Fire Sky Ankole
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Foundation genetics

Where all of it starts.

A catalogue of some of the first Ankole in South Africa. The register is updated as new information is received.

The foundational register

38 registered.
25 with a line.

Thirty-eight foundation cows were registered as KA 960001 to KA 960038, and crossed with four foundational bulls: BA1, BA2, BA3 and BA7.

Every one of them was crossed with all four bulls, which is why no sire column appears against the register — the variable is the cow, not the bull.

Having an animal in the foundation is not the same as having its genetics populate the herd. Thirteen of these numbers carry no recorded descendants on our register. Among the twenty-five that do, two — A17 and A26 — account for more recorded descendants than the bottom eighteen combined.

Hover any cell for the full list of animals recorded against that cow. A cell Fire Sky descends from opens the genetic map.

The foundational bulls

Four bulls, four letters.

These 2004 photographs are the oldest images in the Fire Sky archive. They are reproduced as they are held — low resolution, and worth more for what they record than how they look.

BA1, foundational imported bull, photographed in 2004
BA1
KBA 000001
BA2, foundational imported bull, photographed in 2004
BA2
KBA 000002
BA3, foundational imported bull, photographed in 2004
BA3
KBA 000003
Archive photograph wanted

No photograph of BA7 is held in the Fire Sky archive.

BA7
KBA 000007
The foundation generation

The animals themselves.

The four imported bulls and the foundation cows whose numbers Fire Sky's register follows.

These are the top of every tree on this site. Nothing sits above them — the animals that produced them were never brought to South Africa, and their genetics arrived as embryos and semen rather than as cattle.

The generations that follow — Texas, Aura, Merlot, Cumulus, Maximus and the rest — are on the matriarchs page and the sires page.

The register

Foundational Ankole of South Africa.

A catalogue of some of the first Ankole in South Africa. The list will constantly be updated as new information is received.

Below is every animal recorded against each foundation number. Where we hold a record, the registration links to it.

Where does your herd trace back to?