Welcome
Great News... We will be holding the WV Buck Performance Test this year! We are proud and honored to be a place where producers feel comfortable in sending their animals for performance testing and plan to continue to meet your needs well into the future. To that aim, this year we will be evaluating bucks for parasite resistance using what we call an artificial challenge of the parasitic worm Haemonchus contortus. We will be testing for parasite resistance in lieu of Residual Feed Intake (RFI), as we have done in the past, to; 1.) increase the capacity of bucks we can test and 2.) to accommodate active research projects using the Grow-Safe facility.
This year we will have the capacity to test up to 150 bucks in our facility To ensure accurate testing of bucks for parasite resistance it is imperative that bucks come to us with prior exposure to parasites. This can be accomplished though exposure to common pastures where parasites are known to exist. As parasitic environments vary, I urge you to get your young bucks out on pasture ASAP to make sure they arrive with prior parasite exposure. Details of the infection and how that will work can be found in the attached 2020 Test Guidelines.
There will be changes this year particularly surrounding delivery in light of current
Covid-19 control measures. First, we will only be allowing deliveries on one day
May 3rd. Second, during delivery, producers will not be allowed to exit their vehicle.
We are implementing these regulations to protect our staff and to protect you,
our valued cooperators.