The world didn't get enough Wagyu cattle exported from Japan before the Japanese cut off exportation, to make herds of the pure bloodline sustainable. Orylag Rabbit sounds like a protriatary effort just like Monsanto's GMO Seeds with serial numbers.
The good news is the rabbit felt from Czech Republic is a byproduct of the rabbit for food industry. Nothing gets wasted!
Would the Wagyu that Costco sells be a North American knock off? Like a fake Gucci? Costco had some a month or so ago but the chunk was $125 so I bought the NY strip on coupon instead.
Japan now forbids the exportation of their Wagyu cattle but they do export processed Wagyu beef. So that is how restaurants are able to offer it & probably what Costco had. There was a small herd of Wagyu cattle exported to a rancher in Louisiana before Japan cut off exportation. But that herd was interbred & later bred with red Angus cattle. The number of animals weren't great enough to sustain a bloodline. I think they have to call them Wagyu Raines after the original Rancher.
One day I will try it but it is hard to spring for that kind of $ when NY Strip is about a 10th the price and still a pretty good cut of beef.
I had a Wagyu steak once, prepared at a steakhouse where I knew it would be perfect. I've had 4-5 Wagyu/Angus burgers & those are somewhat more common. The cattle raising business is a unit based business & the profit per unit is not that great. The only way you can increase your profit is to increase the number of units you raise & sell. I looked into Wagyu cattle some yrs back looking for increased profits. As I recall there are a few animals in Canada that came from the Louisiana herd. There may be a few other small herds around the world but Japan is the only country with sustainable numbers in the bloodline.
My cousin's husband runs a cattle operation in southern Alberta. Can't recall how many head but he runs 4-5 sections of land. He is second generation and expected his son to follow but the kid ran off to work the oil patch for $100K a year.......have not spoken to him in a while....the way things are right now maybe the kid came back!
He would have the numbers then. You have to have the land for the cattle, to grow hay for winter, & the equipment to cut & bail hay. The kid will be back once he learns you want to make money off your brain & the money you have invested, not off selling your manual labor. Manual labor gets old in a hurry even at $100K a yr. Hard on your body too; I've seen it for yrs with Ironworkers.
I was a Big Bro for 10 years and my Little Bro now owns a Reinforcing company and spends his days hanging off 40 story towers. Have no idea of the little fart grew into that but he loves it but damn they earn their money. The initial appeal of the oil patch was the immediate money. 6 months in the patch and he came back driving a $60K fully tricked out pickup. Hard to compete with that.