J Bar W Ranch in Union Bridge, MD is home to Johnny, Sonny and Lisa Williams and one of the largest herds of rodeo cattle in the country. Over the last 20 years the Williams family has created a breeding program founded on generations of bred to buck genetics and proven bucking bulls.
In the late 1980’s, Sonny Williams decided he wanted to ride bulls. It was a decision that would have a greater impact on the Williams family than any of them could have ever known. “Sonny decided he wanted to ride bulls and he wanted a practice pen. Him and his buddies decided this was a good place to have one and that’s kind of how we got started,” Johnny Williams said.
Sonny added, “We just bought some stockyard bulls and we’d breed some of our cows to them. After a couple years we ended up getting bulls from Dave Martin and he would buy the bull calves back and we’d keep the heifer calves. After several years we ended up just keeping all of them.”
Dave Martin was buying a lot of top bulls at the time and because he lived close to the J Bar W it was a good partnership, Sonny said.
Johnny and Sonny also bought some Plummer heifers from Dave Martin and bred to his bulls Iron Man and Demolition Man, which were full brothers. “We started realizing the importance of good genetics,” Johnny said.
Demolition Man proved to be a good cross for the Williams cows and three of J Bar W’s first exceptional bulls were sons of him. One of these was Lawman, who was only ridden 3 times in 21 BFT outs. Lawman also attended the PBR Finals in 2002 and 2003.
Another Demolition Man son was Shock and Awe, a two-time PBR Finals bull. “They won the seventh round of the PBR Finals on Shock and Awe in 2004,” Johnny said. Zack Brown rode Shock and Awe for 90 points to win that round and it was on of a handful of times the bull was ridden.
Final Answer was another Demolition Man raised by the J Bar W. He also attended PBR events.
One of the next bulls the Williams’s bred to was a Larry Wyche bull named Vegas. Vegas sired last year’s Archdale, NC ABBI Classic Champion, American Idol.
“We’ve got another Vegas son we’re hauling right now called 371 High Test,” Johnny said. PBR bull riders have won a lot of money on High Test during his debut season on the Built Ford Tough Series. Chris Shivers was 90 points on him in Albany, NY earlier this year and several other rides have come close to the 90-point mark.
Another J Bar W sire, Cosmo, is well known for producing 2006 Classic bulls Superman, Countersink and Tobasco. In 2006, Cosmo sons earned over $32,000 at ABBI Classic events, making Cosmo the number seven sire of derby and classic bulls by money earned and the number 12 sire of aged event bulls by money earned.
Superman and Countersink did exceptionally well throughout their Classic year in 2006. Superman split first and second at the Tulsa Classic with Stray Kitty.
“Another Cosmo son who’s a year younger is Novacaine. He’s been marked 23 points a couple times,” Johnny said. Novacaine is still un-ridden on the PBR tour.
Cosmo has proven to be a very prolific sire, Sonny said. “We figured it up and the first year, when he had Superman and Countersink, I think he had 15 bull calves and I think 13 of them went to Challenger or Built Ford Tough events. I don’t think you can ask for a much better herd sire than that,” Sonny said.
Jerry Atkins, who has known the Williams family for many years, agreed that Cosmo is the real deal. “I think Cosmo is a future super sire,” Jerry said.
“The best experience I had with (J Bar W) was in 2005. I needed a bull to breed with kind of in a hurry. I called Johnny and I told him I wanted to breed to a young bull and he told me to come pick a two-year-old out to breed to. I told him I wanted a Cosmo son and he picked one out that was out of a cow that had producing good bulls. That bull sired all of my 2006 calves and it turned out to be 306 Novacaine. He’s un-ridden so far and he turned out to be a really good bull,” Jerry explained.
Jerry said he admired that Johnny was willing to let him use a bull that he knew had such great potential. “It says a lot about what kind of guy he is,” Jerry said.
Johnny said things have come a long way from the practice pen they used to operate. “Right now we sometimes have two pot loads of bulls and one gooseneck trailer go out on a weekend. We’ve been blessed in a lot of ways. One of the greatest things about the bucking stock business is meeting the wonderful people involved in rodeo. My son Sonny had met Ronnie Roach quite some time ago and I think everybody who knew him had a great admiration for Ronnie,” Johnny said.
Sonny worked out a deal with Ronnie to purchase all of Roach’s 2003 bull calves. “They’ve been a great bunch of bulls. We’ve had a little trouble with some injuries but there’s probably six of those bulls we’ve bred to,” Johnny said.
Sonny added, “Pretty much all our bulls we’ve hauled for the last five years we’ve raised. We really haven’t bought anything besides that set of calves I bought off Ronnie.”
Sonny and Johnny both said their ultimate goal is to win the Classic Finals at Las Vegas. “We’re too far away from everything to try to have the high point bull of the year. Kansas City was 19 hours for us and with the price of diesel fuel it’s tough to go to a lot of events,” Sonny said.
Jerry Atkins believes the J Bar W bulls are capable of competing with the toughest bulls in the country. “I’ve been to their place several times when they’ve bucked two-year-olds with a dummy and I’ve seen them buck 20 or 30 extremely good bulls at a time. I’ve seen them buck lots of their young stuff at amateur bull ridings. They’ll bring a pot load of young bulls and 80 to 90 percent of them will really buck,” Jerry said.
He added, “There’s no better people to do business with that I’ve come across. I think they’re the best-kept secret in the bull business nationwide, not just on the East Coast.”
Learn more:
www.jbarwranch.com/
Copyright 1996 - 2008 Rodeo Attitude, LLC., All rights reserved.