For years, I had requests for Wagyu genetics.  While the quality of the Wagyu beef I had been around was excellent, I was not particularly impressed with the lack of growth and muscle in the Black Wagyu cattle.  Then, in 2018, a local hay farmer hired me for a day to help him sort through a set of Akaushi cattle from Paul Marchant in Oakley, ID.  I remember arriving and seeing a pretty impressive set of feeder calves.  Assuming these were not the Japanese cattle we were there to see, I asked Paul, "Where are your Japanese cattle?"  "Those are them!" he replied.  That was the lightbulb moment for me!  Akaushi are cattle that can produce the elevated quality of beef that Wagyu are famous for, while maintaining more growth and muscle than their Black Wagyu counterparts.

 

The term "Wagyu" literally means "Japanese cow."  The Black Wagyu and Akaushi (or Red Wagyu) are two separate and distinct breeds.  While both breeds come from Japan and produce extremely high quality beef, the similarities end there.  The Japanese Brown or Akaushi (which literally translates to "red cow" in Japanese) originated in Kumamoto, Japan, where it is known as the Emperor's Breed.  

 

Two Akaushi bulls, Rueshaw and Judo, were exported from Japan in 1976.  The only Akaushi females to leave Japan were exported in 1994.  In total, only 13 females and 6 males ever left Japan before they were declared a national treasure.  At this point, you'd have better luck caging and shipping bald eagles than getting fresh Akaushi genetics from Japan.  With so few animals to build from, it is important to make use of all of the original import lines to maintain as much genetic breadth as possible.  All of the sire lines and maternal lines that ever left Japan are represented here at Christensen Genetics.  You can see some of their descendants below.