Our Approach

At the Black Dog Ranch and Cattle Company raising our Wagyu cattle is an extremely important job. We focus on breeding 100% Fullblood Wagyu seedstock. Our business revolves around providing our customer the finest genetically bred Wagyu available that they can take home and add to or develop their own Wagyu herds. We want our customers to develop the best tasting beef in the industry. There are a number of things that enter into developing top quality beef products. We focus on the environment, genetics, and feeding. 

The environment in which Wagyu are born into and live in is extremely important and often times overlooked. Wagyu cattle thrive in a very low stress quiet environment. Everything that is done with Wagyu is slow and intentional. Quiet and low stress working of Wagyu will ensure higher marbling and better growth rates.

When the babies are first born they are taught to come into their own special pens for feeding. This gets them adjusted to being together with their peers and getting enough grain to eat without being pushed around by the larger mammas and heifers. In a matter of weeks, the calves learn to come in to feed together, and little if any herding of them is necessary.  This process is done slowly and carefully in order to keep the babies as quiet and calm as possible. All have their places.

We bring in all our Wagyu every morning to main pens for feeding. This accomplishes a couple things. First, it gives us the opportunity to look over each cow, calf and bull for any signs of injury, illness etc. Second, it trains the cows to come in so when it comes time for vaccinations, weighing, pregnancy check, dewormer, etc. it is not a big deal for either the cattle or the ranchers. 

Pasture and pen designs also play a part in developing a calm environment. We have specific pastures for our bulls, mammas and babies, and open cows for example. We also have pens that we use for breeding. We currently have 3 pens set specifically for breeding to specific bulls. For example, one pen has our Sumo F154 bull in it for breeding, one pen has our Mayura L0010 bull in it, and one has our Shigeshigetani bull in it. We spend countless hours analyzing the genetics of each cow and heifer to ensure it is the best possible match for each of these bulls. The first thing we focus on is COI – Inbreed Coefficent. Then we look as such traits as Carcass Weight, Milking Characteristics, Growth Characteristics, Marbling, and some of the various numbers such as Self Replacement Index, and Wagyu Breeders Index. We do this for each bull also, and then decide which are the best possible breeding matches. 

The reason for this level of detail is because we strive to make each generation of Black Dog Ranch and Cattle Company Wagyu better than the last.

How our Wagyu are fed is also very important. We use a feed specially developed for our Wagyu cattle. Samples of our pasture grass and supplemental hay are sent in for analysis and a grain product is developed as a supplement with the necessary protein, fat, and mineral requirements specifically for Wagyu. This maximizes their growth and marbling potential, not only as they grow but even when they are still yet to be born. We find significantly faster growing calves with this approach.