Miratorg to increase wagyu beef production 15 times

Miratorg, Russia's largest beef producer, plans to increase the output of delicacy wagyu beef by 15 times by 2031, to 3,500 tons per year, the company said. For this, a breeding program has been approved to expand the herd of cattle of a specialized Wagyu MEAT breed with high genetics.

In July and August, a large-scale program for artificial insemination of the maternal herd will be launched to produce about 300 purebred Wagyu calves and 9.6 thousand Wagyu and Aberdeen Angus cross calves next year. To obtain purebred wagyu, the semen of high-value sires, which were previously imported from the usa and Australia, and purebred wagyu cows will be used. In the future, Miratorg plans to artificially inseminate 35-40 thousand heifers per year in order to bring the production of commercial livestock of Wagyu crosses to 22 thousand animals per year.

At the same time, the company increases the genetic potential of the Wagyu maternal herd by transferring embryos for further registration of the breed in RUSSIA and in the future intends to obtain breeding status for it. The agricultural holding has already submitted an application and is waiting for the commission protection. The inclusion of the wagyu breed in the state register and the planned increase in the number of livestock will make it possible to create a breeding reproducer in 2027-2028, Miratorg calculates.

“Increasing the livestock of a specialized breed is painstaking work that requires deep expertise in both animal husbandry and breeding and genetics,” the company draws attention. “DNA samples of potential parents of the future livestock are sent to the company’s genetic laboratory, where, based on the results of the analysis, index variations are obtained and the parents’ potential is assessed in terms of HEALTH and productivity in order to ensure that future offspring receive the best economic traits.”

Now the maternal herd of Wagyu cattle on the company's farms is 3.6 thousand heads, the number of sires, replacement bulls and growing bulls is about 1 thousand animals, the number of commercial fattening livestock is about 2 thousand heads.

Miratorg launched a project to produce beef from Japanese wagyu cattle, which is distinguished by increased marbling, in 2018. At the first stage, the investment of the agricultural holding in the project was estimated at 1 billion rubles. Initially, the company raised on a farm in the Kaluga region the F1 cross - animals obtained by crossing the genetics of the Japanese Wagyu breed with Aberdeen Angus (50/50%), and in the future also allowed the production of the F2 cross, where 75% of the genes will be from the Wagyu breed.

Beef products of the highest marbling are a delicacy all over the world and have a high EXPORT potential. Earlier, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the President of Miratorg, Viktor Linnik, said that this year the agricultural holding plans to double the volume of deliveries of products abroad compared to last year. The plan for 2022 is $0.5 billion. “Exports are going according to plan. <...> These are beef, pork, poultry - value-added products, we supply more than 50 countries of the world, ”TASS quoted Linnik as saying.