Widespread adoption of the Meat Image Japan objective carcase grading camera is helping underpin rapid genetic progress in Wagyu cattle in Australia.
While there are a number of vision-based grading camera systems now in use in the Australian beef industry, the Japanese-developed MIJ technology excels in its ability to accurately measure high-marbling Wagyu carcases for both abundance and marbling fineness.
A contingent of 40 Wagyu industry stakeholders from Australia, the US and Brazil taking part in the 2022 AWA Wagyu tour of Japan were given a comprehensive update on the MIJ camera and new developments in the field.
Twenty-four of the MIJ cameras are now in use by Wagyu supply chains in various beef processing plants across Australia. Most are the latest version of the technology, called MIJ Mobile, launched at the Australian Wagyu conference in April.
The latest MIJ camera is more portable and more powerful, being only around 1kg in weight compared with the original model’s 10kg. Higher resolution cameras are used, and the technology has shown the ability to make up to 500 carcase assessments in a little over two hours under Australian conditions.
While the original MIJ cameras cost A$60,000 to purchase in 2018, technology advances have seen a dramatic decline, with the latest version only around A$4000, putting them well within reach of smaller Wagyu supply chains.
Each owner buys a unit outright, paying a small royalty fee per carcase image captured and submitted. Across the entire Australian Wagyu industry, more than 50,000 carcase images and data have now been captured. Much of the data is fed into the Australian Wagyu Association’s genetic analysis, while some is used for internal genetic evaluation.
Australian Wagyu beef continues to be traded globally based on AusMeat marbling scores rather than MIJ camera results, but the camera data for marbling abundance and fineness, and eye muscle area, are primarily used at present to underpin carcase progeny-driven genetic selection.
The MIJ platform also has the ability to do a full carcase yield analysis based on EMA, fat cover and carcase weight, but at this time that is only calibrated for quartering at the 6/7 rib site as applied in Japan, not the Australian quartering site between ribs 12-13.
In Japan, all Wagyu carcases are officially assessed by manual graders from the Japan Meat Grading Association, many of which take 10-15 years to reach their full certification level. But increasingly, graders are using the MIJ camera in their work, before making a call on whether a carcase is eligible for the A5 premium category, or something less.
The MIJ cameras are also used in the Zenkyo National Carcase Competition held in Japan every five years (report coming on this event next week), as well as the AWA’s annual Wagyu Branded Beef Competition staged in Brisbane.