If you need one or more new herd bulls, the place to be on April 17 is the Springville Feeder Auction, 10 miles northwest of Bedford, Ind., on State Roads 54-58. The 87th Indiana Beef Evaluation Program’s bull test sale is expected to feature 105 bulls that have just completed the winter bull test at the IBEP bull test facility at the Feldun-Purdue Ag Center near Bedford.

IBEP is responsible for the bull testing program. The test site was originally in Hamilton County, but it has now been operating at Bedford as part of Feldun-Purdue for many years.

Nick Minton, who works with the IBEP project and bull test program, says only top-indexing bulls of respective breeds that pass structural and breeding soundness exams will be offered for sale. Bulls that don’t meet the grade in performance indexes compared to other bulls in their breeds or that don’t pass structural or breeding soundness exams aren’t allowed to enter the sale.

The sale begins at 2 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast on CattleUSA.com. Note that the sale is on a Saturday afternoon; some previous sales have been held on a weekday evening. You can visit the Bull Test Station in person this week. Just call ahead at 812-279-4330.

On sale day, you can reach someone for information at 812-279-1282. More information about the sale is available at ag.purdue.edu. The IBEP program itself is headquartered in the Creighton Hall of Animal Sciences on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Ind. The office number on campus is 765-494-6439.

Bulls in the sale will include Angus, Black Hereford, Charolais, Hereford, Red Angus, SimAngus, Simmental and Simmental Cross.

Producers pay to place bulls on test. Not all producers with bulls on test are from Indiana. Nineteen farms chose to place bulls in this particular test, including some from Ohio and one Michigan producer. To be in the sale, these bulls must have been born from Nov. 1 through April 30, 2020, be eligible for registry or recording, and be polled or dehorned. The vaccination and health requirements are strict and are outlined on the website.

This test included 181 bulls. All were placed on test in group pens last fall.