American Bucking Bull

American Bucking Bull (ABBI) is an organization dedicated to the registration of bucking bulls and establishing the American Bucking Bull as a documented breed of cattle. American Bucking Bull, Inc., is owned by the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) and stock contractors. The organization created a breed registry and manages the registration and certification of American Bucking Bulls. It also keeps records of other breeds of bulls, some of which died many years ago. It is the largest organization performing these functions. It maintains a genetic DNA database, manages bucking bull pedigrees and encourages the growth of the breed. ABBI also holds competitions for bucking bulls ages 2 through 4. It also has its own magazine, the "American Bucking Bull".
History.
People first began to breed cattle specifically to produce bulls that were good at bucking in rodeos in the 1970s. An early pioneer was Bob Wilfong. He came from a background of ranching and rodeo. "Raising bucking stock was just kind of a deal to play with," Wilfong said. Wilsong's whole breeding program was to buy cattle and see if they could buck.
The idea of registering bucking bulls originated in 1992 with Bob Tallman and Sammy Andrews. Tallman is a fifth generation cattleman and a ProRodeo Hall of Fame rodeo announcer. Andrews is a stock contractor who owned Bodacious, a bull infamous for his severe injuries to riders, especially Tuff Hedeman. After the incident in which Bodacious injured Hedeman and the bull's subsequent retirement, there was a significant cultural shift in the sport of bull riding. Originally the riders were the focus of the sport, but Bodacious made bulls themselves into popular athletes: many fans knew the name of Bodacious but not that of the injured rider.
After Bodacious became so popular with fans, his popularity expanded to other bulls, such as Asteroid, Bushwacker, and Dillinger. Stock contractors started making money from all types of activities, not just bucking them: marketing, futurities, licensing, and breeding. This shift resulted in duplicity in the breeding business: certain breeders were attempting to scam others by pretending they had young bulls who were the progeny of notable sires such as Oscar, Red Rock, and Skoal Pacific Bell, when in fact the heritage of these bulls was not as advertised; this practice resulted in distrust of pedigree claims. Andrews was sure that "a credible market" required "a way to certify bloodlines," and Tallman proposed the use of DNA parentage testing, which he used in his own breeding program.
Thus, in 1994, Tallman created the Rodeo Stock Registry (RSR) as a genetic database. The intent was to allow breeders to track the pedigrees of notable bucking bulls, and thus prove parentage of offspring. When the RSR became available, breeders such as Wilsong started using it to register his bulls and manage his program. He used the RSR to calculate that he had 16 different bloodlines in his pedigrees.
"Bob Tallman literally created an industry by introducing DNA testing and organized competitions for bucking bulls,” stated Randy Schmutz, general manager of United Bucking Bulls, Inc. (UBBI). “His ideas and thinking were questioned and highly criticized by many, but he stuck to it. It’s because of Tallman that we have what we call the ‘bucking bull breeding industry’ today!"
In 1996 Tallman and a partner started Buckers, Inc., a business using DNA testing to verify a bull's parentage. Bodacious became the test case for this model: "every stock contractor in the business wanted a bull as rank as Bodacious—especially if they were certain the calf was a legitimate son". Buckers, Inc. registered and certified records of Bodacious' progeny that could be documented via semen collection. They also started collecting other top bulls' semen. By 2003, Buckers had 11,000 cattle registered. Then-CEO Randy Bernard at the PBR was so impressed that he bought out Buckers and renamed the company to American Bucking Bull, Inc. He sold 19 shares of ABBI for $25,000 each.
The first bucking bull registered by the ABBI was Bodacious, also the first bull in the Buckers, Inc., database. His ABBI registration number is 1000078. When Bodacious died in 2000, he had 23 sons who had professional "outs", meaning that they had bucked in rodeos sanctioned by the PRCA or the PBR. This earned him "the top spot on the all-time producing sire's list" at that time. The RSR, transferred to American Bucking Bull, Inc., became the heart of the organization. The DNA registry database grew from 20,000 livestock registrations to over 180,000 in a little over a decade.
At that point, in 2003, other investors were invited to buy stock in the ABBI. Thousands of dollars were invested, which the PBR matched. Then the first ABBI Finals were held in 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Growth of the ABBI increased the popularity of breeding cattle specifically for their traits as bucking stock, and organized livestock breeding exploded for both genders of cattle.
The ABBI developed futurity programs for the bulls as it grew. A futurity is an event for younger bulls where the bull is judged solely on his own performance. There is no rider. In the PBR's initial years, the most a bull could earn at any event was the $20,000 prize for being selected the World Champion Bull. Today in the ABBI, registered bulls can earn up $500,000 in events between ages 2 and 4. These futurity events caused the ABBI to grow at accelerated rates.
Organizational structure.
The American Bucking Bull organization is owned half by the Professional Bull Riders. Stock contractors own shares that comprise the other half of ownership. The organization is run by a Board of Directors representing all parties. Their mission is to register and promote the breed of the American Bucking Bull. The genetic DNA registry that American Bucking Bull manages is the largest registry in the world for bucking bulls. Many of the most notable bulls in modern bull riding, including Bushwacker, Black Pearl, Long John, Bruiser, and Shepherd Hills Tested are now of the American Bucking Bull breed and developed their talents via ABBI event competition.
