The Florida Bull Test: An Opportunity to Observe the Performance of Bulls Under Florida Conditions

April 2002
Dr. Bob Sand - University of Florida, Animal Science

The Florida Bull Test facility is located at the North Florida Research and Education Center, Marianna. This is a relatively new facility that has been in operation for 2 years. The Bull Test is part of the overall beef cattle program at this facility and was included because of the interest and support of cattlemen in the region and state wide. There are many reasons cattlemen should be interested in what occurs during these tests beside the fact it is a source of performance tested bulls under Florida conditions. One advantage is the opportunity to see how representatives of various breeds perform under common conditions. Another is that it is an opportunity to observe cattle from numerous breeders. If you are interested, there is also the opportunity to evaluate various bloodlines within the breeds included in the test.

In addition to observing phenotypic attributes such as structure, natural thickness and capacity, there is a chance to see how they react to people when being handled or what is generally referred to as temperament. The test is designed to provide the bulls adequate nutrition to express their genetic potential for growth without getting them overly fat and compromising their future as breeders. Ability to gain is an important trait in their progeny whether you are retaining ownership or selling them and is a relatively highly heritable trait. Composition of this gain is also important.

The bulls on test are evaluated for carcass traits (composition) by ultrasound near the end of the test. This data is sent to the breed associations for use in projecting carcass trait EPDs. Other traits evaluated at the end of the test are breeding soundness exam and a visual evaluation by a committee for structural soundness and temperament. Any bulls that are failed by the committee are not included in the sale eligible list.

At the end of the test all performance data is summarized and their average daily gain on test and weight per day of age are combined and indexed to rank their performance on the test and within breed groups. Only bulls that index above 95 are eligible for the sale. Not all of the bulls that are eligible are actually included in the sale. Some of the bulls are taken back home for use, others are included in a sale on the farm with their contemporaries that were tested at home. Since the sale is about 4 to 6 weeks after the test, the bulls are only 12 to 16 months of age and should only see limited use at that time. Another problem is that a portion of the bulls will not have reached maturity yet and can't pass a breeding soundness exam.

The bulls that are offered for sale are high gaining bulls across all breeds, physically sound, capable of breeding and all of the available EPDs and other information needed to make sound selection decisions is available. Thus, this is an excellent source of genetics for cattlemen looking for a reliable source of bulls. Observing where the good performing bulls came from can lead to possible sources for additional bulls.

In 2000, two tests were held with 117 bulls in the fall born test and 63 in the winter born test. This past year we tested 33 fall-born (August - December) and 32 winter-born (January - March). Many factors influenced the decline in numbers, some were because breeders discovered their genetics weren't competitive, others had expected to get higher prices for their bulls than they actually brought and some had management changes that didn't allow them to participate.

Due to the limited number of bulls in the test, only one sale was held on Saturday, March 2,2002. Twenty one bulls sold for an average of $ 1559.50. The bulls sold in a range of $1,000.00 to $2500/00 with high selling lot bringing $2500.00 and the next high selling lot was $2300.00.

At a recent meeting of the Bull Test Committee the decision was made to hold only one test next fall for bulls born September thru December, 2001. The calendar for the test is:

Date Event / Info
July 26, 2002 Bulls delivered to the test
August 20-21, 2002 On test weights
December 11-12, 2002 Off test weights
January 26, 2003
(and the 4th Saturday of January each year thereafter)		 Sale

Please put the sale date on your calendar for next year. Any questions can be directed to: Dr. Bob Sand at (352) 392-7529, or to Dr. William Herring at (850) 482-1243.

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