MIKEL MORENO – HIS LEGACY IS THE GREAT BUSHWACKER

by Terry Lidral

Mikel Jay Moreno was only 18 years old when he succumbed to leukemia in 2006.  But the legacy of bucking bull genetics he built in his short lifetime will forever have a major impact on the bucking bull industry.

Mikel Moreno had a passion for bucking bulls and he had a vision of creating the greatest bucking bull in the history of the industry.  That is a mighty big vision for anyone.  But for a young man barely a teenager, it is one heck of a big dream.  But Mikel’s skill and knowledge in developing bucking bull genetics matched his passion and the vision became a reality in Bushwacker, recognized as one of the greatest bulls to ever buck.

Born into the Rosser and Moreno legacy, Mikel’s love of big, athletic feisty bovines came naturally.  The son of Cindy Rosser and Julio Moreno, Mikel Jay was the grandson of ProRodeo Hall of Famer Cotton Rosser. 

From the time he could ride a bicycle, Mikel had a keen interest in working with bucking bulls.  He spent a great deal of time at his grandfather’s place learning the family business.

“He was about 4 years old,” remembered Julio Moreno.  “Kenny Watson, a bullfighter, had given Mikel a little bike. Mikel was always riding that little bike over to his grandfather’s to be with the bulls.”

Mikel’s interest in bucking bulls grew stronger the older he got.  As soon as he was able, he started working with the bucking stock.  And he rode calves, becoming the Costa Mesa calf riding champ.

“He was about 9 or 10 years old when he started helping me out with the bulls,” said Moreno.   “He always wanted to be back on the chutes.”

Mikel was a kid that embraced life.  He was an honor student and an all-around athlete in both middle school and high school.  He lettered in football, basketball and track, and received a letter for his 3.5 grade point average.  He was a friend to many and was elected prom king of his high school his senior year.  But it was bulls and rodeo that he loved best.

“A true passion of Mikel’s was assisting his dad training the young bulls at the ranch after school,” said Cindy Rosser about her son’s dedication to the bull industry.  “If he wasn’t playing sports, he was working with the bucking bulls.”

Mikel loved training bulls.  But even from a young age, Mikel was intrigued with how genetics played a part in the development of bloodlines and great bucking stock.  He spent a lot of time researching the bulls that were winning and researching the backgrounds of their breeding.

Mikel wasn’t just studying bulls.  He was determined to learn how to breed the great bulls of the future.  And it all began in earnest when Rosser and Moreno took their son to a futurity and bucking stock auction in Stephenville, Texas.

 “We had a futurity bull, J32 Monsoon, that was spectacular with the dummy,” Moreno told us about their competition entry.  “Mikel and I took him to Texas to compete.  It was the first futurity competition that I know of.”

The futurity was being put on by Bob Tallman who was also holding a bucking stock sale on the same weekend.

“There was a Diamond Cat heifer in Bob’s sale,” Rosser told us of the cow Mikel decided he wanted to buy.  “She had Jackie Ratjen bloodlines and Ratjen had a bull that was placing in the futurity.  I think that’s why that heifer caught Mikel’s attention.  He wanted us to add the Ratjen genetics to our program.”

 “We bucked our J32 and he was the highest marked bull,” Moreno told us of the eventful weekend.  “Mikel was so excited.  He told me, ‘Dad, if I win extra money, I can get that Ratjen heifer.’”

But Bob Tallman, who was running the futurity, announced that the bulls were going to be mouthed to check for age.

“I went over to the vet who was doing the mouthing, with Mikel on my pocket, and was told that Monsoon was 30 days over the age limit,” Moreno told us with a hint of leftover disbelief in his voice.

“That was ridiculous,” added Rosser of Monsoon’s disqualification.  “No one can tell by mouthing if a bull is 30 days over the age limit.”

 “Mikel was so upset he got tears in his eyes,” Moreno went on to say.  “And there were those there who were ready to take on the vet for Mikel.  We didn’t win the $20,000, but on the way back, Mikel told me that he had made up his mind that he really wanted to raise bulls.”

