Westholme Hirashigetayasu 001: Grandsire of "Tajimax"
25% Tajima
Tajimax or "Max" as he is soon to be known on the top corner of calf ear tags around the world, was discovered by accident when our friend Chris Brant, owner of ReserveCattleCompany.com, sent us a picture of a two and a half year old 2000+ lb embryo calf he had raised and named "Kemono" which means "Beast" in Japanese. The top picture of Tajimax with a 1200 lb cow is that exact picture.
Hirashigetayasu Z278 fully mature (Tajimax's sire) "Tajimax" slimmed down at three on cows summer 2016
44% Tajima 63% Tajima!!!
Tajimax's sire Hirashigetayasu Z278 had a weaker loin than his sire 001, due to the fact that Z278's Tajima percentage was drastically increased by his 100% Doi blood Tajima-sired dam by Kitateruyasudoi 003. One of the things that makes Tajimax so special is that even at only 3 years old, he already has a larger frame, higher mature weight, and stronger loin than his internationally famous high growth sire "Z278" or his legendary high growth grandsire "Hirashigetayasu 001" despite being much higher Tajima-blooded than either of them! More Tajima = more consistent marbling! More Marbling + More Meat = More $$$
TAJIMAX (FB16684) in working clothes at three years old working 60+ cows in summer 2016
Is there a taller, thicker, longer & stronger loined 2000 lb+ three year old wagyu this high Tajima (63%) ANYWHERE?
Chris Brant explained to us that the bull had come to him in a group of 11 embryo bull calves that were all put in the same day at an open range cattle operation on a contract basis. Chris was actually planning on making steers out of all the embryo bull calves in this group because he didn't need anymore bulls and because of the poor quality of the feed and open range circumstances they were raised on. Chris assumed all these calves would be stunted and never recover from being set so far back due to malnourishment. The calve's undernourished condition was so poor that he vowed never to use the same operation for embryo calf contracts again and had the vet come over to castrate all 11 bull calves in the group. On castration day they noticed that one of the bull calves towered so greatly above all his flush mates, like a "man among boys" that it actually stunned Chris and the vet. The monstrous calf's domineering phenotype immediately commanded respect against a backdrop of 10 identically sourced, aged and raised embryo bull calves that were all significantly inferior in every way. As the Herculean calf made his way into the chute to be castrated, Chris said that even though he was skinny and undernourished, the "big one" was "so different" compared to all the others that it prompted Chris to ask the vet "I really don't need any bulls right now, don't even have a place or pasture to put one, but this one is so much better than all the others maybe I should keep him....what do you think?" To which the vet immediately replied "Are you kidding me? I'd keep him!" And thus the "stunted" calf now known worldwide as "Tajimax" safely made his way through the chute on castration day intact, recovering fast enough to break the scales at 2000 lbs+ as a two year old, changing the breed forever. Who knows what he would have weighed as a two year old had he not been so severely stunted the first year of his life.
I could immediately see Hirashigetayasu 001 influence in this young bull Chris was calling "Kemono." I had been on a personal quest for years to find a bull that looked like the great stock photo of the immortal Japanese original import Hongen rated sire Westholme Hirashigetayasu 001 pictured above, but had never seen anything, in any pasture anywhere that looked anywhere near as thick, deep chested, and strong-loined as Mr Hongen 001 himself until now! Chris said he had two calf crops out of the bull and would just as soon sell him rather than keep him around for a few years before needing him again because he was "tall as a horse and eats like a horse." Chris also told me that everyone who comes up to his ranch and sees him, even older, long time breeders says he is "by far the biggest fullblood wagyu they have ever seen." Based on Kemono's freakishly gargantuan phenotype, I assumed the bull was very low Tajima and probably had a bunch of Kedaka and Shimane blood on his dam's side, but regardless of pedigree, his shear size at his young age alone placed him in internationally elite status and my interest was more than piqued. With ANY beef breed, 2000 lb two year olds don't grow on trees, ESPECIALLY HIGH TAJIMA FULLBLOOD WAGYU!
