Q: How did your operation get started and where are you located?

“I started borrowing money and buying cattle when I was 13,” said Larry Aschermann, a Missouri transplant from Illinois. His great uncle gifted him two heifers and told Aschermann if he fed them, they would split the money when he sold them.

With his proceeds, Aschermann invested in show steers, claiming five breed championships at the Illinois State Fair in six years, exhibiting Shorthorn and Horned and Polled Hereford. After college, he worked for the American Shorthorn Association, founded the American Maine Anjou Association, and worked for Monsanto in their hybrid cattle breeding program, before settling in Carthage, MO. There he bought a stockyard, which helped finance the reputable Aschermann Charolais herd in the early 1990s. Eventually, Aschermann decided to pursue Akaushi cattle, recognizing their exceptional meat quality, and began incorporating them within his Charolais operation.

“For pounds to town and a bull for a reasonable price – there’s nothing much better [than Charolais],” he said. “But, anybody following beef consumption, realizes that quality meat is rapidly coming to the forefront, and the one breed that out does them all is Akaushi. It’s one way to get premium beef in a hurry.”

Aschermann employed an extensive embryo transfer program flushing Akaushi cows bred to his Charolais bulls, and his top Charolais donor cows bred to Akaushi bulls, to put more growth on the Japanese cattle. The Akaushi influence enabled cattle to finish with a quality grade of Prime Plus or higher by 20-24 months, as Akaushi have exceptionally high marbling and grade higher than U.S. Prime standards. Harvesting around 300 embryos with genetics from the original Japanese imports provided an impressive head start on full bloods.

Q: When and how do you market cattle from your ranch each year?

Aschermann started selling a few Akaushi influenced bulls at the end of his well-established Charolais bull sales. “The year that my top Akaushi bulls brought as much as my top Charolais bulls,” Aschermann said, “I figured that was a green light to go ahead and make the 100% conversion.”

“In the beginning it was a struggle,” he said. “But all you have to do is get them to taste the meat. It is unique, different, tasty, moist, and, according to Texas A&M research, it is higher in oleic acid and has a different fat composition which is like olive oil.”

Aschermann Akaushi provides retail marketers in Kansas and Missouri with cattle from time to time, but mostly sells beef straight from the farm. “Right now, I can sell everything we raise right here,” Aschermann said. After conducting their 39^th and final live auction in 2025, Aschermann now sends some bulls to public auction and sells his females private treaty. “Most sales are generated from just talking to people.”

Q: What is a unique way you serve your customers?

Aschermann said making the cattle available is unique in itself. “While the breed has flourished, one of the things that make them unique is that every animal, in order to be deemed an Akaushi, has to be DNA tested. No exceptions,” he said. “You can’t go around saying you got something that you don’t have.”

Q: What management strategies have provided the greatest benefit to your operation and why?

Hosting live auctions at the farm, and providing educational seminars and field days over the years, established Aschermann as a trusted source for beef cattle genetics. But the embryo transfer program at Aschermann Akaushi has been the most beneficial in advancing the operation. “ET was very instrumental in getting numbers up to becoming viable,” he said.

Q: If your ranch could be known for one thing, what would you want it to be and why?

“We cater to the commercial cattle industry and our goal from the start of the Charolais, was to help our customers become more profitable.” Aschermann said. “The closing line in our annual sale catalog welcome letter read, ‘Come buy a bull and make your cows and your banker happy.’”

Q: What new innovations or opportunities are you looking to pursue for your operation in the next 1-3 years?

Aschermann’s wife Peggy has advised Larry to quit trying to learn more and apply what he already knows. Admittedly, Aschermann said, “I just need to make what we got better.” However,he recently visited a processing plant and followed 90% of the carcasses all the way through the system, gathering tips on how to make Aschermann Akaushi the best product he can.

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