Steve Bennett
Wagyu International is owned by Steve Bennett. He was Executive Officer with the Australian Wagyu Association until twelve years ago and resides in Sydney.
With a diverse background in livestock, he has held leading roles 
in academia, research, production and corporate. After completing a B Sc Agric degree at KwaZulu-Natal University, specializing in Animal Science, with a bias for genetics, Steve lectured at Gwebi Agricultural College, outside Harare, in Zimbabwe where he progressed as Head of the Animal Husbandry Department. He ran a cell of a national beef crossbreeding research trial which generated Africander, Mashona and Sussex pure and crossbred progeny for the second phase on Matopos Research Station.
His interest in practical management ended a career in academia when he assumed the role of Livestock Manager for Donnington Farms Pty Ltd breeding Angus, Brangus and Tuli seedstock and commercial terminal Charolais over criss-crossed Angus with Tuli. Donnington Farms had an annual production bull sale and stock were finished in the on-farm feedlot for the export trade. Endorsement was given by winning the hoof and hook section at Kadoma Agricultural Show (formerly Gatooma Hartley) and scores from this entry earned Second Prize in the National Carcass Competition.
Steve left the land after the "winds of change" and embarked on a career change into the commercial world. He took over the Animal Health business for Bayer (formerly Hoechst) in Zimbabwe. Whilst a supplier, he served on the council of the Society for Animal Production and was a visiting lecturer to Gwebi Agricultural College, Blackfordby Tobacco Training Institute and Animal Breeders Co-op on beef husbandry and animal health programmes. He wrote a number of articles of topical interest and the economics of beef production in The Farmer and The Financial Gazette.
Promotion to Lusaka to take over as Head of Agriculture for Bayer (formerly Hoechst) in neighbouring countries Zambia and Malawi provided interesting opportunities. Whilst learning agronomy and growing cotton; his keen interest in cattle resulted in positive outcomes for subsistence farmers in areas of Zambia which were afflicted with the ravages of the testse fly and East Coast Fever. Field trial evaluations during collaborations with Zambian Government officials involved using flumethrin pour-on outside Monze and deltamethrin diptank and pour-on formulations at Petauke and Kacholola respectively.
After five years, Steve followed his Australian roots and took his young family over. After a span of seventeen years in agriculture with a Swiss corporation he moved to Armidale for the Agricultural Business Research Institute and was contracted to administer the Australian Wagyu Association. 
Steve reported to Dr Joe Grose, President of the Australian Wagyu Association. Joe introduced Japanese digital imaging of carcasses and the foundations were put into place for this to be integrated into Wagyu BREEDPLAN in 2015. The Australian Wagyu Association is at the forefront of the evaluation of Wagyu genetics globally outside Japan and they and the Japanese are the only two Wagyu associations that provide single step genomic evaluation.
After leaving the AWA as Executive Officer, Steve founded "Wagyu International" as he recognised at that time that there was a void of information for the growing Wagyu industry outside of Japan, Australia and USA. This website was established in 2013 to serve as a reference for the Wagyu industry outside Japan and incorporated the history of Wagyu around the globe.
Steve's translation of the Kenicho Ono books gave him greater understanding of the Wagyu herd ancestors and exported Wagyu semen and embryos from the diverse Wagyu breeders in Australia.
When he couldn't find a direct association between marbling with the genetic merit of elite Wagyu, Steve suspected that nutrition and the environment could be impeding progress. By translating Japanese he obtained a thorough understanding of the principles of Wagyu physiology during the raising and finishing of Wagyu to obtain highest quality using local resources at lowest cost.