Tanaka Kazuma: Five Cows, a Hoof-Trimming Side Job and Direct Beef Sales

Who is Tanaka Kazuma?

Tanaka Kazuma, written Kazuma Tanaka in Western order, was born in 1978 and runs Tanaka Chikusan, a Tajima cattle farm in Hyogo Prefecture. He did not come from a farming family. A 2018 Japanese farming article says he studied at Rakuno Gakuen University in Hokkaido and then trained at a Hyogo cattle farm before starting out in 2002, aged 24.

The sources differ on where in Hyogo the farm sits. One places it in the Mikata district, another reads as Sanda City, and an Australian report says only a high mountain valley southwest of Kobe. All agree on the Tajima cattle region and on his own role as a first-generation producer.

How did he start with five cows?

The 2018 article says he borrowed 2 million yen to buy five pregnant cows, then widened his loans as he built a track record. A 2016 interview published by Japan's livestock agency adds that he began the breeding operation that year with five cows, supported by about 150,000 yen a month from Hyogo Prefecture along with loans. It says he had spent two years living and training at a Tajima cattle farm after taking leave from graduate school, where he studied livestock manure management.

The Tajima region has a 700-plus-year history of cattle breeding, the 2016 interview notes. A newcomer without a farming background was entering an old tradition.

How did hoof trimming pay the bills?

Cattle breeding pays slowly. Tanaka apprenticed with a master hoof trimmer, and the work gave the business steady income when calf prices fell. He trimmed hooves in Kochi, Fukui and Mie prefectures in the early years, earning roughly 3 million yen a year at one point, according to the agency's 2016 farmer profile. By 2018 he was trimming in the morning, tending cattle in the afternoon, and working in areas including Shikoku.

How are the cattle raised?

The cattle graze from spring until around December on local mountains and ski slopes, the 2018 article says, and the agency interview gives the grazing season as late April to late November on 12 and 8 hectares of leased pasture. He does not grow forage or grain and buys feed, including a fermented feed he developed with soy sauce lees. Calves nurse naturally because artificial rearing led to disease.

The herd size differs by report: 48 breeding cows in February 2016, about 50 in the 2018 article, and about 100 in a Beef Central report on online sales, which also says the cattle carry Tajima genetics only and that the farm has been owned for 22 years.

Direct sales and an older-cow beef

The Beef Central report describes a vertically integrated Tajima operation covering breeding, feeding and direct sales, with frozen 200 gram vacuum packs sold online. Cull cows up to 17 years old are fattened for over a year and average about 300 kg carcass weight, against 450 to 500 kg for fed steers. Tanaka told the reporter that Tajima is a late-maturity meat, with the older the animal the better the beef.

The 2016 interview shows the earlier version: breeding cows sold for meat after about eight calvings, with carcasses near 230 kg, and a 2008 start to online sales. To see how other small herds find markets, see the ranching stories on farm.FM or read a farm.FM story about selling beef direct.