Mikel didn’t win the futurity prize, but he did get that Ratjen heifer.

 “That kid studied and he knew the background of every cow we owned,” continued Moreno proudly of the son whose innovative spirit changed the family breeding program forever.  “I was pretty set in my ways and I thought I was doing it right.  I didn’t want to use any outside stuff.  I liked our bloodlines the way they were.  But Mikel wanted change.”

“Mikel was always looking up stuff,” Rosser told us about her son’s dedication to learning about genetics.  “He loved learning about the breeding behind the bucking bulls and he was constantly doing research.  He kept track of what bulls were winning and what bulls weren’t.  He was always thinking about the next best thing.”

No one had any idea that “the next best thing” would come from a skinny 3-year old bull Cotton Rosser bought as part of a group sale from Alex Nacarrato.  But Mikel picked him for a winner and named the white-faced bull with the big horns Reindeer Dippin’.

“Mikel had an eye for bulls.  Reindeer was a little old wobbly 3-year old that had been running out in the woods.  He was wild and scrawny,” related Rosser.  “Mikel groomed Reindeer and got him into shape.”

“Cotton had bought a group of bulls from Naccarato and they were wild,” reiterated Moreno.  “Reindeer was in that group and Mikel took to that bull.  He was set on helping his grandfather shape him up.  Every day Mikel would come home from school and jump on his bike and head over to Cotton’s place to work with Reindeer.  He didn’t even bother to stop to change out of his tennis shoes.”

With Mikel’s care, Reindeer grew into a strong bull, but it didn’t seem like he was going to be a bucker.

“When we started flanking Reindeer, that bull didn’t want to buck.  But one day, when Mikel was flanking him, the dummy hook came open and stuck Reindeer in the butt.  That’s when we found out that bull could really buck!” Moreno related with a laugh.

Growing up in the Rosser Rodeo family, Mikel was totally involved in the rodeo from all angles.  Not only did he study the genetics of the bucking stock, he got to know them hands on.

“At the rodeo, you could find Mikel behind the chutes flanking his bulls, sorting stock and then doing feeding after the events,” said Rosser of her son’s commitment to the business.  “Even when he was going through cancer, you’d find him out there flanking bulls when he was able.”

Besides training the bulls with his dad and grandfather, mixing music for the rodeo performances and playing sports in school, Mikel was making plans for his parents’ breeding programs.  Whitewater genetics were predominant in the existing breeding program and Mikel was determined to outcross. And he knew from whom and where he could get what he wanted.

 “Mikel brought innovation to our program.  He had a good eye.  He watched and looked at breeding,” explained Rosser.  “We had Whitewater, a son of Oscar’s Velvet that has produced world champion sons.  We were happy with what we were doing.  But Mikel was determined to outcross.  Mikel loved Sammy Andrew’s Skat Kat and he was set on getting Skat Kat into our program.  Thanks to Barney Brahmer he was able to do just that.  And that was the deal that led to the creation of Mikel’s Kat.”

All the while that Mikel was building his genetics program, he was also playing football on his high school team.  Totally invested in everything he did, Mikel made his football part of his bucking bull program.

“There were 3 Mikes on the high school football team.  There was Mike, Mikey and my Mikel was Big Mike.  When you look at his picture in his football uniform, you can see how he got that name,” Rosser laughed.  “Mikel had a Whitewater son who was a big bull and he named him Big Mike after himself.”

And like Mikel, Big Mike was a fine athlete.  The bull was chosen for the NFR and the PBR Finals multiple times.

Mikel was a courageous kid and he was strong.  Whether it was flanking the fractious Reindeer at an event, driving a big rig full of bucking bulls or facing the top opponents on the football field, Mikel did it all with passion.  When he was diagnosed with leukemia, he became even more determined to put together the best genetics in the bucking stock industry. 

Over the course of his research, Mikel had become very interested in Jackie Ratjen’s program.  He liked the way the bloodlines held through the generations.  So, he called up Ratjen and they began to talk bucking stock. 

