Anyone that has participated in or followed the bucking bull industry knows one thing — there sure is a lot of black & white out there.

Rafter 7r’s amazing Rooster is a good example of Plummer breeding. Photo by Andy Watson.

It’s out there in our pastures, out there in the arena, filling our registry and definitely in the winner’s circle. Although some of us know the immediate origin of these white hides highlighted by black noses, eye-rims, hooves and horn tips, few know the ancient history behind the distinctive color pattern. Sure, the majority of our buckers with these features have Tom Harlan and Charlie Plummer to thank immediately, but believe it or not, their story goes back into antiquity nearly 2,000 years.

In reality, very few breeds have a history longer than 200- 300 years, but these cattle are definitely an exception. They can claim with confidence that their ancestors are truly an ancient breed. Their ancient origin can be traced by, what else, those unmistakable, distinct black points. Historically known as Park, White Forest, White Horned, Wild White or White Park Cattle, it has been suggested that they are descended from wild aurochs or domestic cattle introduced by the Romans. The Roman Legions occupied England in B.C.E. and stayed there for 400 years. Both Romans and the native Brits kept white cattle for sacrificial reasons. Rome withdrew from England in 407 AD and tribal wars and chaos went on until 1066 AD. While all this was going on, the white cattle escaped into the wilderness and reverted to a wild condition. For over 700 years they were regarded as “wild game”and hunted.

The original name “Park Cattle”came from the enclosure or “emparking”of vast acres in Britain following the Norman Conquest in 1066 and ensuing centuries. Various kings in the 12th and 13th centuries awarded large land grants to the church and members of their courts. These land grants or estates were thus “emparked”or enclosed by high fences or stone walls. This “emparked”acreage contained many of these wild white cattle and they continued to roam freely on these vast estates. Although many of the details are continually disputed, we do know from the physical descriptions of these cattle in ancient literature that all White Park Cattle, whether horned or polled, can be dated back to the Bronze Age and beyond.

Until the 1800s, the cattle lived and propagated inside these emparkments. It is interesting that when domestication and selective breeding began, the cattle were the result of 1,500 years of “natural selection.”Traits of hardiness, fertility, milkability, longevity, calving ease, low birth weights, disease resistance and an overall ability to survive made them stronger with each consecutive generation. With little to no intervention from people domestically, the genetic base stayed pure as well.

In 1919, the first British White Park Association was formed and in 1940 one bull and five cows were sent to Toronto, Canada by order of Winston Churchill because of WWII. There was good reason to fear that these cattle with such an ancient historical value might be devastated by a Nazi invasion of England and thus a National Treasure would be lost. Eventually, the offspring were sent to the Bronx Zoo in New York and then split into two groups after the city decided they could no longer care for them. One group was sent to Washington to play a role in the American White Park formation. The other group went to the King Ranch in Texas and formed the nucleus herd of the Horned White Park in the United States. By 1960, all Park cattle that were the property of the U.S. Government had been sold to the public.

The cattle sent to the King Ranch stayed there from 1940 until 1980, when the entire herd was sold to the Moeckly family of Polk City, Iowa. The ancient-based horned herd was culled for type and was maintained separately from other breeds, including the Moeckly’s similarly marked, but polled commercial herd of British White.

Now, how Tom Harlan and Charlie Plummer ended up with these ancient genetics in their herds is still not clear, but there is no mistaking the black points Plummer genetics pass on. Since bucking bull breeders are dependant on DNA science these days, it is also interesting to note that there has not been a DNA test developed that can track the distinct color patterns found in White Parks Cattle. This is due to the fact that the tyrosinase gene which is thought to be responsible for the black point patterns is a mutation that does not occur in the coding portion of the gene.

Making for further interest is the fact that many of the original Plummer cattle were not black and white. An example of this would be CP1 Kung Fu who was black and the dam of Superstitious, Panhandle Slim, Automatic, Hobo and Rooster, and CP6 who was brown and the mother of 329 Houdini. However, offspring such as Houdini and the majority of Plummer-bred cattle do maintain and/or pass on the dominant traits of white hides and black points. In the case of Houdini, his dam was mated to White Sports Coat who was sired by CP47 Charlie, both typical in color-type for the White Parks line.

When thinking of today’s White Park Cattle, one must muse over the idea that there seem to be two varieties here in the U.S. There are those that are polled and used as a dual purpose breed for meat and milk production and those that are horned with a King Ranch connection which have been cross-bred to create some of the best buckers in the industry.

Today’s White Park Cattle are able to do well on poor quality feed and pastures. It is one of the few breeds that will “finish”out well on only grass while producing large, marbled cuts of beef, highlighting their truly “wild game” type ancestry.

One reason cross-breeding Plummer genetics works so well might be the fact that the ancient White Parks breed was so pure for such a great length of time, in some estimates over 2,500 years. This fact might then explain an increase in the heterosis effects achieved when they were cross-bred. Still trying to make the correlation between the ancient cattle of England and what we see excelling in the arena today? It is pretty easy to get a good chuckle from extracts of dated literature regarding the White Park Cattle. Similar behaviors and color patterns in yesterday’s White Park Cattle can also be found in today’s Plummer Genetics.

“These cattle’s ancestors were known to have been driven into the park when it was enclosed. These animals resisted being handled by men, and arranged themselves in a semi-circle on the approach of an intruder. The cattle were perfectly white, excepting their extremities, their ears, muzzles, and hooves being black, and their long spreading horns were also tipped with black.”—excerpt from John O’Groats to Land’s End, Seventh Week’s Journey.

“...and when the wild, white bull saw a man coming toward him he drove his horns into the ground, and put an acre of land over his own back.”— Myths and Folklore of Ireland by Fin MacCumbail and Gilla na Grakin.

The horned White Parks Cattle of today have also been described as having a wild nature and a lengthy flight zone. This sounds pretty familiar with the characteristics that are so feverishly sought after and seen in today’s buckers.

When looking back over the limited length of time we have been breeding buckers compared to the centuries behind those black noses and ears, it is easy to become humble. Nonetheless, there is no denying the impact these genetics may have had on the success in our industry. We have come a long way from the original CP bulls and cows, but one thing that seems to remain from ancient times is all those black noses and ears in our pastures and back pens.

Charlie Plummer