David Blackmore and the Making of Australian Fullblood Wagyu

Who is David Blackmore?

David Blackmore was born in 1950 and has farmed all his working life. His Wagyu operation in Victoria, Australia, grew from experiments in cattle breeding that began long before he saw a Wagyu animal. The Australian Wagyu Association Hall of Fame profile is the main source for his career, and this entry covers only his public work as a breeder and marketer.

How did Master Breed start in 1979?

In 1979 Blackmore ran what the Hall of Fame profile describes as the first on-farm embryo transfer program in Australia, called Master Breed. Embryo transfer lets a breeder place embryos from top cows into recipient cows, multiplying the offspring of the best genetics.

The sources do not describe the size of the program or its early clients, so no figures are given here.

How did Texas A&M lead to Wagyu?

In 1988, while at Texas A&M University, Blackmore first saw Wagyu cattle in the Purebred herds of Don Lively and Fred Hildebrand. Over the next four years he imported American Purebred embryos from Lively into Australia.

The nippon.com article on Wagyu exports notes that Australian growers began importing Wagyu in 1989, starting with semen and embryos from the US, and that the Australian Wagyu Association was established in 1990, the year Blackmore Wagyu was formed.

Takeda and the Japanese genetics deal

In 1992 Blackmore met Shogo Takeda, a Hokkaido breeder, and Takeda soon began supplying him with Wagyu semen and embryos. In 1994 the two signed an exclusive export and import agreement for semen and embryos, according to nippon.com.

Blackmore's Hall of Fame profile says Takeda offered genetics from about twice as many cattle as other exporters to the US, and asked him to deal only with him. Blackmore sold his American Purebred cattle to do so. They worked together for close to 30 years. The same article records the controversy in Japan around Takeda's exports, which broke no law but drew criticism from other Japanese growers.

Where Blackmore fits in Australian Wagyu history

The nippon.com article places his story in a short timeline. Japanese Wagyu beef exports began in 1990, aimed at affluent consumers in Southeast Asia, and the Australian Wagyu Association was established the same year. In 1999 Japan cut off exports of Wagyu cattle and semen to the US after 22 years of supplying them.

A later opening came in 2010 and 2011, when Japan's foot-and-mouth outbreak and the 2011 nuclear disaster disrupted its beef exports to Southeast Asia, and Australian growers filled the gap. Blackmore's brand, built on genetics he had secured in the early 1990s, was already in place when that gap opened. The honour roll page also lists David and Julie Blackmore among the members recognized for 25 years of association membership in 2021.

Honors and the next generation

Blackmore was named Australian Livestock Producer of the Year in 2012 and has won over 30 beef and food industry awards in Australia, according to the profile. It reports more than 200 newspaper articles and over 25 TV segments and documentaries about him and his cattle. He was inducted into the AWA honour roll of Hall of Fame members at WagyuEdge'24 on 12 April 2024.

The profile also says he estimated better genetics and feedlot systems could add $200 million or more to the value of Australian beef exported to Japan, and that the farm is passing to the next generation of the family. For more beef stories, see the ranching section of farm.FM or read a farm.FM story about Australian Wagyu.