“Jackie Ratjen was good to Mikel,” Moreno said of the relationship Mikel developed with the highly respected breeder.  “They talked about his bloodlines and Mikel decided he wanted to put Ratjen in our program.”

Mikel was also talking to David Fournier who had some Ratjen genetics in his herd.  Fournier had a heifer that was a Diamonds Ghost daughter.  And Mikel decided his father should make a deal.

But Moreno wasn’t on the same page, at least at first.  It took Mikel’s stubborn determination to make the deal that would produce the future bucking bull who has been affectionately called “the Michael Jordan of bulls.”  If not for Mikel’s passionate stubbornness, there never would have been a Bushwacker.

“I wanted to do things my own way.  I thought it was the right way. But Mikel wasn’t going to let me do that,” Moreno told us.  “He said, ‘Dad, you’re going to trade this bull for this heifer.’  When I said, ‘No, I’m not,’ he told me I was going to do it.  That was how it was.  Mikel told his mom and dad what to do.”

“The cow from Fournier, #13, was like an old hippy.  She was so laid back,” said Rosser of the cow that produced the iconic Bushwacker.  “Reindeer was fractious and intense.  #13 was a good match to counter that.”

Unfortunately, Mikel never got to see Bushwacker buck.  But he was able to experience the greatness of Reindeer and the anticipation of good things to come from Troubadour.

Mikel’s favorite bull was most likely Reindeer Dippin’.  But Mikel was also fond of the Whitewater son Troubadour.  When Troubadour was a calf, Mikel picked him to be a great one.

“I always keep a list of names,” Rosser told us.  “Mikel went through the list and found the name Troubadour I’d put on there.  A troubadour is a singer and Mikel really liked Jewel.  So, he named the bull Troubadour in honor of Jewel.”

“Mikel loved Troubadour.  He knew he was going to be a great one,” said Moreno.  “It was the year after Mikel died that Troubadour won the ABBI World Classic Championship.”

Throughout his life, Mikel was loved and respected in the bucking bull community.  He was selected as the Rodeo Stock Registry Breeder of the Year in 2003 and had a wealth of friends he worked with in the rodeo industry.  The bucking bull community supported Mikel throughout his battle with leukemia and strived to help him carry on with the breeding program he loved so much.

“Mikel wanted a Gunslinger calf,” related Rosser.  “He was in the hospital so Joe Baumgartner and Tandy Freeman went out and found a Gunslinger son out of a Bodacious cow.  Shorty Gorham brought that calf from Texas to California for Mikel.”

“Jerry Nelson made the deal happen,” said Moreno of the purchase of the Gunslinger son for Mikel.  “Mikel always liked Jerry and that calf made Mikel so happy.”

“We bucked the calf Mikel named Holy Slinger with a dummy and he didn’t buck at first,” added Rosser.  “But he was a rider bull and they won the long rounds on him.  I put him out on cows and he produced.  We got a son out of him that goes back to Mikel’s beloved Skat Kat.   We named that bull MJ Holy Kat and he turned out to be a good one.  He was an eliminator with Bodacious’ and Gunslinger’s size and Skat Kat’s horns.  The riders hated getting on him.  I’m going to breed to MJ Holly Kat this year.  He’ll have his own set of cows.”

Both Moreno and Rosser are committed to moving forward with the breeding programs their son pushed them to establish.  Mikel’s vision has created a legacy that is living on at the Moreno and the Rosser Ranches. 

“I am going to push the envelope the next few years and bring in more superstar genetics and keep Mikel’s dreams of raising great bucking bulls alive,” said Rosser.  “With the use of embryo transfers and IVF procedures, we can keep these great genetics frozen for the future.  I have Reindeer, Troubadour, Typhoon, Whitewater and Werewolf genetics.  I’ve got a lot of embryos with these genetics that I’m going to put into recip cows and I am going to use these genetics to AI some cows too.”

And as for Moreno, Mikel’s study and research is the driving force behind his breeding program.

 “I always ask myself, ‘What would Mikel do?’  I’ve got all those combinations of genetics Mikel put together to get heifers with super genetics,” Moreno told us.  “And it’s all because of Mikel.  He did all of this!”