News and updates about Watusi cattle, the organization, and members’ farms & ranches. If you have news you would like to publish or would like to become a contributor, please email us at info@watusi.org.
We had active participation in our Spring Fling for dinner and our fun auction. We were thrilled to actually meet our Registrar, Robin Hancock and her husband. We had several newer members there such as The Deline family from Michigan and the Edward’s family from Oklahoma. A good time was had by all and as always we enjoyed the great food from Nolands Catering. We want once again to thank the Comfort Inn in Macon from donating the meeting room it was greatly appreciated.
A part of this life unfortunately includes our losses. We wish to extend our condolences to Vernon Base in the loss of his mother, Alice in March 2015. Alice was 92 years old at the time of her passing, we should all be so blessed to have our loved ones so long.
We have continued to receive bids on the large ad in the center back of our proposed promotional T Shirts. The current high bid is $300.00. We have until the middle of June to keep accepting bids on the larger as as well as selling the spots for the smaller ads that will surround it. Plan before it is too late.
We wish to express our sorrow for the loss of Dennis Sissom, a longtime member of the WWA from Missouri. We were unaware of his battle with cancer and his passing until recently. Dennis was a popular addition to our Association and will be missed.
The World Watusi Association would like to express our condolences to the friends and family of the well known rock and roll artist Joe Cocker. Those of us in our ‘twilight years’ knew Joe from his music and Woodstock from our teens, but more recently we at the WWA knew him and his wife Pam as lifetime members of the World Watusi Association. Joe and Pam owned and operated the Mad Dog Ranch in Crawford, Nebraska. The Mad Dog bloodlines and logo appear in much of the WWA lore. Joe was 70 years old and had been battling cancer for some time. He will be missed.
WWA Spring Fling will be celebrated at Lolli Brothers April 2015 sale. Will have a fun time of ‘survival’ stories of the Winter, good food, lots of watusi talk, WWA items, a fun auction and more on Wednesday evening April 8th at 7 pm at the Macon Comfort Inn meeting room. Registrar, board members and forms will all be there so would be a great time to ask anything and get paperwork updated. This will be the evening before the watusi sale on Thursday. Save the date and plan to attend if you can. Details to come as the date draws near. Motel rooms are already filling up so make your reservations now if you think you can join us.
Make certain to submit photos and information to the sale office lollibros@lollibros.com for inclusion in the catalog. check through those closets and barns for any articles that you might like to donate to our ‘fun auction’ the proceeds of which go to the association.
Macon Comfort Inn
The results of the 2014 general membership election of board members resulted in Benton Ellis of Dallas, Texas; Jefferson Voss of Oakland, Florida and Cindi Darling of Sparta, Missouri being re-elected for three year terms. We want to thank all of our members who voted and all of the candidates who participated. We also want to encourage any members who would like to be considered for the Board to make their wishes known. There will be three positions available again in 2015.
In addition to the elected positions the Board of Directors voted to fill the vacated positions on the board for the remainder of the terms of Derrick Passey and Rodney Barnhart. We want to thank these two for their service and will miss them. Garett Judd of Edmunton, KY has been appointed to serve the one year remaining of Rodney’s term and Tom Ward of Norman, OK for the remaining two years of Derrick’s term.
Last, but certainly not least the new President for the 2014-2015 term is Pat Burnett of Wills Point, TX; Vice-President is Jeff Voss of Oakland, FL; Secretary is Pam Jackson of Water Valley, KY and Treasurer is Joy Rider of Highlandville, MO. We look forward to a productive year with these fine people at the helm. We also want to give a hearty thank you to Vernon Base and Richard Jackson for their great service.
The Lolli Bros Exotic Animal sale will be held in Macon, Missouri from Septmeber 24 through September 27, 2014. Exotic cattle which includes Watusi will sell on Thursday the 25th. http://lollibros.com/ExoticSales/ExoticCattle/tabid/59/Default.aspx
Editor’s note: Recently Darol Dickinson and Maureen Neidhardt exchanged some information on Facebook about the history of the WWA and Watusi cattle. We are reposting this here to share with others interested in Watusi Cattle.
Darol: In the early days of WWA everyone was encouraged to do the Watusi breed up program, mostly with Watusi bulls bred to Texas Longhorn cows. People raised half Watusi, then 3/4, then on up to a high percent Watusi. This created the greatest boom in the Watusi industry. In 1979 when we bought 15 Watusi from Rare Animal Survival Center in Ocala, FL, it was thought there were less than 50 original bloodline Watusi in North America. Many of these were owned by zoos. Nelson Rockefeller and I both bought cattle from RASC about the same time. He got 3 cows and a bull. The rest were in zoos.
