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A Brief History of Bison Blend Cattle By Jon Nichols Throughout North American history there have been considerable reports of crossbreeding bison with domestic cattle. The Spanish in the Southwest gave thought to the idea, as did the Red River Colonists in Canada. However most documentation comes from Colonial America, showing crossbreds existed from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. A paper from 1780 Virginia, mentions the cross was “quite common” in several locales. It appears that bison were hunted so extensively, that the few remaining would readily take up with cattle. A number of crossbred cows were milked with great satisfaction, as the cream from these animals was “extremely rich and easily churned into butter.” Robert Wickliffe of Lexington, Kentucky was probably the first to go into any detail about his work of crossbreeding bison and cattle through letters to Naturalist John J. Audubon in the 1840’s. It wasn’t until the 1880’s that deliberate attempts were made to establish a breed of fertile crossbreds. One of the key reasons for developing cattalo was the great blizzards of 1886-1887 which killed off a huge number of range cattle from Alberta to Texas. A few ranchers started thinking of tougher stock. Crossbreeding bison with domestic cattle sounded like a good idea. Texas pioneer rancher Charlie Goodnight was one of the first. Goodnight captured and rescued several buffalo calves from the depleted Southern herd at the request of his wife. Mary Goodnight was distraught over the slaughter of the buffalo and their disappearance from the plains, urging Charlie to save some for future generations. Goodnight raised these buffalo calves on domestic cows, and later, one of his cow-raised bison bulls, “Old Sikes” would readily breed range cows. This lead Goodnight to cross the Bison bull on Angus cows, believing the Angus was one of the hardiest cattle breeds, and the resulting cross would prove to be the best. Goodnight bred his first half blood cows back to buffalo bulls and developed ¾ cows, then bred the half blood cows back to Angus to create fertile ¼ bison-Angus bulls. By crossing the two he developed a herd of fertile half bison-half Angus of about 50 head. J. Evetts Haley, Goodnight’s biographer said that Goodnight eventually was plagued by abortion and stillbirths in his herd, and sold them off around 1907. Goodnight’s letters and papers show however that he continued his cattalo work for a much longer period of time. In 1910 Goodnight was breeding Angus cows to half and quarter blood bison bulls, and selling shares in his Buffalo and Cattalo ranch at Goodnight, Texas. Charles Jesse “Buffalo” Jones experimented with Cattalo around the same time as Goodnight. Jones is often heralded as the savior of the buffalo (Jones knew the value of press coverage and public relations ) by roping over 50 buffalo calves in the Texas Panhandle to start his Kansas Buffalo ranch. Then he bought around 80 head of bison that made up SL Bedson’s Stony Mountain, Manitoba herd. The Bedson herd also had some cattalo thrown in on the deal, which set Jones mind thinking about a hardier range cow than the typical Longhorn-Durham cross common at that time. Jones bred Buffalo bulls to range cows, Herefords and Galloway’s producing a number of his own cattalo. He especially valued his ¾ bison-1/4 Galloway’s whose black hides made beautiful robes. Jones work was cut short by the financial downturn of the 1890’s. Facing bankruptcy he sold off his buffalo and cattalo to satisfy his debts, but by 1906, Jones was back in the cattalo business. At that time he convinced the federal government (He was friends with Teddy Roosevelt) to continue his cattalo experiments north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The government donated the land on the Kaibab Plateau and Jones got investors to put in the money for buffalo, and a hundred Galloway cows for crossbreeding. After several years, investors became disappointed with the slow progress in developing a fertile cross and withdrew stock and funds from his ranch. Jones then went onto to other projects including capturing wild animals in Africa. Mossom Boyd of Bobcaygeon, Ontario, a successful lumberman and businessman, turned to cattle breeding, and created his own line of polled Herefords. Intrigued over the idea of crossbreeding bison and cattle, he next developed a herd of cattalo. By 1912 he had bred over 73 bison percentage cattle. After his death, the Canadian Government purchased some of his cattalo but couldn’t duplicate Boyd’s success. Moved from Ontario to Saskatchewan in 1916, it was even thought his cattalo might be homesick, and would not breed and perpetuate. The Canadians then took matters into their own hands, moved their project to Alberta’s Buffalo National Park, (To be closer to more buffalo) and developed their own crossbreds. At first they attempted to breed buffalo bulls to domestic cows, but were plagued by abortion, stillborn calves and dead cows. Boyd, Goodnight and Jones all had experienced this trouble as well. Goodnight believed a cow mated that way had a one in four chance of delivering a live calf. The Canadians though were the first to recognize this condition as “hydroaminos”, a build-up of excessive amniotic fluid in the mother cow which caused rejection of the fetus, or death of the cow. Later they switched to using Hereford, Shorthorn and Angus bulls on Bison cows, which eliminated this problem as bison cows did not develop the hydroamino condition. The Canadian cattalo project went on for over 40 years, however there are mixed reports of their efforts. The Canadians experienced fertility problems, especially in producing fertile bulls. Eventually they did produce some fertile bulls at lower percentages, 1/16th, 1/8th, 3/16th etc. Several factors prompted the abandonment of the project in 1964. Ranchers were more interested in the new breeds of cattle just coming over from Europe. Many cattalos were described as “downright ugly”, and ranchers wanted a cow that looked like a cow. Also modern ranching methods (including the advent of the hay baler) eliminated the need for cattle that could rustle out and survive a Canadian winter on their own. The Miller Bros. of 101 Ranch Wild West Show fame, also raised Cattalo on their ranch in Oklahoma. They developed a breed of 1/8th Bison X 7/8ths Galloway’s, then later developed Bramalo, a bison cross on Brahma cattle. The Millers sold off their stock after bankruptcy in the early 1930’s. Jim