History - Our Founders Concept

How aAa began...

aAa® Animal Analysis originated in the United States in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Created and developed by William A. "Bill" Weeks, North Clarendon, Vermont, this dairy cattle breeding guide is also sometimes known as "WEEKS ANALYSIS", "Triple A" or "Round & Sharp Analysis". Bill's phrase, "Sire the Need" , captures the essence of aAa. For over 50 years, Animal Analysis has continued to assist dairy producers in breeding better animals by siring the need.

Prior to 1950, Bill Weeks was a classification inspector with the Holstein Association of America. He had a keen eye and interest in the physical form and function of dairy cattle. An enthusiastic student of pedigrees, Bill was a passionate stockman. A dairyman his entire life, he maintained a small, select homebred herd of dairy cows on his Vermont farm while developing aAa. Together with his father Amhurst Weeks, also a Vermont Master Breeder, they bred and developed an exceptional herd of Holsteins under the name of "Skyway". Many leading breeder farms of that era purchased Skyway cattle. Skyway Valla Vista Double is easily recognized as the sire of Paclamar Bootmaker.

While a classifier, Bill observed that too often, when a bull bred a cow, the resulting offspring was not as good as the mother. He searched for a way to better understand and explain the breeding results he encountered every day. Why are offspring often not of acceptable quality when an acceptable quality cow is mated with a quality bull? And why do nice quality animals sometimes come from below average parents? He found that the pairing of animals in mating is important.

During the development of WEEKS ANALYSIS, dairy producers were primarily using bulls by natural service. Bill noticed the sharp bull sired his best offspring when he was mated with cows that were more round and the sharp cow produced her best offspring when she was mated with a rounder bull. With this realization, Bill created the round/sharp analysis where he showed whether a cow needed or a bull could add round or sharp in the front-end, udder and rear-end.

(Hoard's Photo)	(Hoard's Photo)	(Hoard's Photo)
Sharp	Round	Balanced

The development of the round/sharp analysis concept was for Bill, initially, a personal matter, not created in order to form a company or organization. He developed this breeding guide to improve his own dairy herd based on observations and knowledge. When that brought results, he was asked by others to do the same for them. This is how WEEKS ANALYSIS grew as a service to help breed better cows for dairy producers. These same results are responsible for the continued growth of Animal Analysis today.

Bill Weeks began providing analysis of dairy cattle to farmers in 1950 under the name Analyzed Holstein Friesian Cows. Results led to its early adoption by leading breeders of all dairy breeds and use within other species as well. In 1953, this breeding guide was identified by the registered trademark aAa®, which stands for Animal Analysis Associates. By that time other individuals, enthusiastic about the results they saw, had joined Weeks, as aAa® approved Analyzers, in sharing his breeding guide with dairy producers by showing which qualities cows and heifers lacked and more importantly by explaining why those qualities were needed.