HELPING THE HERD
♦ Calhoun’s Georgia Bull Test marks 55th year
For well over five decades, an event that is critical to Georgia’s agricultural industry has been occurring annually right here in Gordon County.
One of two similar programs in the state, the Georgia Bull Test in Calhoun has been held annually for over 55 years.
Like its sister program in Tifton, the Calhoun program works to serve southeastern cattle farmers in keeping the quality of their herds at a high level of overall health and production.
“Commercial cow/calf producers need fresh genetics for their herds in the form of a bull,” Extension Animal Scientist Jason Duggin said. “It’s a purebred seedstock sale primarily offering bulls to commercial cattlemen across the region.”
Participating in the program are the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Animal and Dairy Science Department, the Northwest Georgia Research and Education Center, and the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association.
PROGRAM HISTORY
While the Tifton program is slightly older, now in its 66th year, the Calhoun version isn’t far behind making the Georgia tests two of the oldest in the nation.
“Bull tests have been around
for a long time,” Duggin said. “Tifton is probably one of the oldest in the country, with maybe one or two others that have been around longer.”
An 84-day evaluation process that includes genetic testing, ultrasound measurements, and other measurements to determine how
well they grow.
“Producers — small or even moderately large — can enroll their bulls and see how they perform on the 84-day test relative to average daily gain,” Duggin said. “They can compare how their genetics rank against their peers in the industry.”
With the data collected in hand and the bulls ranked, they then can be sold with that information available to potential purchasers.
“They get that data back and then they have the opportunity to market their bulls based on how they rank in the test,” Duggins said. “They’re sold by their overall rank, so the highest ranking bull had the highest combination of average daily gain and weight per day of age.”
Locally, that testing process culminates in a sale date near the end of the year, with the 2023 event having been held this past Dec. 1 at the Gordon County Livestock Pavilion, 1282 Highway 53 Spur. Some producers participate in both Georgia programs.
“Tifton bulls are born in December, January, and February, and the Calhoun
bulls are born in September, October, and November,” Duggin said. “We may have consignors that participate in both programs if they have calves born in two different seasons.”
USE OF TECHNOLOGY
In recent years, technology has come to play an even larger part in what essentially is an ancient practice.
“There is online bidding, so people can buy bulls sitting at their house,” Duggins said. “You can look up a bull online with the registration number, and get all his traits, percentile rankings, and see where they rank in the breed.”
Aside from an increased ease of research and bidding, the test program itself benefits from new technologies.
“DNA is pulled on every bull that we sell by the producer before we get them,” Duggin said. “That DNA is collected for a couple of reasons — we can verify the parentage, and we can verify and match those parents, and at the same time that DNA is used to tell us how they rank with regard to every
trait that’s important in the beef cattle industry for that breed.”
EDUCATION AND CULTURAL IMPORTANCE
Helping to ensure this type of program is maintained well into the future, testing is more than economic, but also serves educational purposes. According to Duggin, just having the next generation around the program, especially on sale days, can help spark an interest in the industry. And that’s important, locally speaking.
“It is a big deal,” Duggin said. “When you have a culture of purebred livestock in the community, it spreads out through the generations. We have youth at sale days like the 4-H who raise money selling lunches. They are also able to work out and practice on those bulls when getting ready for events like a national contest. Historically, we’ve had collegiate judging teams come down for the bull test on their way to a national contest.”