The bulls come off test February 22 and are available for viewing, with records available at the farm on the same date. The select sale includes only those bulls ranked in the top 75 per cent.

Many high performance bulls are available, Bob Dick said in an interview. After 56 days the group had average daily gains of 3.7 pounds. The biggest gainer, a Charolais, added 5.57 pounds per day. All bulls have been on a balanced silage based roughage ration.

Pretty well every beef breed is on the test. But the group is mainly made up of Charolais, Simmental, Hereford and Limousin. There are 32 Charolais, the largest group on test. About a dozen and a half bulls come from Quebec.

Over 20 years the Dicks have processed 2,700 bulls through the evaluation centre. In addition, they manage 200 cows annually, finish 500 head of cattle and background 150 heifers.

Altogether, Bob and Patricia Dick have 215 bulls on test at their bull evaluation centre at Douglas, the largest centre in Ontario. They are also among a small select group of certified seed growers in eastern Ontario.

The remaining bulls will complete the test on April 19 and will be for sale then. "We’re a private treaty station," Bob said.

Buyers are expected to come from across Ontario, mostly to pick up quality bulls for commercial herds. But the sale is for everyone, an opportunity for purebred herds to buy good animals, he said.

This is the fourth BIO select sale across Ontario this year.