Berger Best Bull BossNorth Dakotan wins Stock Contractor of the Year ... again |
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To Berger, an avid football fan, the difference between hauling bulls to the Built Ford Tough Series and being voted Stock Contractor of the Year by the Top 45 bull riders in the world was the same as debating Dan Marino versus John Elway.
“Dan Marino was a great quarterback,” Berger said, “but he never won a world championship because he never had a good enough team.
“So I feel like John Elway today,” he continued, after being named Stock Contractor of the Year for the second year in a row. “I had a good team around me and I won a couple world championships.”
Berger understands and appreciates the honor associated with achieving this accomplishment twice. Especially considering the competition.
That’s why, while on stage accepting the award during the annual Stock Contractors Banquet hosted by the ABBI, he made it a point to acknowledge his partner Clay Struve along with his entire team: wife Sarah and son John, daughters Lacey and Sadie, and Brandon Sedler and Daniel Croker.
“My dad’s like that,” said Lacey, who agrees her dad is a mild-mannered, even-tempered guy in spite of his overwhelming drive and dedication to be the best in the business. “If he sees something he wants, he’s going to get it and that’s it. It doesn’t matter what it takes, he’s going to get it and get it done.”
He has 177 individual bulls, 20 of whom are currently ranked in the Top 200 active bulls. Among his best bulls are Cooper, Copperhead Slinger, Bad Blood, and, of course, one of the most legendary bulls of all-time: Little Yellow Jacket.
“Chad’s really honest,” said Cody Lambert, PBR Stock Director. "And the thing about it is, for me, if he tells me one of ‘em is good enough to be there I don’t have to research the bull back to last year – where he was the year before – because I can just take his word for it. His word being good is really one of the biggest factors to me.”
The way Berger runs his company, which was established in 2003 (but the family business dates back to the 1960s), there are no particular positions for particular employees. Instead, the team members work together to do whatever needs to be done that moment or that day.
No matter how difficult or stressful the task at hand, everyone at Berger Bucking Bulls works as a team day-in and day-out.
“Some days we don’t get along and we don’t agree on the stuff,” said Lacey, who’s already started her own breeding program, “but we talk it over and we work it out as a team—this is what we need to do and this how we’re going to do it.”
“He’s just into it in a bigger way than most guys,” Lambert added. “He buys more bulls than anybody I know. He puts on several events himself and he does a really good job of keeping ‘em good once he buys ‘em.”
The key to success is taking good care of his livestock and - equally important - keeping them in shape. The theory is that if you take care of your bulls, they will, in turn, take care of you.
But ultimately it comes down to the success of his bull pen versus those of the other stock contractors.
“He’s got a great eye for talent and he’ll scout out some bulls that are maybe a little under the radar that I’ve never heard of,” Lambert said. “When he shows up with one that he says is good enough to be there, I know I can count on him.
“H.D. and Dillon Page have that type of an eye, but theirs are mostly off of their breeding program.”
“I’m gonna have to look over my shoulder because they’re all gonna come after me,” said Berger of the other top contractors. “So we’ll just have to do things better than we did this year.
“It was my goal (to win Stock Contractor of the Year) and I didn’t rest until we won it,” he continued, “and I want to win it again next year.”
—by Keith Ryan Cartwright
