REGISTRATIONS

Registering Fullbloods – Members’ Guide

INTRODUCTION

In order to register Fullblood Wagyu cattle, you first need to be a paid-up Full Member of the British Wagyu Breeders Association (WBA) at a cost of £330+VAT per annum. You can fill in an application form in the Membership section of the www.britishwagyu.co.uk website. Please note, the subscription year runs 1st July to 30th June. Please continue reading or click HERE for full details on how to register Fullbloods.

PARTNERSHIP WITH AUSTRALIA

Full Members of the WBA automatically become Full Overseas Members of the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA) at no extra cost enabling British & Irish Wagyu Fullbloods that have been (or can be) Parent Verified (PV’d) back to registered Australian animals to be registered with one of the foremost Wagyu associations worldwide, the AWA.

You will need to nominate a stud/herd prefix (eg the name of your farm or business) and a 3 letter Member ID. Once WBA pass on these details to AWA, login details will be created and sent to you for the AWA Wagyu Portal which can be accessed through the AWA Website (www.wagyu.org.au). When you log in to the Wagyu Portal, you will be able to submit registrations, view all animals in your herd, submit animals weights, view documents and much more.

There is no need to contact the AWA as the WBA will do that on your behalf and join you up as an Overseas Full Member through a reciprocal arrangement which comes with access to AWA’s Breedplan performance recording system and genetic research as well as the online database for animal and member search (www.wagyu.org.au).

REGISTERING CALVES

Once your Membership is set up, you can log in to the Wagyu Portal to complete registrations or download the AWA Registration form from https://www.wagyu.org.au/forms-and-guides/, complete the form and email it to regos@wagyu.org.au. AWA will invoice you direct in due course – you will find the Fee Schedule on their website.

Please note that to register an animal as Fullblood with the AWA, there must be complete Parent Verification back to Australian registered animals, and all newly registered animals will need a 50K SNP.

DNA PARENTAGE VERIFICATION

A critical part of the Fullblood registration process is DNA parentage verification. Through AWA’s agreement with Neogen globally, and to obtain preferential member pricing, we are under strict direction to ensure all communication and testing is conducted via the AWA. Please do not contact UK Neogen directly.

You first need to complete AWA’s DNA International Testing Request form from https://www.wagyu.org.au/forms-and-guides/, complete the form and email this to dna@wagyu.org.au. Once your testing is submitted to Neogen you will receive an acknowledgement letter and an Order Summary PDF which the AWA will forward to you. Please print off the Order Summary and send it with your samples to the UK Neogen lab. AWA will invoice you direct.

Please note, all calves require to be both sire AND dam verified so you are advised to make sure you have access to the DNA profiles of all possible parents when registering natural, AI or embryo calves. In fact, we recommend that you get this information before you get cows in calf or implant embryos to avoid any complications later.

The AWA is changing to SNP DNA testing technology, all newly registered animals are required to have a 50K SNP genotype supplied and loaded on their system. The AWA are aware that there are a number of sires and dams that still only have MiPs (STR results) and have not yet been tested in the SNP platform, so please don’t hesitate to contact AWA to discuss your testing options and optimal ways to parent verify your calves.

BRITISH WAGYU ASSURED SCHEME

Fullblood calves can, of course, be part of the British Wagyu Assured scheme provided they meet all the scheme rules. As part of this, each Fullblood (or crossbred) calf must have a British Wagyu-branded Caisley ear tag which, when inserted into the animal’s ear, takes a tissue punch within a vial which is then sent for DNA parentage testing. DNA parentage results from Fullblood calves will be fed back by Neogen/AWA to the WBA so that animals meeting the scheme’s criteria can be listed as British Wagyu Assured.

Tags can be ordered direct from Caisley www.caisleyeartag.co.uk info@caisleyeartag.co.uk T: 01765 530296 quoting ‘Wagyu’ when you order. Full details of the various tag combos and prices can be found by clicking HERE.

CHECKLIST

·         Join the WBA as a Full Member with automatic Full Overseas Member of AWA.

·         Download the AWA’s registration form or login to the Wagyu Portal to register calves.

·         Complete ‘DNA International Testing Request Form’ and email to dna@wagyu.org.au

·         Print off Order Summary and send it to Neogen along with your samples.

·         Pay registration and DNA fees direct to AWA.