increased emphasis on key profitability traits, more readily available semen of elite sires, a boom in industry entrants, and an ever- expanding global demand for premium marbled beef were all key players in developing the market for elite Wagyu females and genetics.
With advances in both conventional embryo transfer (ET) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), it is now routinely possible to produces 20 or more calves from a single donor in a year. When a single donor has the potential to produce more calves in a year, it increases their value significantly. This, coupled with an increased emphasis on selecting the top 1% of females to increase genetic progress, has driven female value up significantly for high EBV and GEBV females. To add to this yet again, GEBVs have increased the reliability of EBVs significantly due to the addition of genomic testing. When reliability increases, it allows breeders to more confidently select high potential animals to invest more time and genetic resources into a single female for producing their next generation of cattle.
A larger emphasis on key profitability traits such as marble score, eye muscle area, and hot carcass weight has been a key to the increased prices for elite animals. This is opposed to previous approaches where simply having any Wagyu genetics was acceptable. Now the average fullblood Wagyu has formed a new market for what many are calling commercial fullblood Wagyu. The emphasis on key production traits along with the release of new elite and highly proven genetics such as Mayura Station’s Mayura Itoshigenami JNR and Macquarie Wagyu’s Coates Itoshigenami G113 gives breeders a source of superior genetics to pursue for improving their own Wagyu herds.
Mayura N1229: Sold for $280,000 in 2019 Elite Wagyu Sale
The increased availability of semen from a variety of sires with superior EBVs to foundation sires gives breeders more reason to invest in premium donors. The key to producing your next great sire is in your females, as many breeders would say. Breeders who invest in premium females are then able to take advantage of the advanced IVF and ET programs of today using elite females and superior sires. This, in theory, will assist breeders to rapidly increase the genetic merit of their animals.
All of this is driven either directly or indirectly by the ever-increasing global demand for premium marbled beef. High marbling is the hallmark of the Wagyu breed and continues to bring new entrants into the Wagyu industry through a shared passion for high quality beef. In a pursuit to develop their own businesses or improve upon existing ones, new breeders are seeking high genetic value females to be the foundation of their programs.