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AQHA FEATURE: CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BUFFALO RANCH AUSTRALIA
( L-R): Vince Bonello, Shane Plummer, Sally Bonello and David Plummer
BUFFALO RANCH AUSTRALIA
The claims found their way to breeders soon enough. Conception rates were said to be fifty per cent lower with frozen semen. Frozen semen supposedly produced only colts. And, inevitably, breeders were warned off doing business with Shane Plummer at all.
“ None of it was true,” he said.“ I heeded none of it and we soldiered on.”
The answer was not argument. It was semen frozen to the highest commercial standards, live foal guarantees that never expire, transactions settled the same day in Australian dollars, and support that continued long after the invoice was paid. Plummer also put his own money on the table, paying $ 10,000 bonuses to NCHA Australian Futurity finalists by SDP stallions and honouring more than $ 165,000 in payments over a 5 year period, that competitors had assured breeders would never be made.
“ I know today that the $ 165,000 did not pan out in increased market share of mares or breeding fee revenue,” Plummer said.“ But it did solidify that I do exactly what I say I will do, no matter what and always. Competition can lie, exaggerate and defame all they want. I know who I am and what we do, and we treat others as we want to be treated.”
20 Years, One Mare family and relationships that last
As confidence in frozen semen grew, so did the number of Australian breeders taking the opportunity to access proven American performance horse genetics. Many of those who entrusted the program with their mares in the earliest seasons are still breeding through SDP Buffalo Ranch today.
Perhaps no story captures that legacy better than the involvement of the Daraio family, whose mares were among the first in Australia to be bred to TR DUAL REY.
One of those mares was FRECKLES PREVIEW, producing DARA FRECKLES PREVIEWS TR and beginning what would prove to be an exceptional cross.
Over the years, FRECKLES PREVIEW, her full sister DARA COCOAS PREVIEW, and the next generation of the family through DARA MISS COCOA CHANEL( by Hydrive Cat), were bred repeatedly to TR DUAL REY.
The results speak for themselves. Progeny from this mare family crossed with TR DUAL REY have earned $ 123,387.73 approximately 28 % of his total Australian progeny earnings.
Twenty years later, the story has come full circle. The Daraio family remain loyal supporters of TR DUAL REY, with another foal due this season from DARA PREVIEWS HYDRIVE, a Hydrive Cat daughter from the same maternal family and full sister to DARA MISS COCOA CHANEL. The latter produced BLEU REY CHANEL by TR DUAL REY, an earner of $ 8,633.15.
The eagerly awaited foal from DARA PREVIEWS HYDRIVE will therefore be a full-blood sibling to BLEU REY CHANEL once again bringing together the same TR DUAL REY and FRECKLES PREVIEW maternal bloodlines that have proven so successful for the family.
From FRECKLES PREVIEW in the program ' s earliest years to another TR DUAL REY foal expected two decades later, it is a remarkable example of both the longevity of a successful breeding cross and the relationships that have underpinned Buffalo Ranch Australia. That kind of long-term belief in a stallion and breeding program means far more than numbers alone can measure.
“ We are Australian, just as Australians are,” Plummer said.“ No other American operation can come close to the roots we have grown deep into Australian soil.”
AUSTRALIAN QUARTER HORSE ASSOCIATION- www. aqha. com. au