Burnett of Luther, Montana is probably the most widely recognized and most successful of the modern bison hybridizers and his work is well published. Burnett like others before him recognized that there had to be a certain genetic compatibility between a bison and bovine for a live calf. Burnett started with breeding a “plains type” bison bull to aged Hereford cows without luck. Later he switched to a more “mountain type” bison bull and used young registered Hereford heifers. He discovered that younger cows tolerated the excessive amniotic fluid build-up better and by the early 1960’s had a number of half bison-half Hereford cows that he bred back to both bison, and Hereford bulls. Burnett’s success is often centered on 903, a ¾ bison-1/4 Hereford bull. This was probably the first documented fertile ¾ bison bull on record. Bud Basolo leased the bull from Burnett, and took him to California to use for his Beefalo project. Before his death in 2000, Burnett produced a tremendous amount of fertile bison blend cattle and especially enjoyed the higher percentage crosses. Burnett never called his own hybrids Beefalo or Cattalo, preferring the term Biso-beef. In 1973, DC “Bud” Basolo of Tracy, California exploded onto the cattle scene with Beefalo, a 3/8th bison-5/8th Hereford-Charolais blend. Basolo’s background was in meat sales, distribution and meat packing, and was one of the first to capitalize on the excellent quality of bison blend beef. Basolo originally thought bison the ideal beef animal, but was disappointed in their slow maturity and disposition. Then Basolo started thinking about cross breeding bison with cattle, and started working on producing the best of both worlds, Basolo’s Hybrid Beefalo. It’s reported Basolo spent millions developing the breed. Basolo owned a Buffalo ranch in Wyoming, and found a few of his buffalo bulls had freezable semen and could be collected for artificial insemination. The bulls were collected and their semen distributed to large dairies in the San Joaquin Valley of California for use on Holstein cows. From this artificial insemination work, the result was about 25 half bison-Holstein calves. Basolo was encouraged by these results, but knew the process of developing a fertile line of bison hybrids would be slow and time consuming. In order to speed up the process, he decided to search for already fertile, part bison bulls to breed on beef cows. By 1968 he had found several percentage bison bulls, including Burnett’s 903. The bulls’ were collected, and their semen was then distributed to ranchers. The resulting calves, reported to be around a hundred forty in number, were bought back and used to develop the 3/8th’s cross. Soon Basolo had 16 fertile Beefalo bulls, and created a substantial marketing and advertising program to sell their semen. Basolo’s timing for Beefalo was excellent. Beefalo was truly an American innovation, and came on the scene just as the new exotic cattle imports (Simmental, Gelbvieh, Maine-Anjou, etc) were coming into North America from Europe. Competition for new cattle genetics was fierce, and big money was changing hands fast on these new breeds. Basolo selected for bovine phenotype, staying away from bison looking stock, distancing his new breed from the old-time Cattalo. Beefalo looked like regular cattle, which appealed to conventional cattle breeders. Basolo’s promotion was excellent, and many cattlemen went with this American exotic over the European variety and Beefalo became a household word. The development of Beefalo was shrouded in mystery and controversy. Basolo said that since he couldn't copyright the name "Beefalo", he would keep how he got the fertile cross a secret. Jim Burnett however, told the story of how Bud had leased 903, and soon the story became widely circulated that Burnett’s 903 was the true father of the Beefalo. In the mid-1990’s Wyoming Beefalo and Bison Hybrid breeder Paul Butler laid that story to rest. Butler got a hold of some of 903’s semen and had it DNA parent tested against the DNA of Basolo’s foundation Beefalo bulls. None of the bulls showed that 903 was their sire. The main sire of Beefalo may have been a bull designated as B-940; a bison percentage bull shipped down from Oregon, and purchased at a local livestock yard. There’s speculation also about a ¼ bison x Beefmaster bull Basolo had at that time. Nevertheless, it appears that Basolo’s secret on how he developed Beefalo will probably forever remain just that; a secret. (Author's note: In 2009 Bud Basolo told me he developed Beefalo by breeding domestic bulls to bison cows. He then used domestic bulls on the half bison cows, and then bred the resulting quarter bison bulls to half bison cows to attain his 3/8th beefalo. He gave no other details. JN) Meanwhile, numerous others developed their own lines of Beefalo, and Basolo soon had to share the Beefalo limelight with these breeders. After Beefalo became well established, Basolo sold out his stock around 1982. The reasons cited for his exit were the controversies over how much bison blood was actually in “Basolo Hybrid Beefalo” and his legal problems over substituting Holstein beef for Beefalo at his Mr. Beefalo Stores in North Central California. Around the same time, Art Jones was developing The American Breed. Jones wanted a tough hardy cow that could survive the hot dry conditions of his Portales, New Mexico ranch. Jones set the bison level of his cattle at 1/8th, with a high portion of Brahma blood. In 1976 his cattle were accepted as a breed by the National Livestock Council. Texas A & M did some research on The American Breed and documented the bison content of these cattle. Tom Ruland of Houston, Texas called his bison blend cattle “Rulanders”. Ruland started crossbreeding bison and cattle around 1949. Ruland’s bull “Thor” was registered as a 5/8th bison and “Medicine Man” a 3/8th’s bull were popular sires for the Beefalo breed. Other notables with bison blend cattle are Joe Grose in Oklahoma who created the Hybridmaster, a blend of 1/16th Bison- 1/16th Gaur (Southeast Asian Ox) combined with Angus, Simmental, and Brown Swiss; and David Bamberger in Texas credited for developing Grassmasters, a 1/8th bison, Brahma, Simmental, Hereford blend. The list of today’s bison hybridizers could go on and on, however the ones mentioned are the most prominent. Suffice it to say, bison blend cattle have become well established, and ready to serve the new challenges of cattle breeding and beef marketing in the 21st century. |
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