Knowing that the great legendary international rockstar bull of growth Westholme Hirashigetayasu Z278 weighed only 1800 lbs as a 3 year old, we were simply amazed that this bull was 200+ lbs larger than the incomparable Z278 at a younger age, despite being severely undernourished and stunted the first year of his life! I had seen Z278 offspring in many herds from one end of North America to the other, and they were always the biggest calves of their calf crop. In the words of the great original US wagyu breeder Jerry Reeves, "Z278 has gained a lot of respect in herds around the world." And now, here was a bull significantly higher growth than that at a younger age, AND much higher Tajima to boot? I decided to drive 14 hours from Denver to put eyes on this high Tajima Z278 son the following weekend. Although still skeptical, if this was for real, and if there actually existed a bull even higher growth than Z278 and 001, with twice as high Tajima content, I would do whatever it took to load him in the back of my trailer and drive him home.
I got to the bull's location a little early and walked around to try to find him while I waited. I will never forget coming around the corner and beholding "The Beast" live in person for the first time... This is a picture of what he looked like at that time and age...
The young bull's entire topline, shoulder to rump, was ABOVE the highest cable of standard 5 cable bull fencing!
He was easily the tallest, and overall largest framed fullblood wagyu I had ever seen, and I knew I had probably seen more fullblood wagyu recently than anyone else in North America...
And yet, he was still a young bull that had a lot of growing to do...his neck hadn't even started filling out yet!
As a true student of wagyu genetics, I've found the only way to learn about all the different bloodlines and Japanese prefectural sub strains was to drive around the country touring the largest wagyu operations in the world outside Japan with an IPAD on my lap pulling up pedigrees as fast as the rancher sitting next to me could give me registration info on the animals we were looking at. In the summers of 2015 and 2016 I personally visited the vast majority of significant wagyu operations in North America, and laid eyes on 20,000+ wagyu F1's, and 2500+ fullblood wagyu, which was a majority of the fullblood herd in North America at the time. I saw the herd bulls of many of the greatest Wagyu operations in North America from Washington state, to Texas, to Louisiana, to Missouri, and New England and had never seen a fullblood wagyu, black or red anywhere near as large framed as this bull.
I had originally assumed the bottom side of the bull's pedigree was heavy Kedaka and Shimane genetics but you can understand our eyebrow lifting astonishment upon roughly calculating out that the bull's dam was over 80% Tajima. How could that be possible? I sent the bull's registration number to Wagyu Sekai in Canada so our good friend Ken Karoswatsu could look over the Japanese pedigrees and give us the genetic breakdown of the bull.
My jaw literally dropped when it was made known to us that the largest wagyu bull any of us had ever seen by far was at least 10/16ths Tajima, making him at least 62.5% Tajima!!!!!
Most bulls this high Tajima are lucky to be 1600 lbs by six or seven years old living in a stall hand fed, let alone over 2000 lbs at two on cows!!! Hirashigetayasu 001 was 25% Tajima and Z278 was 44% Tajima so how could their direct 62.5% Tajima descendant be so much larger framed, heavier and longer than both of them at a youngerage?
By this point I was already awestruck by the freakish uniqueness and world class rarity of this bull but then, as if all this weren't enough, it got even crazier!
*Chris Brant said he had a yearling son from TAJIMAX's first calf crop weighing 1050+ lbs that was bigger than four direct sons of Shigefuku J1822, AND, all four of the the Shigefuku sons were 6 MONTHS OLDER than the TAJIMAX calf!!!!!
WHAT THE $#%^&!!! I assumed the dam of those 4 Shigefuku bull calves must be some spindly little high Tajima reject cow to even have a remote chance of making that possible, but Chris's response to that was "No, the 4 Shigefuku bulls are all embryo calves from GAW Sanshiga, the same 1500 lb donor dam as THE BEAST."
Mind blown.
I looked over the 4 Shigefuku bulls for some time, they were all extreme high end in phenotype and growth....couldn't ever imagine it even being remotely possible that there was a fullblood beast anywhere on earth who could sire yearling bull calves BIGGER than these four eighteen month old Shigefuku J1822 sons despite being 6 months YOUNGER, AND HIGH TAJIMA TO BOOT!
