Authored by: Nicolas DiLorenzo and Federico Tarnonsky, UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center
The goal of the Florida Bull Test is to improve the genetics of beef cattle in the Southeastern U.S. Since its inception in 2000, a total of 2,544 bulls have been performance-tested in the Florida Bull Test, and of those 1,755 have been marketed through the Bull Test Sale. Hubert Hightower is an Angus purebred rancher in Monticello, Florida. He has been a consignor and committee member of the Florida Bull Test since 2014. Mr. Hightower’s success as a cattle breeding is a story worth telling, and it goes hand-in-hand with the development and evolution of the Florida Bull Test.
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Hubert Hightower sent three bulls to the Florida Bull Test in the summer of 2014. He has been back as a consignor every year since, missing only the 2015-16 season. Over the last 12 years, Mr. Hightower has consigned 101 bulls to the Florida Bull Test, including this year’s record consignment of 23 bulls. When the data provided by the test over the years was combined with Mr. Hightower’s exceptional ability to make informed decisions about genetic selection, the results were impressive. This article highlights the case study of one of the most influential consignors of the Florida Bull Test, as an example of the impact that this program can have. The total of 78 Hightower bulls tested to date (September 2026) over 12 years of performance testing tell a compelling story of the potential genetic advances that can be achieved when adopting the latest technologies available.
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The bulls that show up
In a typical year Mr. Hightower’s bulls arrive at the test heavier than other Angus bulls consigned by 100 lbs. to 300 lbs., depending on the year. When bulls arrive heavier, they tend to stay heavier through the end of the test. Arriving heavy is easy to dismiss as an older calf. However, the number that settles it in the test is weight per day of age (WDA), which divides a bull’s weight by his age in days and therefore rewards growth rather than a birthday. Hightower bulls have landed between the 73rd and 88th percentile of their Angus contemporaries on WDA in every single season on record. Whatever these cattle are doing, part of their advantage is established before they ever reach the test. These bulls are not merely older. They have been growing faster since birth.
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What 12 years of change look like
Today, Hightower bulls gain roughly 1.4 lb./d more over the first four weeks on test than the 2014-15 group did, close to 1 lb./d more over eight weeks, and about 0.6 lb./d more across the full test. They also eat considerably more. Over 12 years of consignment, daily dry matter intake increased by nearly seven pounds—outpacing changes in every other recorded traits for this consignor. Yet, eating more did not mean losing efficiency, a point clearly illustrated by the data below.
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Ribeye area of his bulls has gained nearly two square inches and has topped the Angus contemporary average in all years of consignment. Marbling has been above the contemporary average every season as well. In fact, marbling potential is perhaps one of the distinctive features of the Hightower bulls. To put that in numbers, 54% of all his 28 bulls sold in the last four years of the Florida Bull Test Sale had marbling EPDs in the top 10% of the Angus breed. Moreover, his LHH Breakthrough 380B K9 M20 bull in 2026 was at the top 1% of the breed for marbling EPD with an impressive 6.44% adjusted intramuscular fat measured by ultrasound and sold for a historic record of $15,250.
What has not changed over the years is just as compelling. Frame score, weight per day of age, scrotal circumference and backfat have all held steady. This is not a man chasing a bigger animal every year. It is one that seems to have settled on a type early on and has spent a decade adding growth and muscle to that frame.
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The part that is harder to do at home
Here is where the Florida Bull Test earns its keep for an operation like Mr. Hightower’s and many others. A producer can weigh calves. Producers can score frame, pull a tape, and form an opinion about muscle. What is difficult and labor intensive to do at a typical producer’s operation is to measure individual feed intake.
It matters because the two common efficiency measures disagree, and continued selection for one of them can lead to greater mature weights in the cowherd. Feed-to-gain ratio simply divides what a bull ate by what he gained. Residual feed intake (RFI) asks a different question: did this bull eat more or less than his own body weight and growth rate say he should have? On RFI, Hightower bulls performed above average in 10 of 11 consigning years (he only missed one consignment year in the last 12). That is a claim no producer could make about their own cattle without a performance test, and RFI is a trait worth looking into, considering that it will impact five or more breeding seasons. The Hightower Angus bulls won the Feed Efficiency Test on two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) and in 2022 two of his bulls placed 2nd and 3rd place, missing first place by only 0.03 lb! That alone is one of the best success stories regarding the heritability of RFI and the power that selection has on genetic improvement, without sacrificing other growth traits.
Carcass ultrasound data is another of the strengths of the Florida Bull Test, and this is another area where the Hightower bulls have a story to tell. In terms of ribeye area, the Hightower bulls have surpassed their Angus contemporary average in all years of consignment, with a steady increase of approximately 2 square inches across the 12-year record. Intramuscular fat has been above the contemporary average every season as well.
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What the market did
Over the years, the genetic improvements achieved by Mr. Hightower were met with recognition by buyers in terms of sale prices. The average price paid for a Hightower bull has risen at a rate of $373 per year over the years on record. Over the same period Angus contemporaries rose $269 a year and the test as a whole increased by $214 per bull/year. These bulls did not merely ride a rising market; they climbed faster than it. Figure 4 shows the average price paid over the years for a Hightower bull in comparison to their contemporary Angus bulls consigned and sold every year. Mr. Hightower’s Angus bulls commanded a premium over their Angus contemporaries in 10 of 11 seasons, from $185 in the first year to more than $2,200 in 2018-19. In the 2026 sale, two of his bulls sold for $15,250 and $10,500, the first one being the highest price ever recorded for a bull sold in the Florida Bull Test since its beginning in 2000.
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Lessons for the next consignor
The Florida Bull Test exists to supply performance tested bulls to the Southern United States and improve the genetics of beef cattle in the region. In a survey at the 2020 sale, buyers indicated that calves sired by bulls bought from this test carried a perceived increased value of $67 per head or more. Based on those survey responses, the estimated economic impact of the Florida Bull Test since 2000 exceeds $8 million in additional calf value.
The value of a bull test to a producer is often described in terms of the sale, and the sale matters. Hightower’s cattle have consistently sold in the upper half of the price spread and lately near the top of it. But undoubtedly the greatest value of a bull consigned in the Florida Bull Test is the data collected. Twelve seasons of intake, gain, ultrasound and breeding soundness data, collected under controlled conditions and measured against other cattle, perhaps told Mr. Hightower which breeding decisions worked and which ones did not. Feed efficiency held. Muscle improved at an impressive pace. Growth improved, though the neighbors improved as well. Mr. Hightower consistently incorporated performance-test information into sire selection and replacement decisions, allowing genetic gains to accumulate over time.
Although extremely important, no amount of pasture observation and structural evaluation can be a match to the power of the large amount of data collected in standardized performance tests. The bulls Mr. Hubert Hightower sends to Marianna each summer get evaluated, but so does the breeding program behind them, and 12 years in, both have compelling results to show for it.
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