Tokushima Craft Wagyu
Tokushima Tanifuji Farm
HISTORICAL INTEGRATED FARM USING ORIGINAL BLOODLINES FROM TOKUSHIMA, THE ISLAND OF SHIKOKU.
Since 1960, Tanifuji Farm has been operated in Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku.
Tanifuji Farm has farms in Tokushima, which is regular winners of the *Wagyu Olympics.
*Wagyu Olympics (Wagyu Kyoshinkai): Competition of Wagyu breeds held once every five years in Japan.
Tokushima is located in Shikoku, which is the smallest of the four main islands constituting the Japanese archipelago, and is one of the highest rainfall regions in Japan. At this farm, they raise cattle with the abundant water of Yoshino-gawa River which naturally flows down from the mountains.
Since the operation is integrated -- from breeding and raising to fattening, processing, and actually selling -- they have become able to select cattle brands on their own and bring in bloodlines suitable to their environment; they have also become able to calculate calories from when the cattle are young in order to feed them with their own individual fodder.
As a consequence, they have been able to finish the rearing -- including marbling the beef round -- two to three months shorter than the normal period, and has succeeded in establishing a new fattening technology.
Besides, blending in flourish vitamin to the feed of their own compound, and always improving it continuously according to changes in situations, enables them to provide beef whose taste is stable with no dispersion, and that is the special quality of Tokushima Craft Wagyu.
There is another point with this Tokushima Craft Wagyu. Of the Wagyu improved by Tanifuji Farm over the course of half a century, Tokushima Craft Wagyu has many heifers, which is rare in the world. The heifers of Tanifuji Farm are characterized by the very fine texture of their meat. This meat quality is due to the differences in bone structures and muscle fibers between bulls and heifers.
Since heifers are smaller than bulls and unlikely to have marbled meat, Wagyu producers do not like to raise heifers. Therefore, there is very little Wagyu beef from heifers and it is very rare.
The fat of heifers contains more unsaturated fatty acids than that of bulls. Unsaturated fatty acids cannot be synthesized in the human body and must be consumed. Palmitic acid, stearic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid and other unsaturated fatty acids account for 80 to 90% of beef fat.
In other words, a texture and flavor differing from that of bulls can be enjoyed because of the fine texture and difference in the fat of heifers.
From Tanifuji Farm, only Craft Wagyu from healthy and well-grown bulls and heifers selected based on experience gained throughout its long history are shipped as Tokushima Craft Wagyu.
Yoshino River
Surrounding environment of Tanifuji Farm
Iya Kazura Bridge