In this video below, taken the day I first drove out to look at him, it shows Tajimax sparring through the fence with one of his half brothers sired by the great 100% Kedaka sire Shigefuku J1822. This is one of those four year and a half old Shigefuku sons Chris had that were all smaller than one of the Tajimax sired YEARLINGS Chris had sold to the neighbor next door. Most high Tajima bulls have a sloping back and much weaker loin end. Notice Tajimax's entire topline, shoulder to rump is higher than standard 5 steel cable bull fence! He is also one of the only fullblood wagyu I have ever seen that actually gets stronger as you move back toward the loin rather than "fading" like virtually all wagyu bulls do, especially high tajima wagyu bulls....
.
A thick loined high Tajima bull that throws yearling sons bigger than Shigefuku's 18-month-old bull calves out of the same cow???!!!
Can this really be for real I thought?
Chris had the recorded data in his Cattlefax account right there in his cell phone to prove it and a pasture full of beanstock-high 800+ lb YEARLING fullblood steers out of "The Beast" to support it. The largest yearling we had ever produced was under 700 lbs. To see a pasture full of record kept and verified 800+ lb fullblood yearlings from a high Tajima bull was mind blowing to say the least. After spending a couple summers looking over pastures full of spindly high Tajima calves that grow like German Shepherds, it was so refreshing to finally see some consistent height and growth in a high Tajima fullblood calf crop! With as much as the bull obviously spiked frame in fullbloods, I could only imagine how much he would excel making high growth F1's on commercial beef cows.
Maybe "The Beast" is the real deal?"
Then, it got EVEN BETTER!
Chris said that the bull's dam. GAW Sanshiga, weighed over 1500 lbs as a 4 year old, and at least 80% Tajima, making this bull a potential consistent pathway to the illusive 1300 lb high Tajima mama cow when crossed on normal 900-1100lb high Tajima cows. She has also been a tremendous flusher for Chris giving him 39 grade 1 embryos in a single flush, and frequently yielding 20+ embryos. This fertility no doubt will be propagated many fold via her great life's work and masterpiece: Tajimax. Everything came together perfectly to create a truly unique, standout specimen par excellance! In the words of Chris Brant "She's the reason Tajimax is such an unbelievable freak."
A common gripe of many Wagyu breeders is that our high Tajima cows are so much courser, shorter, smaller and bonier than regular commercial cows we get teased by neighboring commercial beef ranchers about all the "fugly black jersey beef cows" we have in our pastures. I saw in Tajimax a crazy new way to straighten that out in a hurry!
Now I knew that this bull was something way beyond special. His name at that time was still "Kemono" which means "Beast" in Japanese...but I knew he was a whole lot more than just a beast! Chris Brant had only given him that name because he was by far the largest bull out of a large group of identically sourced and aged full blood embryo calves, and had matured into the largest fullblood wagyu he or any other wagyu breeder he knew had seen anywhere by two and a half years of age.
"Kemono" was a very fitting name for the largest wagyu bull Chris had ever seen. The problem with continuing to call the bull "Kemono" was that it failed to capture the even more impressive fact that despite being an absolute freak of phenotype and growth he was actually high Tajima! Hence the bull's old name "Kemono" was changed to "Tajimax" during the long drive home with him bouncing around in the back of my trailer;) Had Chris seen as many wagyu bulls, cows, calves and feeders from one end of the country to the other as I had recently seen, the bull may have never been for sale!
Breeders who have calved out Tajimax calves all say the first thing: The Tajimax calves, almost without exception, immediately standout from the rest of the calf crop in frame and height. So consistent and across the board is this margin of difference in frame and growth, that the Tajimax calves almost appear to be of a different breed compared to all the other fullblood claves.
Most wagyu breeders will go their whole lives without ever laying eyes on a frame score 8+ fullblood wagyu like Tajimax, that also happens to be high Tajima...
All are invited to visit us at WagyuRanch,com headquarters in upstate New York and experience it for yourself!
TAJIMAX (FB16684) Semen Pricing:
$25 Conventional Domestic US
$65 Sexed Domestic US 2.5 mill AI Concentration
$140 Sexed Domestic US 5.0 mill Flush/IVF Quality Concentration
Westholme Hirashigetayasu Z278: Sire of "Tajimax"
44% Tajima
THE STORY OF "TAJIMAX" (FB16684)
WagyuRanch.com
Elite Wagyu Genetics
"Wagyu: The King of Beef!"
Tajimax (FB16684) with a 1200 lb cow!
