Bucking bull breeders bring their best to competition

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

Bucking his stuff ... This young bull shows the power within his genes during the Sixth Annual Buckers Event in Stephenville. "Dummies" are used on the young bulls, instead of actual riders. -- Staff photo by Montgomery

April 15, 2004 -- Bull riding events, like the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) competitions, draw big crowds who are hooked on the thrill of an eight-second ride.

Most come to watch the human athletes, but some are there to watch the bull athletes buck their hearts out.

People with great interest in these athletic bulls are the bull breeders.

Ideas and thoughts about the bucking bull industry changed about 10 years ago, with the retirement of Bodacious, the most recognizable bucking bull in history. The dream to raise quality rodeo bucking bulls through the means of artificial insemination and embryo transfer became known as Buckers, Incorporated.

The idea started after a telephone conversation between Bob Tallman and Sammy Andrews. Tallman, a professional rodeo announcer, and Andrews, owner of Bodacious, along with other notable rodeo industry leaders Donnie Hutsell, Vernon Guidry, Neal Gay, Cotton Rosser, Julio Moreno, and David Bailey started collecting and selling semen.

The first collection of semen from Bodacious gave breeders an opportunity to introduce world champion bloodlines into their own breeding programs. Since then semen has been collected from bulls that have made multiple National Finals Rodeo (NFR) and PBR Finals appearances, as well as other proven prolific sires.

It wasn't long before the group realized there had to keep some type of registry for these bulls, hence the Rodeo Stock Registry of North America (RSR) was born. The registry records and preserves the pedigrees of the top professional rodeo champion bucking bulls and horses. Currently, there are over 650 breeders who have registered their bucking stock with RSR.

"It's amazing," Tallman said on April 2 during the Sixth Annual Buckers Event at the Lone Star Arena in Stephenville.

In 1999, the inaugural Buckers Sale of the Future was held. This first sale was devoted solely to females bred to, or out of, bucking bulls. All 110 head, registered in the RSR, sold for $148,000.

"As far as these heifers, if they don't buck they won't raise a bucker," Tallman said.

In 2000, 72 head sold for $240,000. During this sale, the young bulls were given the chance to buck their stuff, which would become known as the Buckers Gold Standard Futurity.

The Buckers Gold Standard Futurity in 2000 showcased 2-year-old bulls bucking with an electronic dummy for six seconds. The next year, 3-year-old bulls, competing with riders, were brought to the inaugural Buckers World Derby.

During 2002, Buckers announced a partnership with the PBR, and David Allen of Champion Sports Group, to create "THE ELITE" Futurity and Derby, which is held in conjunction with the PBR World Finals in October in Las Vegas, Nev.

Changes were made again this year, during the sixth annual event. Instead of seeing all the 2-year-olds in the Buckers Gold Standard Futurity buck twice, this year they were all bucked on one day, April 1, and the top 60 bulls, by score, returned on April 3 for the short round.

On Friday morning, April 2, a short business meeting was held during the event in Stephenville. One topic of discussion was the recent RSR Bovine Division sale to the PBR.

"RSR sold the database only to the PBR. Buckers is great," Tallman explained during a meeting on April 2.

"RSR is in full swing with bucking horses and will continue to do DNA worldwide," Tallman added.

Tallman's thoughts are bucking horses will be a bigger bucking bull market. The reason behind the thoughts are "horses don't have horns, so they won't hook you; and anybody with five to 10 acres can raise bucking horses. Horses are passive compared to cows and bulls."

The new PBR name for the former RSR is American Bucking Bull Inc. (ABBI).

Tallman stated, about the PBR publicity, "It's going to work. Keep registering your cattle."

Tallman said the futurities and derbies are also working.

"Right now, there are 10 bulls bucking at the CBR (Championship Bull Riding), another bull riding venue, four were at last year's NFR, and 14 this year at the PBR," Tallman stated.

"There will always be a sale for good rodeo bulls," said Alvin Jones, a 79-year-old breeder from the East Texas town of Winona, who has been a member of Buckers since the beginning.

"Buckers is a production company that Scott Davis and I will continue to produce two quality events a year. It's owned and patented and doing well," Tallman concluded. Davis is Tallman's "right hand man" in the rodeo production/promotion industry.

For more information about Buckers, call 972-874-9411. For information about the ABBI, contact Scott Pickens at 580-928-5001.