Many of the over 17,000 beef cattle operations scattered across Iowa share similarities in appearance and production, according to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture.
However, indistinguishable from the farmhouse and livestock building setups inhabiting most corners of the state are a small subset selling a very unique product: American Wagyu.
Wagyu beef is a premium-quality meat harvested from a specific breed of cow, known for the thinly-webbed “marbling” of its fat throughout, creating a distinct-looking, tenderly-textured, and supremely flavorful cut of meat.
According to the American Wagyu Association, there are just under 40 registered Wagyu operations in the state of Iowa. One stands out, however, with close connections to various Iowa City eateries and fine dining establishments. Jiyū American Wagyu, owned and operated by Iowa cattle farmers Kyle Schuchmann and Sarah Bailey, can be found just outside Iowa City.
Even further, Jiyū is currently working toward earning a chemical-free moniker and a top-five spot in the Triple Crown Steak Challenge, a nationwide meat quality competition, highlighting Wagyu’s growing role in American beef production both on the farm and in the kitchen.
With its origins in Japan, Wagyu is considered a delicacy by many due to the rigorous and culturally entrenched methods the Japanese devised for raising and butchering this specific gene pool of cattle. Every detail matters, down to the feed the animal receives and the razor-accurate cuts of meat not commonly practiced outside of Japan, Schuchmann said.
American Wagyu is distinct from Japanese Wagyu for a variety of reasons, Schuchmann said. Many American Wagyu are half-blood, or cross-breeds between authentic Wagyu and Angus cattle. Japanese Wagyu is also harvested in a very specific way.
Jiyū is Japanese for “Freedom,” and Bailey said she chose the name to pay homage to the practice’s Japanese roots.
However, Schuchmann said Jiyū’s Wagyu are full-blood and are harvested in the Japanese style.
Bailey was the one who started raising Wagyu cattle. She has worked in livestock her whole life, with initial ties to show cattle and an ex-father-in-law with connections to Japanese businessmen through a career with General Motors, she said.
Those Japanese connections ultimately led to her discovery of Wagyu, completely changing her outlook on raising livestock.
“I was really getting tired of the show stuff,” Bailey said. “And I’m like, ‘How can I optimize the cattle?’ I want something that eats well, and I want something consistent. And so I started thinking about switching over to Wagyu.”
Bailey said she made the switch 26 years ago. Originally, Jiyū sourced its full-blood Wagyu cows from Puslinch, Ontario, from a Wagyu breeder named Ken Kurosawatsu, owner of Wagyu World, a farm in Puslinch. Several years later, she brought her skills in Wagyu to Schuchmann, then exclusively an Angus farmer, and they have been partners since.
Schuchmann said Kurosawatsu, among other Japanese Wagyu experts, educated Bailey on raising quality Wagyu, which is more of a specialized practice than regular commodity beef production.
“We’re artisan, but that’s why we win,” he said. “That’s why our stuff is the best.”
High quality wagyu beef
After traveling hundreds — if not thousands — of miles, a steak is sectioned off by type, whether that be Angus or various grades of American Wagyu — a scale which typically runs from F1, or as low as 46.7 percent Wagyu, to full-blood, or 100 percent Wagyu.
Through the lens of a specialized camera, a Meat Imaging Japan, or MIJ, camera, lab workers analyze the fat percentage, color, and other characteristics of a given steak. The meat is placed into the jaws of a precise cutting machine, known as a Warner-Bratzler shear, and a computer gathers data on the meat’s resistance to the blade, which exerts pressure identical to a human bite.
Fatty acids are extracted from the steak, tested for health attributes, and eventually frozen. Once heat is applied, the steaks are ranked from lowest to highest melting points. Lastly, a panel of judges sits down and tastes the steak, judging it on juiciness, flavor, and tenderness.
Once the exam is completed for each steak from each of the almost 60 entrants, a winner can be decided.
This process is the rigorous, scientific process by which steaks are judged during the Triple Crown Steak Challenge, Red Bull Cattle Company owner and challenge carcass grader Desi Cicale said. The challenge occurs annually and is ongoing at the University of California, Davis, with results expected by early November.
Cicale is also a researcher specializing in studying carcass grading, or scientifically analyzing the expected eating condition of the Wagyu, and the health attributes of animal products. To her, Jiyū’s full-blood Wagyu is some of the best she has seen, resulting in her confident estimate they will receive the chemical-free label.
“I have a relationship with [Kyle and Sarah], because once I start seeing that they’re consistent, I start needing them to continue to send in samples for research,” she said, laughing, indicating Jiyū’s quality is self-evident.
Schuchmann said high-quality Wagyu is also healthy, referring to research conducted by individuals like Cicale about the health effects of Wagyu.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the kinds of monounsaturated fats present in highly marbled meat, like Wagyu have health benefits, including lower impacts on cholesterol and a reduction in risks for cardiovascular disease, as opposed to the saturated fats typically found in most red meat.
Achievements in the Triple Crown challenge are a nationwide accolade, and among the seven bulls present in Jiyū’s operation, Schuchmann points to one as a true breadwinner: Oh-No, a full-blood Wagyu bull, who Schuchmann and Bailey say is a genetic “freak.”
