Tsuda Harutoshi

I had the pleasure of visiting the Agri-Innovation Education and Research Centre at Akita Prefectural University to sample some milk from Japanese Shorthorn cattle. They are producing and marketing their pasture-raised beef under the “Gatabeko” brand. It is quite rare to find beef from pasture-raised Wagyu, particularly when it is not derived from the Japanese Black breed.

On October 31st, we cooked takoyaki* for Halloween. It was delicious, and the decorations were lovely. *: a popular Japanese street food consisting of bite-sized wheat-flour balls filled with octopus. They are cooked in a specialized molded pan and served with savory sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes, and seaweed.

While walking through the laboratory, I came across a horseshoe crab.

On September 19th, a symposium on Japanese Dairy Dcience Association was held at Nihon University. Three students from our laboratory gave poste presentations and received valuable feedback. Let’s use these insights to advance our future experiments. There were numerous intresting presentations at the symposium and poster sessions, which were greatly inspiring.

I visited Professor Watanabe at Akita Prefectural University to collect milk from the Japanese Shorthorn cattle. I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Watanabe for his cooperation despite his busy schedule with conference preparations. The farm in Hachirogata was vast and well-organised, creating a very pleasant environment. Although the Japanese Shorthorn is primarily a beef breed and not accustomed to being milked, thanks to Professor Watanabe’s expertise in handling dairy cattle, we were able to successfully milk them. I also deeply appreciate the excellent handling by the staff members.