D.C. Basolo, Beefalo creator, dies at 89

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TRACY, Calif., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- D.C. "Bud" Basolo, the creator of Beefalo, and a "character with a capital C," died at the age of 89 at his ranch in Tracy, Calif., his daughter said.

Basolo, who died on Dec. 7, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1975 for selling a domesticated animal – one of his purebred beefalo bull – to a Canadian breeder for $2.5 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"His adoration for friends, hospitality, the outdoors and so much more made him so fun. He was a real bon vivant," said Judi Basolo, his daughter.

The tender beefalo hybrid, which is less fatty than beef steak and continues to be sold in meat markets -- is three-eighths buffalo and five-eighths domestic cattle and created via artificial insemination.

His daughter said, "First, he bought a 100-square-mile ranch in Wyoming that had hundreds of wild buffalo on it, and then he decided he had to go out and find different bloodlines to increase and strengthen the herd," adding that he then continued to make improvements until he ultimately arrived at breeding the beefalo.

Basolo's main market was shipping breeding sperm from his beefalo bulls, his daughter said.

He kept up his Wyoming herd of buffalo, which had 5,000 head and was in the 1970s the largest privately owned herd of its type, she said.

Basolo served in the merchant marine during World War II, and then became a meat broker in San Francisco, after which he embarked on his beefalo business, the newspaper said.

Basolo is survived by his wife Georgia, his daughter; one son, Steve, all of Tracy, and one grandchild,Natalie Basolo of Laramie, Wyo.