“He will pass on himself in a better form no matter what he touches, which is not normal,” Schuchmann said. “So he can reproduce himself over and over and over again, consistently. Consistency is a huge factor in anything you do.”
Wagyu bulls and the associated genetics to create quality meat are no cheap pursuit. Bailey has worked in artificial insemination of livestock for the majority of her life, a skill she said has combined with research and effort to produce high-quality meat resulting from genetics.
But, the genetics must come from somewhere. Schuchmann visualizes the amount of Wagyu semen bought as being the size of a cocktail straw. The cheapest he referenced was $300 a “stick,” reaching as high as $20,000 a stick.
Oh-No is just one part of Jiyū’s operating that allows it to create world-class products. Bailey said she learned from Japanese Wagyu experts 26 years ago that animal treatment, environment, and feed programs are the most important elements of creating quality Wagyu.
For Jiyū, their Wagyu has its own “terroir,” French for “taste profile,” meaning it is distinct from all other Wagyu worldwide.
Schuchmann and Bailey grow their own feed and raise cattle exclusively on their own land, incorporating the individuality of their grass and water into the animals, setting it apart from other Wagyu.
“We’re artisan, but that’s why we win. That’s why our stuff is the best.”
– Kyle Schuchmann, Jiyū American Wagyu co-owner and operator
On their land, Bailey and Schuchmann plant and harvest 90 bushels of grain feed and seven bales of hay per animal, per year. Across all their land northeast of Iowa City, Jiyū has chemical-free practices and is self-sustaining. He said self-sustainability creates their irreplicable taste profile.
Wagyu are also generally harvested at a much older age than Angus, Bailey said, as they are generally kept alive until around 30 months old as opposed to 12-22 months for Angus.
She said the combination of added time, effort, and highly specialized practices is simply financially unsustainable for many farmers. Love, in Jiyū’s case, she said, explains why the added effort comes easy.
“I was making a superior product with show cows in what they did,” Bailey said. “And so in beef, that’s what I wanted. I wanted to make a superior product.”
From farm to kitchen
Jiyū sells a Wagyu filet at $120 per pound, a ribeye at $70 per pound, a hanger at $40 per pound, and several other cuts at varying prices. Considered a delicacy, Wagyu costs are notoriously stiff.
Generally, Wagyu does not go to any random restaurant. In Iowa City, high-quality, fine dining establishments are the ones advertising Wagyu steaks on their menu at market price depending on the value of the meat at the time, including the Webster, The Wilder, and Joseph’s Steakhouse. Jiyū sells to the Webster, The Wilder, and Sushiya, among other spots not limited to just Iowa City.
The USDA predicts beef and veal prices will increase nationwide by 11.6 percent in 2025 from last year. Consumers feel that pressure, but this is another element where Wagyu — especially high-effort, high-quality Wagyu — stands out.
Stephan Bogardus, corporate culinary director of Graduate by Hilton Hotels, is an expert chef who helped design the Iowa Gold Burger at The Wilder at Graduate Iowa City, which is ground Wagyu from Jiyū. He said the self-sustaining nature of Wagyu operations allows them to remain relatively price inelastic.
Price inelasticity is an economic condition where the price of goods and services does not change at the same rate as the change in demand or cost of production. Bogardus said costs quickly change for the average commodity beef producer, resulting in similar changes for consumers.
“Distribution chains, farming methods, those prices are controlled,” he said. “So with every recall or changing feed price or taxes on land, or whatever the incentive or subsidy or cost that goes into it — it fluctuates.”
Due to operations like Jiyū’s sustainability, Bogardus said it is easier to remain unaffected by changes in input prices, property taxes, and more, which is why he prefers to always buy locally, when in Iowa or elsewhere.
“But when I’m at home, I look for a farmer, a local person, that doesn’t have the same fluctuation of costs or subsidies,” he said. “Because when you’re not paying in the mainstream system, you have the opportunity to have more autonomy over your product and the pricing structure of your product.”
Wagyu’s place in dining is something Bogardus said he wants to continue exploring as it becomes more mainstream by using it for more than traditional filets and steak, such as in more commonly available dishes like burgers, meatloaf, and more.
“Whatever it is, if you put that product in an identifiable form, it makes for a unique ingredient that’s special — a little bit of a niche, but it’s still approachable,” he said. “And I think that it’s something that stands out.”
Despite the high prices, added effort, and fine-dining moniker on most Wagyu, it is slowly breaking further into mainstream farming and dining.
Sam Gelman, chef and co-owner of the Webster in Iowa City, said the Webster pays anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 per animal for six or seven animals a year.
The Webster has received national acclaim, landing on “best restaurant” lists published by The New York Times and USA Today. Gelman said the restaurant uses most cuts of the animals they get from Jiyū, adding they get much of their Wagyu from the Iowa City farm.
Gelman said a quality-assured relationship is one advantage of using local Wagyu, as well as greater access to more cuts of the animal. Some stateside Wagyu consumers are priced out of the market as foreign producers commonly only export their highest-grade, most expensive cuts.
“I just like to be able to work with people that I know on a first-name basis, that are right down the road, and I have a relationship with,” he said.
Despite all the time, effort, and high dollar values placed on the products Jiyū creates, Schuchmann and Bailey said they continue doing it not for any monetary incentive or the acclaim, but for the opportunity to contribute to the culture of high-effort production and high-quality food.