Comparing the Page Formula to the Crowther Formula
Or, the importance of establishing the bucking bull gene as deeply in your program as possible

Everyone in the business of raising buck­ing stock is trying to figure out the magical combination of things that will net them a winner. But most have found out there is no easy formula to producing a great bucker. In fact, many have bred the “best bloodline” to the “best bloodline” and ended up being very disappointed at the outcome.

If truth be known, the only way some of these royally bred bucking bulls could perform at a big time arena was if you rode them around the arena during the National Anthem carrying Old Glory.

Now I’m not saying studying bloodlines is a waste of time, just that we have to study them the right way. Many of us have been guilty of studying what is popular rather than what is important. Now this is just my opinion, but I think you have to establish the bucking gene in your cow herd. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But it can be done.

I know there have been geneticists, veterinarians, grad students and land grant universities who have looked into identifying a “bucking” gene. To my knowledge, they have all come up short. In my opinion there are two schools of thought in establishing the bucking gene.

The first we will call The Page Formula as in Dillon and H.D. Page of Ardmore, OK. They have won PBR Stock Contractor of the Year four times, but what is most impressive is that they earned over $800,000 at last year’s PBR Finals. Few would argue that they have a great breeding program and have raised more “Godzilla” type short round bulls than anyone in the history of breeding bucking bulls.

The Page formula is pretty simple, but it is a farfetched dream for 99% of the bucking bull breeders. However, the formula starts out like everyone should: Start with an established herd of bucking cows. What the Pages did was get Kephart heifers that had been established for some time. They saved a lot of years doing it that way. They started out with those cows and ever since then, they have put short round bull over short round bull over short round bull on these cows. When you can breed that many rank bulls on that many cows, you are going to have success. But not everyone has access to those short round bulls.

The other formula, in my opinion, is the one that raised last year’s PBR World Champion Bull Bones. I’ll call it The Crowther Formula. Bones came out of Tom Teague’s breeding program, but his sire was one of the very first bulls I sold at a bucking bull auction I put on in Guthrie at the Lazy E about eight years ago. That bull was Bone Collector, who at the time had produced a couple of young, upstart bulls that were doing pretty good at the time called Leroy and Leftie. Bones’ Dam is a daughter of Whitewater.

Jimmy Crowther, whose percentage of buckers bred is through the roof compared to the rest of the industry.

Bone Collector came from Jimmy Crowther, and if I remember correctly, he went for about $10,000 that day. Jimmy has used that bull and produced a lot of buckers. Leroy and Leftie came out of Crowther’s breeding and Leroy would go on to be known as Booger Man. Those two bulls racked up a Built Ford Tough Series record as impressive as nearly any bull in the history of the PBR. Other notable bulls from Crowther include Here’s Your Sign, Silent Angel, Rattler and Merlin.

Jimmy is one of the first people I went to years ago when I was putting together cows for my herd. The reason I went to him is because I’d always known that he’s had a high percentage of buckers and that he bought six heifers from Charlie Plummer before he died. Jimmy also bought two bulls from Charlie around the time of his death. Jimmy has as pure of a set of Charlie Plummer genetics as anybody in the country. It is one of the best-kept secrets in the industry. The other thing a lot of people don’t know is that he is Jerry Nelson’s partner in Frontier Rodeo.

Jimmy’s percentage of buckers is through the roof compared to anybody else in the industry. He has done two things over the years: 1. Like the Pages, he started with an established herd. 2. He eliminated the cows who had offspring that didn’t buck.

Jimmy went to Charlie Plummer, who had been raising his bulls to buck for years. And those cows and bulls Jimmy got were mean and inbred and they bucked! Jimmy is smart. I have a lot of respect for his intelligence and cow savvy. If a cow produced a bull that didn’t buck, she was put on a suspect list. If she produced another bull calf that didn’t buck, she was culled from Jimmy’s breeding program.

When you cull your cow herd as intensely as Jimmy has, you have eliminated a lot of the variables in your cow herd and you have cultivated that bucking gene. You rarely create the bucking gene by going out and getting good cows, but by culling the bad ones. When you cull that hard for 25 years, you create a gene pool that is full of the bucking gene, and that is what Jimmy Crowther has done.

There are a few people who might raise more bulls than Jimmy Crowther, but they’ve got more cows. For years, Jimmy only had 40 cows which meant he’d have approximately 20 bull calves each year. Out of those 20 bulls, he’d have 18, 19—sometimes even 20 of them turn back with kick and spin. Now, that is unheard of in this industry. Jimmy doesn’t like the limelight and never brags. But what Jimmy has done is put together the best set of cow genetics anywhere, in my opinion.

Whether or not you subscribe to The Page Formula or The Crowther Formula, remember: the key to establishing the bucking bull gene is to CULL BAD COWS! This is easier said than done. By nature, we want to give that cow that raised a dud just one more chance, or maybe breed her to a different bull. But if you really want to improve your chances of raising a bucker, be a man and put her in the CAN! Your only other option is to find some Crowther cows—but you better be part bloodhound, ‘cause those mommas are hard to find.

March/April 2009 www.bullpenmagazine.com

Photo by Allen Glanville