It's 9am on a wet Friday morning and at Hamilton Wharf on Brisbane's dockside, several cattle trucks wait their turn to offload. Each deck of the trucks carries many thousands of dollars worth of Wagyu and the animals are restless, sensing something is about to change. The cattle are waiting to be loaded onto a ship bound for a 16-day ocean crossing to Japan. They have been quarantined in advance and need only to be checked on board before they can start the next stage of their journey. More than 2000 cattle will be spread over several decks of the ship. Each truck offloads the Wagyu in a set order, depending on which Japanese company the cattle are for. Johnston's Livestock Trucking Company, based in Toowoomba, Queensland, has three trucks at the wharf and they will be last to off-load as their beasts are for the top deck.
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