SPANISH Wagyu breeders will now be able to register their full-blood and cross-bred cattle through the Wagyu Breeders’ Association (WBA) of Britain and Ireland, and will have access to the online animal registration, tag and DNA interface developed by the association with its partners, TL Bioland and Caisley Tags. 
WBA company secretary, Richard Saunders, commented: “With a similarly sized Wagyu population to that of the UK, having Spain join will effectively double our animal throughput and at the same time generate important income for the WBA.” 
This echoes the partnership the WBA already has in place in Australia with the Australian Wagyu Association, and the WBA has been tipped for further EU associations to link through to Australia and its genetic evaluations.
“With Wagyu populations in the USA, Australia, Britain and Ireland already part of a single global database, and with other EU members now joining, Wagyu producers will soon be able to access genomic tests for the key, market-driven traits of Wagyu beef, namely tenderness, marbling and healthy eating,” added Mr Saunders. 
The WBA will be holding its ‘UK Wagyu Revolution Conference’ in Yorkshire June, where the keynote speaker is Australian Wagyu Association CEO Graham Truscott. Delegates will discover how the Wagyu Breeders’ Association in Britain and Ireland is tapping into the huge success of Wagyu in Australia that has seen membership grow by 32% in the past year and registrations predicted to triple in the next few years.