Wagyu cattle on feed at Macquarie Downs
JAPANESE meat buying and selling large Starzen has made its first funding within the Australian cattle trade, buying the Macquarie Downs specialised Wagyu feedlot close to Leyburn on Queensland’s Darling Downs.
Macquarie Downs is a considerable 6900ha property with a business feedlot with a capability for 3900 head throughout 32 pens, plus a big irrigated and dryland cropping space for hay, silage and grain manufacturing.
The Macquarie Downs enterprise has been owned because the yard was established in 1995 by the Suzuki household from Japan, whose main enterprise is in actual property growth. Since each purchaser and vendor are Japanese in origin, it’s thought-about unlikely that Overseas Funding Overview Board approval shall be essential.
The separate, revered Macquarie Downs Wagyu genetics and cattle breeding enterprise is just not included within the sale, and can proceed to be operated by the Suzuki household. Macquarie Downs-bred cattle at present occupy about three quarters of the feedyard capability, custom-fed, with the rest bred by others. Virtually the entire internally-bred cattle are Fullbloods, with the rest F1-Fullblood.
In an recommendation to the Tokyo Inventory Trade, the listed Starzen stated it had purchased the Macquarie Downs feedlot and farming enterprise by way of Yorkrange Pty Ltd for A$55.9 million. The anticipated completion of the transaction is February 28, 2025.
Yorkrange will turn out to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Starzen.
The acquisition was a part of Starzen’s technique to strengthen its abroad operations, notably within the manufacturing and provide of Australian Wagyu beef, the corporate advised the TSX.
“By managing cattle fattening operations straight, Starzen goals to enhance beef high quality and improve its provide chain for markets in China and Southeast Asia,” it stated.
“The acquisition will permit Starzen to straight interact in all the means of manufacturing of Australian Wagyu beef and in gross sales in different abroad markets, primarily in China and Southeast Asia.”
Wagyu cattle on feed at Macquarie Downs
Previously often called Zenchiku, Starzen has traded in Australian beef for many years, establishing the Starzen Australia division 4 years in the past, each for importation of Japanese Wagyu beef to this nation, in addition to export. The corporate for a few years was one of many largest suppliers of grinding beef for McDonald’s Japan.
In Japan, Starzen owns and operates intensive Wagyu feedlot and processing property, a few of which have been visited on earlier Australian Wagyu Affiliation examine excursions to Japan. The corporate additionally imports and distributes giant portions of beef from Australia, the US and New Zealand. Starzen employs virtually 2800 workers throughout its operations.
Along with the fashionable, well-equipped feedlot, the 6900ha Macquarie Downs holding consists of 1300ha of annual fodder cropping, 500ha of irrigated cropping (wheat, barley and hay in winter and sorghum, soybean, mung bean, maize and cotton in summer season), 3500 megalitres of irrigation water from seasonal overland movement and 577 megalitres of underground water allocations.
Irrigation is offered by way of lateral transfer and hybrid centre pivots, permitting actual purposes of water to maximise yields and watering effectivity.
Starzen has been not directly linked with the Macquarie Downs feedlot for a while, by way of a 3rd get together which was custom-feeding Wagyu on the web site, and on-selling to Starzen.
Starzen rose to prominence earlier this 12 months when its entry within the 2024 AWA Branded Beef Competitors gained the Purebred Wagyu class
Since 2020 Starzen Australia has developed and launched two Australian Wagyu beef manufacturers: Eight Blossom Beef, which gained this 12 months’s competitors, and Imperial Blossom Beef, a single-origin Wagyu program.
“We’re nonetheless on the very early stage of what we hope to pursue, creating Australian Wagyu manufacturers as Japanese in Australia,” Starzen director Hirotsugu Shimbayashi stated on the time.
Macquarie Downs managers Anthony and Chantal Winter will proceed to handle the Macquarie Downs Wagyu breeding herd for the Suzuki household, with a view to enlargement, and can work in a consultancy/advisory capability with the feedlot below the brand new possession.
The Broadwater Downs Administration workforce later this afternoon issued the next assertion:
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