Working Ranch Magazine Summer 2025

Akaushi on the Vegas Strip Sale. The beef program now also includes sales to restaurants and directly to the pub lic at the ranch storefront and website. “I have a co-worker with a four-year old daughter who ate some of our beef,” Susie Stallings says. “A week later she had a steak at a steakhouse and said, ‘Mommy, this is not Akaushi.’ Even she could taste the difference.” According to Susie, their farm store business has tripled in the last four years. Of all the cuts, tenderloin is the most popular — to the point that Stallings can’t keep it on the Artesian Ranch freezer shelves and there’s a customer waiting list. That kind of beef — and breed — loyalty is an experience that Seth Christensen has seen from his genet ics customers as well. In 2018, Christensen Genetics began to offer Charolais, Hereford, Gelbvieh, and Akaushi genetics to their clients alongside their existing registered Angus. Initially, Akaushi represented only 10% of the ET pro gram. However, by 2024, the market demand had pushed that to 90%. “That first year, we sold out of all of Practicality Paired with Performance

Artesian Merida L320, the high selling lot in the 2024 Stars of Akaushi in Cowtown, and Qualifier to the 2024 Wagyu Miss North America.

the Akaushi we had available before the calves even hit the ground,” says Christensen. “It was exciting to see how well they sold.” Located in Weston, Idaho, Christensen Genetics still run commer cial Angus cows in their recipient herd, and have developed a consistent client base for both Akaushi embryo transfer pregnancies and Angus bull leases. Akaushi are often brought in for marbling in a terminal situation, but for Christensen, the real potential of the breed is to get the carcass you want while maintaining or improving the quality of the live animals in your herd. “There’s an opportunity in the commercial market for these cattle

to solve functionality problems and spike carcass quality; all while add ing heterosis, the potential for direct marketing differentiation, and premi ums on calves.” Christensen’s operation is in a high desert country where sometimes the Angus are prone to be a little bigger, a little more hungry than ideal for the environment, and have lower fertility and foot or functionality issues as a result. “The Akaushi do well here, with impressive longevity and fer tility, no foot problems, and they’re not overly big. Adding their genetics to Angus solves those problems while increasing carcass value.” Longevity is also a frequently cited benefit of Akaushi, aided by excellent foot and udder quality, moderate size, and ability to breed back. Cows report edly calve on average through eight years, and bulls perform more than ten. “The longer you can spread out that replacement cost, the more profit able that animal is,” says Christensen, who also hosts the podcast, “ Got Any Cows? ” an educational show for newer cattle producers. Though some might consider them a ‘specialty’ breed, Akaushi is the real deal. “Adding Akaushi is a way to spike carcass quality without ruining cow functionality. They can make excep tional steaks and exceptional cows,” says Christensen.

Christensen Genetics in Weston, Idaho

70 I SUMMER 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.