Bar V Wagyu is located in the countryside, south of Abilene, KS, and is located on the historical Chisholm Trail (the trail that brought 5,000,000 longhorn cattle from Texas to Abilene, KS, to be loaded on the local railcars, headed East).
Bar V entered the Wagyu industry in 2015 when as a Family, we visited the Denver Stock Show and witnessed an F1 Wagyu Livestock Show. The animals were beautiful and good size, and we already knew the meat had marbling and amazing flavor. The sire of theses calves was MFC Itomoritaka 0-41, and so we found out that Michael Goodell was the owner and contacted him immediately to purchase his bull. While starting our herd we also purchased 45 embryos, and weaned 71% Fullblood calves that first year, using our own recips.
After much success in the Greyhound Industry, we were already purchasing a lot of pasturelands for our small herd of Angus cows, that now were only being used for Wagyu Embryo Recips, and for F1 production. In 2016, we attended our first Bar R Production Sale and saw the most beautiful Purebred Homozygous Polled Wagyu cow imaginable, “BAR R 5U!” Laurita knew that Vince wanted to eventually make a Polled Wagyu breed in America, so she encouraged him to be the final bidder. As the rest is history, we topped the Whole sale buying 5U for $34,000, and making Polled waves in the USA that are still reverberating to this day. 5U passed away at the end of 2022, but is still producing Embryos calves for us every year, and her Offspring are still producing the very best Polled Wagyu animals in the world.
Our breeding philosophy is complex and requires a lot of research and data analysis. We pick only very solid maternal lines with proof of high marbling, good maternal instincts, and milk production. Every sire chosen for every mating in our herd is based off:
- Solid maternal Pedigree.
- High genomic EBV’s, High Marbling and Fineness, and the better the milk, the more we are interested.
- Some breeders in Wagyu, do not focus on milk and maternals, as they breed only for more marbling. This is a direction we hope never to fall into, as all our Wagyu cows, calve unassisted and are the only provider of milk for the calves they birth.
One of the most enjoyable moments in the Wagyu business for us, was selling half interest in a six figure heifer to a close friend of ours. Also, finally butchering some ET steers out of 5U, as we had our first 2 polled steers grade 50.3% & 51.3% DMp, and both were direct sons of 5U, one by Midnight, the other by Perfection.
Some of our Goals in the Wagyu business going forward are:
- To improve the Wagyu breed by introducing our Purebred Polled genetics into the fullbloods and making a superior animal from crossing the Very best Fullblood females on the planet to our Top Polled Bulls for many years to come.
- Our hope, in creating a new type of wagyu, is to not only have polled cattle, but also to create a healthier heterosis Wagyu animal. By diversifying our wagyu herd, we also aim to bring more marbling, more growth, more milk, low birthweights, and a higher yield from an animal that has a 95% weaning survival rate.
- To lead the breed in Time to Butcher, as we are aiming in the near future to butcher all Purebreds+ at 24-25 months old, hitting 40-50% DMp marbling 95% of the time, with a 990lb. avg Hanging Carcass Weight.
Some advice to any newcomers in the Wagyu breed:
Get on the phone with any Wagyu Rancher you want to invest with. Visit their ranch & eat a wagyu meal with them. Ask them all the hard questions about their genetics, (health, carcass data, physical steaks in the freezer or hard data on their bloodlines.) Ask for EBVs, and photos if you can’t physically go view the animals in person. Do your own research and then ask a Wagyu Rancher you trust before investing in any animals that come up for sale. Lastly, I would say become a member of an Association that is producing high merit & high profit seedstock animals.
If anyone is wanting to learn more about Bar V Wagyu, and how we like to keep things simple, high-end, and profitable? Feel free to call or text, or add us on Facebook.