The PBR itself was founded in 1992 as a rodeo organization that only promoted bull riding. Since then, this focus has dramatically changed the way sports broadcasting handles rodeo. As of 2018, the PBR brings in millions per year in commercial sponsorships and reaches half a billion viewers, establishing bull riding as a mainstream sport. the premier tour sponsor is Monster Energy, and PBR bull riding events are featured on CBS Sports Network and CBS networks. At the PBR World Finals, riders compete for a $1 million bonus. For bulls, the ABBI World Finals Classic takes place at the PBR World Finals. There 3- to 4-year-old bulls compete to win a $250,000 prize.
Industry breeders use the ABBI registry to help bulls to retain value and prove their abilities. One example was the Rosser family, who owned the Flying U Rodeo Company. In search of DNA to document parentage, Rosser mentioned one time that a bull skeleton was dug up to recover a bone fragment. It was DNA tested and used to prove that a notable bull's calves were sired as stated, showing that the genetic data kept by the registry was of value. The registry also promotes how important the maternal side is in producing the most rank (difficult to ride) bulls. For example, the cow who produced 2009 ABBI World Champion Finals Classic Bull Black Pearl sold in 2011 for $100,000. She also produced at least three other futurity money winners.
Prior to the ABBI, the best PBR bulls earned their owners money through a stud career, simply as long as parentage verified. With the ABBI, the legitimacy provided by a breed registry boosted the price of the semen used for artificial insemination and the earnings could increase significantly from each collection of semen as offspring went on to win championships. A bull typically garners $25,000 for the World Champion Bull title. The ABBI awards about $2 million each year to its competitors, such as the winners of futurity and classic events in the age range of 2 to 4 years.
More skilled bull riders and more athletic bulls have enhanced the sport. For some bull owners and breeders, the breeding of bulls has become a full-time career. A good example of a bull that ABBI developed into a successful breeding sire is three-time World Champion Bushwacker, owned by Julio Moreno. Moreno retired him after the 2014 season. Bushwacker had career earnings of $600,000; now Moreno sells his semen for $5,000 a straw.
Today, the ABBI DNA registry database contains over cattle records of over 200,000 individuals, including bulls in four countries: the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Australia. The registry stores more than just pedigrees. It also stores visual descriptions, ear tag numbers, and electronic chip IDs.
Breeding stock.
How cattle breeding developed from the early years to the present model was illustrated by the experiences of Bill Wilsong's breeding program. His cattle occasionally produced "muleys"—Polled livestock, cattle with no horns. "Those White Spotted Park cattle were bigger than most and had a natural come back pattern. They’d come back and fight," said Wilsong. "There was a white spotted, long eared muley with a lot of front end and a lot of kick. He loved to come back in the gate. I didn’t like muleys, but he was so good I bred to him anyway." This produced the cow BW 51, whom he bred to notable sire Houdini, and produced the champion bull Voodoo Child in 2002. Slade Long, an ABBI and PBR statistician, rated Voodoo Child as one of the "Memorable Bulls of the PBR" as part of the "Golden Children Group". Voodoo Child has a record 101 outs with only 5 qualified rides. Voodoo Child is also a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Bucking Bull of the Year of 2007 and 2008.
Following Wilsong was Gene Baker, a former calf roper and the owner of Homestead Genetics, based in Anson, Texas. Baker moved from breeding show cattle to breeding bucking bulls in 2002 when the RSR became available in 2002. His business also benefited from the purchase of the sire 329 Houdini in 2006 who, as stated earlier, sired the bull Voodoo Child, PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year in 2007 and 2008. Houdini's progeny brought in over $5 million in competitive earnings. Baker's company has won well over 60 futurity event championships, including three wins at the annual ABBI American Heritage futurity, and the 2010 champion PBR classic once. Baker had two bulls ranked in the top in 2011.
The ABBI mostly focuses on recording animals in the American Bucking Bull breed registry. The organization also makes a breeder's certification participation program for particularly outstanding bulls, such as the following:
Other notable ABBI bulls:
On December 14, 2009, the ABBI registry reached the 100,000th entry in its DNA database. Cody Lambert, Livestock Director for the PBR, noted that:
There are more good bulls out there than ever before and the ABBI is one of the main reasons for that. Before the ABBI when someone bought a calf and bucked him they could never be 100% sure of that calf’s pedigree, but now every registered animal in the ABBI is backed up with DNA, so you know exactly how your animals are bred." ABBI President Brad Boyd pointed out that, "This first base of 100,000 core DNA’d animals is truly the foundation for the heritage and documented ancestry of future generations of bucking bulls and elite females to come.
In his best year at the PBR, Bushwacker netted $335,000 winnings in 2010. He retired after 2014, and he has career winnings approximated around half a million dollars. ESPN once described Bushwacker as "the baddest body in sports," and suggested that bulls like him garnered more fan appreciation than their riders. Then-CEO Jim Haworth said the bulls become "celebrity athletes." While he was a PBR bull, Bushwacker packed the house and earned $1,000 per ride. After 2010, he "aged out" of the prime ABBI window, but continued to earn money in the PBR.
Futurity and classic events.
The ABBI created futurities for registered bulls from ages 1 through 2, and derby events for bulls that are 3 years old. For bulls that are 3- and 4-years old, they created classic events. The annual ABBI Futurity and the Classic World Finals are the top two events for bulls. The Classic World Finals is held at the PBR World Finals. Many of the events are held at PBR season events.
ABBI World Finals.
The annual ABBI Classic World Finals championship for three- and four-year-old bulls is held in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of the PBR World Finals.
The ABBI World Finals Futurity bull is awarded yearly in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is held during the PBR World Finals. Bulls that are 2 years old that qualify can compete. The highest score wins.