Prime-Time-Winter-2018

Brown said it is obvious that there are not enough purebred Akaushi in the United States and around the world. The best way to allow more people to enjoy the successes of the breed, in Brown’s opinion, is to “em- brace crossbreeding and strive to be the common denominator, the one who every- one wants to breed to, because you have traits that the other breeds don’t have.” Brown is confident that Akaushi can have a significant impact on the beef industry. “I want you to strive to be the breed that everyone wants to have in their planned crossbreeding program,” he chal- lenged breeders. Manage Risk While Brown’s 10 commandments will help seedstock producers be successful, managing risk is also vitally important for any business’s success. To manage risk in a seedstock business, Brown suggested that producers “identify and measure the genetics you have, and multiply your known quantities.” Multiplying proven sires is one way Brown manages risk on his ranch. “When you come to our sale, you see a lot of bulls from the same sire because we take those proven sires and we mass multiply and get a lot of them from each proven sire that meets our goals,” he explained. Another way to manage risk is to spread risk on things producers don’t know as much about, such as donor females. “I use a lot of young donors because I’m never going to prove a female to the accuracy that I will a sire; she just biologically can’t have that many offspring,” Brown said. “It doesn’t take away from the value of the female; it just means I know less about her than I do a bull that’s had 1,000 progeny.” Don’t Be Left Behind Change isn’t always easy or comfort- able. But, “change is the law of life,” John F. Kennedy once said. “And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” The same could be said for seedstock producers. No one can force producers to change a single thing about how they run

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preparing for their annual bull sales, Brown works with 40 different cooperat- ing producers who have similar values. He makes their ranch values very clear to each of the groups and lets them know in advance that if they don’t want to adhere to the same values, they are welcome to work with someone else. “Working together with other people of integrity and honesty, and holding people accountable to do the right thing, that’s good stuff,” he said. Brown’s final commandment of a suc- cessful seedstock producer – thou shall embrace crossbreeding and strive to be the common denominator. He said he fully expected to get some interesting looks from Akaushi breeders in response to the tenth commandment. “For some seedstock breeders, this is a challenging concept. And it’s a challenging concept because, if we’re going to sell purebred Akaushi, then why do we need to crossbreed?” he asked. As a breed that is growing in popularity,

Will-Acres Farm WE RAISE AKAUSHI/RED ANGUS CROSS CATTLE AND SELL FARM-TO-FAMILY CUSTOM BEEF STEVE & TANYA WILLIAMS 21221 FINCH DRIVE, NEOSHO, MO 64850 (417) 529-8316 • WILL-ACRES@HOTMAIL.COM

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