Our beef herd is among Australia's largest purebred herds of Red Akaushi Wagyu. The Akaushi Wagyu was designated a Natural Monument (tennen kinenbutsu) by Japan in 1944. In 1994, 11 animals were exported to the US before Japan banned further export in 1997; these animals, along with others from 1976, form the basis of every Akaushi herd outside Japan today. The breed remains genuinely rare, tightly held, and is often referred to as the 'premium wagyu'.
Akaushi are genetically elite, celebrated for their capacity for intense marbling and a distinctive monounsaturated fat profile. The fat itself carries a high concentration of oleic acid — the same monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid found in olive oil.
Wandilla beef is predominantly grass fed rather than feedlot finished. It takes longer, but produces a noticeably more natural end product — and it's this combination of rare genetics and grass-fed finishing that led us to select Akaushi as the breed best suited to the premium standard that we are building Wandilla around.
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Hay
Each year we take the excess grass to make hay and silage, to carry the cattle through the winter ahead. The grass is mown and wilted to create silage that locks in its nutrients — done well, it comes out with a rich, chocolatey aroma. Hay is left to grow longer, then fully dried in the last of the spring sun and into early summer. It's the old saying in action: make hay while the sun shines. Hay digests slower than silage, generating more warmth in the process — which is exactly what the cattle need in the depths of winter.
Tallow
We try to use as much of every animal as we can, out of respect for the animal and for the four generations who raised cattle on this land before us. The tallow is one part of that. It comes from the fat of our grass-fed beef, the same fat that gives our steaks their flavour, and we've made it into a skincare line as part of the Wandilla wellness range. Tallow is rich and slow to absorb, and it suits hands that spend their days outdoors. Our grandparents would have known exactly what to do with it.