March 10, 2006

Auction of performance-tested bulls is April 1

by K.C. Jaehnig

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale's annual auction of performance-tested bulls will take place Saturday, April 1, at the Beef Evaluation Station, 628 Rowden Road in Carbondale. Rowden intersects with Chautauqua just west of Tower Road.

Prospective bidders may get a look at the animals beginning at 9 a.m. that day, with the sale starting at noon.

This year, the program offers 42 Angus, five Simmental, six Limousin, five Red Angus, three Charolais, one Balancer, one Gelbvieh, one Shorthorn and four Angus-Simmental crosses. Station staff members have tested all 68 animals for average daily gain, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics and reproductive soundness and have ranked each bull against others in his breed.

For online details on this year's consigners as well as records of the bulls' 28- and 84-day weights, log on to www.siu.edu/~animal/bulltest/. The site also includes catalogs and sales reports from the last two years and a downloadable map to the station.

For more information, call Karen L. Jones at 618/453-1774 or George P. Wiedlocher at 618/201-6838.

Serving others is among the goals of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint the University is following as it approaches its 150th anniversary in 2019.