Under the sweltering sun in coastal Kuala Selangor, Dollah lumbers to his feet, his 800kg (1,764lb) frame towering above the herd. The Australian-Malaysian crossbreed isn’t just any bull, he’s the prized patriarch of a 30-head cattle farm producing Mygyu: Malaysia’s answer to Japan’s famously marbled Wagyu.
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At Colla Cattle Farm, breeders see both promise and pressure in Malaysia’s appetite for premium beef. With Mygyu, they aim to offer an affordable local alternative to imported Wagyu as rising living costs and government scrutiny of luxury imports cast doubt over the future of high-end foreign products.
Since its establishment in 2017, the farm has grown rapidly. It now boasts five cowsheds and is expanding its napier grass fields to ensure a steady supply of feed for the growing herd.
The farm raced to install a newly acquired meat-processing machine imported from China ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which centres on the ritual slaughter of livestock.
With a complete chain from slaughter to processing, packaging as well as chilling, the beef products produced here will be ready for direct delivery to customers.
“Before this we could process five to eight cows an hour,” said Jamal Abdul Karim, Colla Cattle Farm chief executive officer. “But after this we can go up to 20 in an hour.”
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Dollah, a breeding bull, is the farm’s key asset and, on a recent visit by This Week in Asia, looked a little tired.