account for 75% of the company’s business, Fiorentino says. Often visitors to the website also consult the recipes, informational blogs and cooking-demonstration videos created for those unfamiliar with Wagyu. They can also opt for live video chats with the storefront staff. Fiorentino says his favorite aspect of running the meat company has been regularly interacting with customers and getting to know the ranchers who provide the meat, including those at Masami Cattle Ranch. Room to roam The Corning ranch was founded in 1988 by Japanese rancher Masami Ishida. Wary of the stiff competition and high cost of 100% Wagyu in Japan, he had created a herd in his home country with Wagyu-Angus cattle he imported from Australia (most Wagyu cattle outside of Japan are crosses with other breeds, typically Angus). After Japanese consumers responded favorably to his meat, Ishida was confident that Americans would love it too. He has since passed away, but the ranch is still owned by his family. Seiya Uezu, a native of Okinawa, has managed the ranch for 10 years. He doesn’t come from a farming family but developed a fondness for cattle and a passion for working with them as a boy when he helped care for bulls used in Okinawan-style bullfights (a nonviolent sport in which two bulls lock horns and attempt to force each other to give up ground; whichever one disengages first loses). Under his care are about 2,500 cattle, including about
1,000 breeding females. Calves are born and live their entire lives at the ranch. “Cattle can get stressed from being moved from one place to another,” Uezu says. Masami Cattle Ranch gives the animals as much freedom to roam on grassland as possible so they can eat grass when they want to and get a little exercise, which helps keep them happier, Uezu says. During their first eight to 10 months, calves eat only grass. Then a small portion of grain is introduced. The amount gradually increases as they age until they’re eating 80% grain to 20% grass at their finishing age of 27 to 30 months. The feed recipe—with slight modifications to accommodate locally sourced ingredients—is one the company has used in Japan on Wagyu-Angus herds and has proven to produce the best flavor, Uezu says. The ranch buys the ingredients—such as corn, barley, alfalfa and wheat mill run (a mix of bran, germ and flour)—from a local feed company and mixes it at the ranch each day, he adds. The mix is dumped by machine into feeding troughs, but the staff feeds the cattle rice straw by hand separately to make sure they get enough fiber to balance the heaviness of the grain, Uezu says. Handfeeding also helps ensure the ranchers closely monitor the cattle, he adds. The meat packing is done at the company’s facility in Klamath Falls, Oregon, built in 1992. Nearby, the company has also added a second, 4,000-acre cattle ranch.
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