About Us
Americas Best Wagyu is a family owned American Wagyu / Kobe-style cattle and beef operation. We have a small herd of American Wagyu cattle that we breed, raise and feed to butcher. All our cattle are raised on a diet of pasture grass, farm raised grass and Alfalfa hay, corn and select vitamins and minerals. We pride ourselves on our animals being antibiotic, hormone and steroid free. We take the time to let our cattle mature, develop and fatten to an optimum size and age, to produce some of the most tender and beautifully flavored meat you have ever eaten.
What is Wagyu?
Wagyu, also known as American-Style Kobe beef, can be a fairly broad term. Wagyu can define a varying degree of actual Wagyu genetics from 100% full blood Wagyu to as little as 50% Wagyu, with the other 50% of the genetics coming from breeds such as Angus, Hereford, etc.... True "Kobe" is reserved exclusively to describe cattle from the Kobe region of Japan. Therefore, cattle raised outside of the Kobe region of Japan must identified as Wagyu or Kobe-style.
Why Our Wagyu???
All Wagyu is not created equal. USDA Standards only require beef labeled as Wagyu to be only 50% actual Wagyu genetics. With this national requirement being so low, it leaves for a lot of variation in the actual quality of the meat. At Outlaw Cattle Company we are proud to offer "High Percentage Wagyu Beef". All our Wagyu Is 87.5% Wagyu genetics or higher!!! This ensure top quality Wagyu beef products and the optimum Wagyu beef health benefits. Our American Wagyu beef is above the rest because of its intense marbling and high percentage of rich, inter-muscular unsaturated fat.
Why does it cost more?
Wagyu as a breed, mature slower than other breeds of cattle; so, in order for them to reach their prime for butchering, they require more time. The average age of the general cattle butchered in the USA is 18-24months of age. In order to achieve the quality of meat and marbling that we wish to produce we let our Wagyu cattle mature at their rate and generally take 30-40 months to do so. In many cases our Wagyu cattle have been given twice as long to mature as the average beef you find in the grocery store.
Next, we are not a large commercial operation. We are a smaller family farm and usually have 20-30 head of Wagyu Cows. These cows are treated with care and spend their lives enjoying the pasture life in the warmer months and in the colder, snowy months they are brought back to the main farm where they enjoy the hay that we produced over the summer. Like our mother cows, the cattle that we raise to butcher enjoy the same life. only as they get close to the age to be butchered do we bring them back to the main farm and finish them on grain to achieve the optimum marbling and intense flavor. At this point we only bring them in, a few at a time and feed them as individuals... no one size fits all program here.
All in all, we put a lot of extra time, energy, feed, etc... into our cattle which ultimately effects the end price. However, it also is the reason that the end product is so much better than your average cut of store bought beef... and its better for you as well.