TUPELO, Okla. – Denny McCoy is an Oklahoma rancher who raises fantastic bucking bulls and champion cowboys, so there’s a good chance nobody had more of a vested interest in the happenings in Las Vegas during the 2009 Professional Bull Riders World Finals.
Cord McCoy is one of the PBR’s most recognized bull riders, the youngest of five children born to Denny and Janet McCoy. This past fall marked the fourth straight year he played on the biggest stage in the bull-riding business. But he wasn’t alone in Las Vegas.
As part of the family business, McCoy Ranches had four bulls that were part of the various American Bucking Bull Inc. competitions that were held in conjunction with the finals.
“Those competitions have been a big part of what we do for a few years now, and it’s always a big deal to have bulls compete at the finals,” Denny McCoy said.
McCoy Ranches is established and has been about the business of raising quality bucking bulls. Now plenty of interested people will have the opportunity to get involved through the McCoy Ranches Bucking Stock Sale, set for Jan. 23 at the Red River Livestock Auction in Overbrook, Okla.
“There’s no question that we have the largest bucking stock sale,” Denny said. “We sell 200 or more in ours every year.”
And it’s not just bulls raised on the McCoy’s land in southeastern Oklahoma. Denny McCoy said there will be others involved, likely including Chad Burger Bucking Bulls, a premier contractor in the business. In fact, bulls sold at the last McCoy Ranches Bucking Stock Sale were to be part of four major championships this season: the PBR World Finals, the National Finals Rodeo and the Indian National Finals Rodeo – all three of which have taken place in Vegas – and the International Finals Rodeo, set for January in Oklahoma City.
“This is a big sale for us, but it’s also a big sale for a lot of people,” Cord McCoy said. “The thing about it is that it gives people who might not raise bulls a chance to buy into a percentage of one, which is a good situation, I think.”
Partnerships have been all the rage in the bucking-bull business and it’s something the McCoys offer in their livestock.
“The first partnership I ever had was in 20045, and I had two young ladies call me to tell me they wanted interest in a bull,” Denny McCoy said. “We sell a lot of them.”
Lifelong passion
Even before Cord McCoy was born 29 years ago, he was a rancher. Happens when your dad raises livestock and his dad raised livestock.
“Truthfully, I can’t see me doing anything else,” Cord McCoy said.
The McCoys have photographs of Cord and his brother, Jet, wearing diapers on horseback. They were the youngest in the clan at the time, but working with livestock was the family business. They had to pull their own weight.
They still do.
When he’s not trying to ride the rankest bucking bulls in the sport, Cord McCoy is on the ranch near Tupelo, Okla., the same place on which he was raised, the same place on which the livestock is raised.
“I’ve been raising animals my whole life,” said Denny McCoy, who transplanted to Oklahoma from southwest Iowa. “I also deal with registered horses. Actually, my dad raised horses, and mine was kind of the same deal.
“When I was a kid, he gave me a blue mare one time, and I’ve always been a Hancock fan. He gave me a daughter of Buck Hancock, and I’ve had Hancock horses ever since.”
It’s the preferred type of horse he raises to this day.
“I’ve got a stud and mares that go back to when I got married, and that’s been 42 years,” Denny McCoy said. “I’ve never been without brood mares my whole life. Cord is kind of the same way. He’s got a lot of horses, too. He’s still got a mare he bought when he was young.”
But the same type of philosophy can be said about the type of bulls Denny McCoy raises. He started nearly 30 years ago with bulls from Charlie Plummer, and that’s predominantly what’s on the place now.
“We had a few bulls even then that we’d take to junior rodeos, and we had an arena at the place,” Denny McCoy said. “The early ’80s is when we got started raising bucking stock, and we’ve been raising them ever since.”
In fact, the McCoys might have two or three cows on the entire ranch that they traded for instead of raising, but they breed to very few outside bulls.
“They’re about as pure a Plummer as you can find,” he said.
Plummer’s been a big name in the bull business. Many stock contractors built their herds on Plummer bulls, from the Longs to the Halls to the Pages. Now most are out-crossing the bulls. Still, Plummer is where most started.
“I’m old fashioned,” Denny McCoy said. “There’s no use changing what worked. Over the years, it’s worked pretty well for us. We’ve got bulls that go to the PBR Finals and the PRCA National Finals Rodeo every year that we’ve sold.”
Carrying on a tradition
Most bull-riding fans have heard of Coyote Ugly and Bell’s Blue. Some know of Dixie Chicken or Poncho. Those more astute about the business know of Smokin Joe and Oklahoma Twister.
“The cool part for me is that I get to see some of the bulls we raised at these Built Ford Tough events,” Cord McCoy said.
In fact, that’s a major aspect of the business that the McCoys lean on when it comes to deciphering what to do next with their herd.
“One of the biggest assets we have is that Cord is out there, and he doesn’t realize this, but he starts seeing how everything is changes,” Denny McCoy said. “You take the PBR Finals tapes from five to six years ago and compare the bulls to now. They’re not the same. It evolves.
“The great thing about Cord is he sees how it is evolving. When we buck calves, he’s the first one saying what we need to do to be changing, and here’s what we need to do to stay current. Cord is able to see the trends and know what it’s going to take. That’s been a big asset for our program the last few years.”
The key is knowing what works, then knowing what it takes to make things work. That’s where the teamwork comes in, Denny McCoy said.
“We’ll do some different things, like if we have one that has a lot of kick but not much turn-back, then we’ll breed back to one that turned back,” he said. “Whatever it is we think they lack, we try to go within our herd that we know over the years has done what we need it to. One of the big things we’ve been working on the last three or four years has been size. We’re trying to keep the electricity and everything, just make them bigger.”
With the ongoing developments in the bull business, there is something the McCoys look for in each male calf.
“You can see it,” Cord McCoy said.
Said Denny McCoy, “It’s in the temperament, the way they walk, the way they are when you’re around them. I’ve been watching all these calves from the time they’re born to the time they buck them or do what we’re doing to do. There’s just something you see in each of those calves that buck.”
He saw it half a decade ago with Bell’s Blue. He knew early on in that animal’s life that there was something special, and he took advantage of it.
“Bell’s Blue, in my lifetime, is the closest thing to being exactly what I wanted to raise,” Denny McCoy said. “He had the kick, he had the size and he wanted to turn back. He had everything we wanted. Now his calves are doing the same thing.”
Sharing the wealth
Part of the Jan. 23 sale in Overbrook will be for percentages of calves. Co-owners will get the benefits without having to slug around hay and tend to all the chores that come along with it.
“I sell a lot of calves every year that I’d like to compete with,” Denny McCoy said. “With this partnership, we’ll sell the half-interest in a calf, then we’ll keep them. After they’re a 4-year-old bull, we sell them.”
I’ve got a woman in Arizona that owns several half-interests, and I’ve never met her, but she keeps coming back. If I sell somebody for half-interest in a calf that gets crippled or something happens, then I just get them another calf. I want them to be happy and come back. Our deal is that we like repeat customers. We want to sell them to people and have them come back and be happy.”
