BEEFALO -
the champagne of beef!!
History of Beefalo
Beefalo is a species cross between Bison (buffalo) and domestic
or exotic cattle of any breed. The purpose of the species cross
was to blend the outstanding qualities of the Bison with
outstanding qualities of the bovine breeds of the world.
History has shown us that the North American Bison is a valuable
genetic asset, with nature serving as herdsman and veterinarian.
The Bison survival plan was simple - only the strong survived.
There were no vaccinations, C-sections, hay, or similar luxuries
on the plains of North America. Rather, the Bison truly braved the
battle on this continent alone increasing in number to somewhere
between 60-100 million
The idea of domesticating bison was the goal of many early
cattlemen who believed the hardiness, long life, foraging habits
and feed conversion abilities of the bison would be beneficial
traits in domestic cattle. It wasn't until the millions of bison
that once roamed the U.S. had been reduced to only a few hundred
did anyone seriously undertake active breeding of these two
animals. Early attempts to cross breed bison males with bovine
females proved unsuccessful. These early failures gave rise to the
common belief that such crossbreeding would not lead to fertile
offspring.
It wasn't until 1957 that Jim Burnett of Montana crossbred a
bovine bull with a bison female that success in achieving a
fertile three-quarters bison bull was reached. In 1966 the second
breakthrough came when Bud Basolo of California succeeded in a
15-year effort to solve the sterility mystery. The cross between
the Bison and the domestic and exotic beef breeds resulted in the
best of both species coming together to produce a superior animal.
And, the limited amount of research presently available shows that
the Beefalo animal is truly genetically sound and here to stay.
Interest in beefalo rose dramatically during the mid 1970's.
Sales were held in Kansas City, Nashville, Houston and other
cities throughout the United States. With this increase in
promotional activity also came divisiveness within the industry.
Three different beefalo breed registry groups were formed from the
one original registry. As a result a rapidly growing breeding
program became fragmented with each group competing against the
other. In 1983, all three combined to form the American Beefalo
World Registry ...ABWR. There are approximately 850 members today,
400 of whom actively register cattle each year. |
