Reprinted with permission from Watusi World, Vol 5, Issue I
November 9, 1960 marks the date that the first Watusi cattle ever to enter the United States arrived. In a cooperative effort between the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark and the Catskill Game Farm of Catskill, New York, two young bulls, one speckled red and white in color and one solid red were the first to arrive. They were born in Scandinavia of parentage direct from Africa generations before.
The votes are all in and we are officially opening/merging a new Corporation for the WWA in the State of Delaware. We have all voted on a few changes in the ByLaws and the Board of Directors has been spending long hours overhauling the Rules and Regulations. We will post it all up on this site when it is ready. Meanwhile, let’s keep getting those calves registered and keep building this wonderful breed.
Jimmie the Swede was a full blood Watusi imported to the USA from the Stockholm Zoo in Sweden by Jimmy Tarbox of Oklahoma. He was the first Watusi available in North America in frozen semen, the first to sire a Watusi embryo transfer and appears in the most pedigrees of any Watusi sire this side of Africa. Although he has been replaced by modern bulls with more horn, he left his “Swedish Pattern” color in Mexico, Canada and in between.
Continue reading The Swede Pattern – Famous ancient Watusi color pattern
Bigelow Exotic Cattle is the home of Ron Potts in Arkansas.
Visit them on the web at http://bigelowexoticcattle.com/home.
King Louis was a large red bull sired by the famous Valentino of the Busch Gardens, Tampa Florida breeding program and out of the cow Fraulien who was an imported cow from the Frankfurt Zoo in Germany. Louis shows up many times in bloodlines of the World Watusi Association records. Although he was used on a few foundation pure cows he was ultimately used extensively on percentage animals by Liar’s Lake of Sparta, Missouri producing over 200 offspring.
Liar’s Lake Kenya Jim was born at Texas Safari in 1988. He has been used extensively as a sire by Liar’s Lake having produced over one hundred calves. Jimmy was sired by Heinz, of the Catskill Game Farm breeding lines, and out of Kathy, one of the highest selling Watusi cows of the last decade. Kathy was from the Rare Animal Survival Center, Ocala, Florida.
Lolli’s Spit Fire is a wonderful example of close line breeding producing an outstanding individual and a beautiful calf of Foxfire. His horns measure 26 inches in circumference at the base, making him one of the largest horned individuals in the breed. He was used for a few years by the Lolli Brothers of Macon, Missouri prior to finding a home with Heiken’s Ark in Des Moines, Iowa.
Masterpiece was Grand Champion Foundation Pure bull at the Colorado State Fair multiple times, a well deserved honor. Masterpiece was one of the largest bulls in the breed weighing in at 2305 pounds at the age of 5 years. He was the product of the Great Adventure Park in Jackson, New Jersey in 1980. He was used extensively by the Zavislan Ranches in Pueblo West, Colorado mostly on percentage animals.
Rambo was born at the Rare Animal Survival Center in Ocala, Florida and proved the successful result of one of the original breeding programs in the United States. Rambo had it all, a body weight of 1600 pounds; horn circumference of 23 inches; 41 inch length to each individual horn and 54 inches from tip to tip (not measured along the curves). There is no question that this bull was one of the best representatives of this special breed. He was used by the famous Catskill Game Farm in their purbred program for most of his life and can be found in the background of many of the top animals of the Watusi breed. 
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| Pedigree generated by PedigreeQuery.com |
100% Pure Watusi Ankole cattle are extremely rare worldwide. When the World Watusi Association was formed the decision was made to crossbreed the cattle to increase the gene pool and to more widely expose the breed to the public. To this end an upbreeding program was created as follows:
| FP Bull | NP Bull | |||
| FP cow | ♀♂ = FP | ♀♂ = NP | ||
| NP cow | ♀♂ = NP | ♀♂ = NP | ||
| ¾ blood cow | ♀ = NP | ♂ = ⅞ | ♀ = NP | ♂ = ⅞ |
| ½ blood cow | ♀♂ = ¾ | ♀♂ = ¾ | ||
| Grade cow/other | ♀♂ = ½ | N/A | ||
