Our Herd

River Lea is home to highly fertile Fullblood and Purebred Wagyu females and their progeny.

Females are joined in two separate 65-day periods – Autumn and Spring. The two mating's allow for a consistent line of saleable animals throughout the year and enhances methodical planning of the annual workload. Natural conception methods are predominately used to allow the herd to grow on a commercial scale. However, Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer programs are used to fast track our genetic progression.

Every animal on River Lea has life time traceability by way of management and NLIS tags. The use of the Practical Systems program ‘Stockbook’ has allowed us to collect data to analyse overall performance and accurately document all criteria required for accreditations, such as EU and comply with bio-security regulations.  We believe it is essential to assess our animals through both Phenotypes and Genotypes. To have a content and attractive animal that is genetically proven to outreach industry averages is not a desire, but a reality. 

Strong relationships have allowed us to collect carcase data for many years, this simple request has allowed us to enhance the quality of our product by following genetic performance through to its final destination. By integrating DNA testing, EBV’s and MasterBeef, we will have the ability to make these decisions for next generations prematurely.