by Terry Lidral
# 2 Granny Cow gave the bucking stock world her great genetics through her son Skat Kat.
Charlie Don Coffey is proud of the legacy of the Coffey breeding program that started back in the late 1960’s with some cattle brought from South Texas and went on to produce Skat Kat, recognized as one of the greatest sires in the bucking bull industry.
“My dad, Charlie Coffey, and my granddad Gene, brought some cattle up from South Texas around 1967 or 68,” says Charlie Don. “They were Mexican cross cows, and they weren’t full blood, but they had fighting blood in them. They had that size and they were hot.”
Skat Kat’s dam, Granny, was a product of those Mexican cross cows. “We didn’t buy cows. We raised our own,” explains Charlie Don. Granny’s sire was Coffey’s #11 bull. “Back in the day, we went by numbers. Granny’s sire was known only as #11. We bred him for one year and we got seven heifers out of him. There was Granny and her sister who was the mama to High Voltage and another sister who was the mama to MGM Grand,” Charlie Don tells us. “Granny was a tall, black cow. If you knew what you were looking for, you could see the Mexican blood in her.”
“She only had probably less than a quarter fighting blood, but she got that hot. And Granny had that fighting blood attitude. She could jump a fence and out in the pasture she was hard to pen,” Charlie Don says. “She had big horns which we cut off.”
Photo: Richard Field Levine
Granny lost her horns because she knocked a woman out. Charlie Don tells the story. “That cow had attitude. We took her and her sisters to rodeos for the women’s Money the Hard Way Competition.” The object of the event was to tie a ribbon around the cows’ necks and have the women run after them trying to win money by pulling it off. “One day, Granny was in the competition and she knocked a woman clean out. We didn’t take her to rodeos after that.”
That attitude, and her athleticism, is what Granny passed on to her calves. Skat Kat went on to win Bucking Bull of the NFR in 1996 and 1998. He was runner-up Bucking Bull of the Year in 1990 and went on to win the title the next year.
Skat Kat’s sire, #61 Hooter, was brought in to out cross the bloodlines. “We got Hooter from a friend. He had a monster set of horns. He was breeding roping stock and we brought him in to breed with our bucking stock,” Charlie Don says. “It was a cross that just clicked.”
It was Granny that gave Skat Kat his bucking skills. But those skills weren’t discovered until he was almost four years old. “Back in those days, team roping was big around here. We loaned our one and two year old bulls out to the team ropers. And that’s what we did with Skat Kat. We didn’t buck him until he was over three and a half, going on four.”
Skat Kat’s inherited skills were outstanding. “We had a good set of kids to ride back then,” Charlie Don says proudly. “Skat Kat was bucked 56 times that year and they only rode him twice.”
Granny went on to have three more calves. Charlie Don says that there was a full brother to Skat Kat, but he didn’t prove himself to be a bucker so he was sold. Then there was Go Kat Go. Go Kat Go is a maternal half brother to Skat Kat.
“#671 Go Kat Go was a Granny son out of Mighty Whitey.” Charlie Don goes on to say, “We borrowed Mighty Whitey from Sammy Andrews. Sammy is a good friend of ours and we shared bulls to out cross.” (Sammy Andrews, former contractor of the year, hauled Skat Kat during his competition days.)
Go Kat Go got Granny’s athleticism and went on to buck in the professional ranks. He is most noted for being the sire to #56 More Bucks, whose grand dam’s athletic genes were passed on to produce this futurity and classic winner that sold for $40,000. Go Kat Go has three other sons with pro bull stats.
“I know Granny had a heifer too,” adds Charlie Don. “But I didn’t DNA her. I know she’s in our program, but I haven’t kept track of her.” It’s a good bet that Granny’s heifer has added those genetics to the bloodline.
Granny was not a prolific producer, but two out of three of her bull calves proved to be outstanding sires. Of course Go Kat Go sired More Bucks. Skat Kat’s full brother is an unknown, but Skat Kat has sired a large number of buckers with reputations in the big leagues. They include Kamo Kat, said to be one of the greatest futurity and classic bulls ever, Skat Jacket, Mikel’s Kat, Sudden Impact, Ace of Hearts, and the list goes on.
In 2001-2003, Skat Kat was listed as ABBI’s #1 sire by Historical Earnings. Not bad for the son of a cow from Mexican cross breeds with fighting blood. As a top rated and continually sought after sire, Skat Kat has passed on those genetics to breeders throughout the industry to innumerable breeding programs, both big and small. As a grand dam, great grand dam, and so forth, Granny has influenced the bucking bull industry in a way few other cows have done. And there’s no knowing how far that influence of the cow that knocked out a woman at a rodeo and produced a rodeo legend will go.
Author: Terry Lidral
Terry Lidral is a western writer/journalist who lives in Idaho. She is the publisher and editor of the online magazine Bucking Stock Talk and the online magazine Western Living Journal. Her publishing credits include Storyteller for Real American Cowboy Magazine, writing feature articles for Humps N Horns Magazine as well as a wide variety of national and international web sites, historical magazines and news publications. She is known for her "up close and personal" profiles of celebrities and industry moguls such as NPR's Tom Bodett; PBR's Wiley Petersen and D.H. Page, PRCA's Sammy Andrews, Cindy Rosser and Julio Moreno to name a few. She has been applauded for her way of making a personal connection between her readers and her subjects. She indulges in her love of rodeo by serving as an associate board member for the Caldwell Night Rodeo. She is also an accomplished trainer and handler in dog agility. Her shelties Amelie and Milo are titled in NADAC, USDAA and AKC.
