I've been known to shoot the bull on the porch.
Posted on 03/17/2005 8:20:37 PM PST by ambrose
Breeder accused of selling impure semen from bogus Beefmaster bull
By WES FERGUSON
Thursday, March 17, 2005
A Laneville woman says the president of Beefmaster Breeders United is selling semen from an impure Beefmaster bull, tainting the bloodline that she and others have spent a fortune trying to perfect.
Charlotte Bryan and her attorney say genetic testing has proven something that was long suspected – Soul Man, the Beefmaster sire, is half black Angus. Bryan, a Rusk County rancher with more than 200 head of cattle, and fellow plaintiff Bryan Hugh Chapman of Rockport have filed a federal lawsuit seeking a court order to stop Clark Jones of Savannah, Tenn., from selling Soul Man's semen.
"My clients have been Beefmaster breeders for years and have spent a lot of money, along with other people, perfecting that breed, and this suit's about the integrity of the breed," said Ron Adkison, who is also Bryan's son-in-law. "For somebody out there that's selling semen and producing progeny from a bull that's not a real Beefmaster, all these people that have spent all these millions of dollars protecting this breed are going to be damaged."
Chapman and Bryan, who is a former president of the Beefmaster association, filed their lawsuit in Tyler federal court last week.
Adkison said the Beefmaster group's board of directors met Tuesday at their San Antonio headquarters, where they suspended Soul Man's certification pending further investigation of his bloodline.
"Genetic testing has already been done as far as we're concerned," he said.
Beefmaster semen is sold in "straw" units, half a cubic centimeter. Each straw can fetch as much as $150, Adkison said.
Jones, a car dealer, former secretary for Tennessee's Democratic Party and a fund-raiser for Al Gore, did not return phone calls Wednesday afternoon. Wendell Schronk, Beefmaster's executive vice president, also did not return calls.
Adkison said Jones should have known Soul Man wasn't legit.
"There have been complaints made for some period of time that this animal didn't have the characteristics of a Beefmaster bull, and certainly he was aware of that," he said.
In August 2003, Adkison sold Soul Man for $66,000 to a Corpus Christi man named Lee Adair. Though Jones no longer owns Soul Man, he continues to sell the bull's offspring and his semen.
Beefmaster cattle are bred for their fertility, milking ability, weight, conformation, hardiness and easy-going disposition.
In the early 1930s, a South Texas rancher developed the breed by crossing Hereford, Shorthorn and Brahman cattle, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognized Beefmasters as a separate breed in 1954.
Local beef cattle experts, such as those at the Texas A&M agricultural extension in Overton, were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
ping.
just damn.
it would be too funny if he'd sold some to bill burkett--
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1217752/posts
POE. Purity of Essence.
I've been known to shoot the bull on the porch.
Obligatory Dr. Strangelove link....
Perfect. That's soooooooo 1984..
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