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BCIA Test Stations
Open in Fall
Blacksburg - The Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) will open the doors to its two central test stations again this year about tt>e first of October. The Culpeper station, one of the oldest in the nation, will be operating for the 12th consecutive year and the Dublin station will be in its third year, said A. L. Eller, Extension beef cattle specialist at Virginia Tech.
BCIA purebred breeder members will consign young bulls which qualify to be placed on official 140-day gain test, which will end in February Bulls finishing the test and surpassing rigid performance minimums, will be sold at auction March 13 at Culpeper and March 15 at Dublin.
The Culpeper station can handle up to 120 bulls and the Dublin station holds 80, Eller said. Each individual may consign a maximum of 10 bulls to either or both stations. To be eligible, bulls must have been calved between Sept. 1, 1968 and Feb. 28, 1969. Based on the official on-thefarm weaning performance, bulls must have an adjusted 205-day weight of at least 475 pounds if not creep fed, or 500 pounds if creep fed.
The minimum conformation grade is 12 or low choice. Only purebred bulls of the Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Shorthorn and Charolais breeds are eligible, Eller explained
The central test program is to provide an impartial gain test to find genetically superior future herd sires for improvement. The test information is valuable to the breeder for use in his own breeding program as well as to other purebred and commercial breeders who wish to purchase performance tested bulls, Eller said
The major performance measures applied to the bulls tested are feed test average daily gain, 365-day weight, weight-per-day of age, conformation score and
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