Shigefuku

Shigefuku, tagged '005' in the Westholme numbering that continues from the live '001'/'002'/'003' patriarch bulls, is one of three additional black sires whose SEMEN Chris Walker's Westholme program imported from the ET Japan Company (Hokkaido) in 1998, arriving alongside 59 more females the year after the 1997 live shipment. He is a son of Dai 20 Hirashige, himself a son of Kedaka, placing Shigefuku deep in the main Kedaka (Tottori) lines and making him a paternal relative of Hirashigetayasu '001'. Breeders value him for the classic Kedaka contribution: higher growth rates, greater body volume, strong constitution and desirable coat type, with a noted strong inheritance from the influential bull Eiko. Because he entered only as semen and only via Australia (some of which was re-exported to the USA), he is easily missed on live-import foundation lists, but he is a genuine exported foundation sire and part of the Westholme genetic package that built much of the Australian and American Kedaka growth base.