Lineages of the Akaushi

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my Akaushi consulting business is being able to look at and discuss cattle with clients. Many will attest I really enjoy discussing lineages and directions that a breeder can take moving forward.

When I am assigning matings, either for my own cattle or for clients, I am constantly referencing lines that are involved in Akaushi genetics. This can be very confusing to many that do not look at this stuff on a regular basis. One of the tools I use to visualize the lineages is an arrow path diagram that I created. It can be found below and illustrates the common lineage of the foundation animals that were imported from Japan.

As you can see from the image the original imported animals from Japan were not dramatically distant in relationship. Offspring of DAI 10 Mitsumaru and Namimaru 74 were intentionally selected as they were viewed as upcoming top carcass bulls at the time. This can be found in a sire effects study on Japanese Brown (i.e., American Akaushi) under the direction of Professor Hiroshi Harada from MiyazakiUniversity.

I do believe this diagram is slightly incomplete and could be improved upon. Also it does not contain Rueshaw or Judo that were imported into the US in the 1970’s. Their descendants are being used but on a very small scale in relation to the entire Akaushi population.

A fruit punch pedigree is what I call an Akaushi pedigree that has a little bit of everything whipped into it. Scrambled eggs if you will. These type of pedigrees are becoming more common which keeps guys like me in business. At this point the breeder is at a fork in the road and the one option they do NOT need to take is…..more fruit punch. Before she died, I use to breed a fruit punch pedigreed female to JPrime 2132A at HeartBrand and always got along real well with the calves. I believe this was due to a nice blend of body types and outcrossing genetics. Sometimes it is as simple as that.

Do you know many Akaushi breeders that are intentionally selecting for certain traits within a herd AND creating cattle that will be easy to mate in the future? I sure don’t but hopefully this changes in the future.