The Indiana Beef Evaluation Program expects to offer some 95 bulls from the 2019-20 winter test at auction on April 16, beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the sale will be online only. See below for more details about where to find the sale.

Brad Shelton manages the IBEP bull test station located at the Feldun-Purdue Agricultural Center. It’s located 3 miles northwest of Bedford on Indiana state roads 158 and 458. Shelton notes that visitors are welcome. An open house to inspect bulls slated to sell was canceled. However, you can still visit the bull test station and inspect the bulls. Nick Minton coordinates the IBEP on-site. Contact him before you visit the farm to see bulls. Call Minton at 812-279-4330 or email [email protected].

The IBEP bull test program dates to 1976. It moved to its current location in 1989. This is the 85th sale, since there are usually two sales per year: one in April for bulls coming off the winter test and one in October for bulls from the summer test. There are typically more bulls in the winter test.

All bulls offered for sale must pass structural and breeding soundness exams. The parentage is verified for both parents of each bull in the sale. Only the top-indexing bulls of their breed that pass the required exams are offered for sale.

More details

A total of 162 bulls were entered in the winter test, Shelton says. To qualify for the test, bulls must have been born between Nov. 1, 2018, and April 30, 2019, and eligible for registry or recording, and be polled or dehorned. Only bulls weighing at least 450 pounds and having gained at least 2.45 pounds per day of age were accepted for delivery for the test on Oct. 29.

Information will be available for each bull selling for adjusted 205-day data, complete with a performance index. Expected progeny difference data for birth weight, weaning weight and maternal milk are mandatory.

The goal of the program from the inception has been offering Indiana cattle producers bulls that are performance tested, so they can improve the quality of their herds. Some believe the IBEP testing program has done more than any other one thing to help improve the quality of beef cattle herds in the southern half of Indiana.

Nineteen farms entered bulls in the winter test. Twelve of those farms are in Indiana, three in Illinois, and one each in Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

If you want to receive a sale catalog of bulls selling, contact Donna Lofgren by April 3. Her email is [email protected]. Sale catalogs are free.

More information about the sale is available on the IBEP website. Videos have been added to help you get a better feel for the bulls that will sell, because the open house scheduled at the farm was canceled.

The auction will be broadcast live on dvauction.com. All bidding will be online. Check out the IBEP website for details about bidding.

There will not be remote locations for viewing and bidding as in the past, since the entire auction is online. However, for information, you can still contact Karen Mitchell at [email protected] or 765-494-0793; or Mark Kepler at [email protected] or 574-223-3397. These Extension ag educators have hosted sites previously and worked with the program.

The summer bull test is still slated to occur. Special health rules, outlined on the website, will apply. Bulls born from May 1 through Oct. 31, 2019, are eligible for the 2020 summer IBEP bull test. The entry fee is $250 per head. The deadline to enter is April 6. The rules and entry form are on the IBEP website.