Southern Cross Wagyu

Southern Cross Wagyu was started in 1999 by Tim Fitzsimmons. The original Southern Cross Wagyu, started in Australia and not connected to anyone outside Australia (USA) with the same name!!

Tim Fitzsimmons owner and Breeder was looking for a breed of cattle to stock and build up on his farm in Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

He looked at Angus cattle first. Seeing that he couldn't compete with the likes of Kenny Creek, Booroomooka and Te Mania, he decided to venture into Wagyu having eaten and loved it on a previous trip to Japan while studying Karate.

Wagyu was relatively new in Australia so now was the time to get into it.

A very steep learning curve was needed.

Time to find out all he could about Wagyu cattle and who was out there to give him an education.

After a few phone calls he was armed with a list of people to talk to.

Some of the leaders of the industry were happy to give him their precious time to teach and give him accurate, truthful information for which he is forever grateful.

Keith Hammond of Hammond Farms, Tasmania, over many phone calls steered him in the right direction.

David Blackmore of Blackmore Wagyu, Victoria, spent the whole day explaining Wagyu genetics and showing Tim his entire herd so that he could see the genetic markers of the different bulls available and which were superior for each purpose. David has given Tim his time and insight over the years much to his appreciation, David was also the supplier of Takeda genetics at the time which we took advantage of. Then Tim's travels took him further south into Victoria where he met Master Breeder Barbara Benjamin of Goshu Wagyu, formally Victoria, who took him under her wing and taught him most of what he knows about Wagyu, supplied us with our first cattle and has been a wealth of knowledge. It was an apprenticeship that lasted many years and Tim would have been lost without her.

We want to thank these 3 people for their time, knowledge and help over many years.

As Tim traversed the world of Wagyu he noticed how little the genetic spread there was. This to him posed a problem of severe inbreeding and future health problems.

So, he set out to obtain all the diverse genetics he could, all that was available in Australia and in the USA. He found out that some genetics did not come to Australia so he concentrated on obtaining those. With limited resources he had to plan well, study the bloodlines and do what he could.

Tim studied carcass results from Australia, USA and Japan to see the traits exhibited by each bloodline and each within those bloodlines. This he still does.

We tracked down cows and heifers of people that were leaving the Wagyu industry due age and health reasons and collected the best around.

We keep sourcing genetics and building the herd until this day using: AI, embryo transfer and IVF all of which is very expensive, heart breaking when it fails and exciting when it works well.

With luck and perseverance we managed to get semen from all the original bulls that came out of Japan and many from the different bulls that Tim considered exceptional that were bred in Australia. We have also managed to obtain significant number of cow families to ensure that we can maintain genetic stability.