Summer 2003

Putting theory to the test
By Kay Hagen

Byron Fagg measures hip height of a bull during a weigh day at the bull test station located at Feldun-Purdue Agricultural Center. The measurements are input along with other data into a computer. Fagg retired as an Extension educator in Washington County in May. (Photo by Tom Campbell)

In the weak light of the predawn hours of a cold January day, a group of almost 20 people has started to gather at Feldun-Purdue Agricultural Center in Bedford, Ind. The predicted high is 20 degrees, but it will take hours before the temperature gets there. That hasn’t stopped Feldun superintendent Richard Huntrods and his crew from braving the elements and preparing 221 bulls for weighing.

The crew is a mixture of Extension educators, agricultural center personnel, cattle owners and volunteers who are thankful for the warmth of several electric heaters and some freshly brewed coffee. Cold aside, the group has gathered for an important reason. It’s a “weigh day” for the Indiana Beef Evaluation Program (IBEP), and they won’t leave until each of the bulls at the test station has been weighed and examined.

During the course of the day, each bull will be herded through a system of chutes and onto the scale. The chutes give Huntrods and local veterinarian Dr. Jerry Rusch the chance to observe the bulls in close proximity and record any problems. The weight tells producers and testers how the bulls compare to each other.

The bull test station is one of many successful programs at Purdue Agricultural Centers. It is a performance test for young bulls that will someday sire beef cattle herds around Indiana and surrounding states.

“The agricultural centers are where ideas and theories devised at Purdue get put to the test,” says Jerry Fankhauser, director of Purdue’s eight agricultural centers located throughout the state. “They play an important part in Purdue’s effort to reach out to Indiana citizens because, even though they are research centers, they’re also farms where men and women produce crops and raise livestock—just like the rest of Indiana agriculture. We communicate what we learn from our field tests and trials to farmers through field days and other training events with our partners in Purdue Extension.”

“One of our goals at Feldun is to be a step ahead of current trends, evaluate new technology and then pass it on to our producers,” says Huntrods.

Dave Smith, a cattleman from Greensburg, Ind., says that’s exactly what Feldun and IBEP are doing. “IBEP is on the cutting edge. It is very educational to someone who is new and wants to learn. The veterinarians keep the test in the forefront of health programs, and Kern Hendrix, along with Richard Huntrods, stay on top of the nutritional needs of the bulls. They’re always willing to share feed strategies with anyone.”

Each bull is scanned by ultrasound to determine ribeye size, fat thickness and marbling; this information is used to evaluate carcass merit. At the end of the test, bulls that are in the top two-thirds of their breed are auctioned off.

“A producer who purchases a bull from our auction knows it’s been thoroughly tested,” says Kern Hendrix, Purdue Extension beef specialist and director of the bull test station. “It’s passed growth, breeding soundness, structural soundness and carcass merit tests.”

All this attention to detail assures producers who send their bulls to the test station and those who purchase bulls from the auction that they’re getting the most for their money.

“ We sell more than 50 bulls each year privately at the farm and the recognition that we’ve received from IBEP definitely has helped promote and sell our bulls,” says Smith.

Breeders from 14 states and Canada have entered bulls for testing, and producers from 21 states have purchased bulls from the auctions. “This test station has a very good reputation,” Huntrods says. “We get bulls from all over, even from states that have their own bull test stations.”

The test station was started in the 1970s by a group of progressive cattlemen who wanted a place where their bulls could be evaluated on an even basis with other bulls, when all received the same inputs and care. In its early days, the test station was located at the Pioneer Beef Cattle facility in Tipton, Ind. It later moved to Purdue’s Lynnwood Farm in Carmel. When that farm was sold in 1988, the station moved to Feldun.

Today, the station is much the same as the one cattlemen envisioned 30 years ago, although technology has made keeping track of the results a lot easier, says Fankhauser, especially considering that nearly 7,000 bulls have passed through the station since it first opened. In addition to a visual ear tag, each bull has an electronic identification (EID) tag. As the bull enters the chute or scales, the EID is scanned and a computer calls up past data and automatically enters new data.

 
 
© 2003 Purdue University College of Agriculture