What to put in a bull sale catalog (print or online)
By the RanchOS Global editorial team · Updated
In short: buyers screen a catalog before they ever see a bull. Give them your terms up front, EPDs with breed averages and percentile ranks for every lot, the pedigree and dam record, health tests, and a clear way to get corrections and updates. The same structure works for a printed catalog and for an online listing.
How buyers work through a catalog
Oklahoma State University Extension's ten tips for buyers describe the routine: decide which traits matter and set deal-breaker limits, drop bulls closely related to the buyer's own herd, cut anything outside those limits using breed averages, rank the rest on their whole EPD profile, then look at the bulls and check the supplement sheet on sale day. A catalog that makes each of those steps easy gets more serious bidders.
What to include
| Section | What buyers look for |
|---|---|
| Terms and guarantees | Breeding guarantee, soundness, delivery and pickup terms; usually at the front |
| EPDs | Calving ease, birth, weaning and yearling weight, milk, mature size and carcass traits, with accuracy |
| Breed averages and percentiles | To see at a glance whether a bull is above or below breed average |
| Indexes | If your breed publishes them, list them beside the EPDs |
| Pedigree | Sire and dam lines, so buyers can avoid bulls related to their own herd |
| Dam summary | The dam's production record |
| Health | Breeding soundness exam; trichomoniasis testing for non-virgin bulls |
| Supplement | Corrections, updated weights, DNA, pregnancy or ultrasound data, and sale order |
Order matters
Research from the University of Tennessee, presented at the 2024 Beef Improvement Federation symposium, used eye tracking on mock bull buyers and found that where EPDs and indexes sit on the page affects how long buyers look at them. Producers who used EPDs together with percentile ranks also guessed sale prices more accurately. Put the numbers you want buyers to weigh most where the eye lands first.
Online versus print
An online catalog can do what print cannot: keep EPDs current when the breed runs a new evaluation, add video, mark lots sold, and let buyers send a question from the bull's own page. Keep one record per animal and use it for both, so the printed book and the website never disagree.
Buyers also pay more for documented information: Mississippi State University Extension lists pedigrees, EPDs, performance records, ultrasound data, health practices and breeding soundness exams. See How to market registered seedstock online and What EPDs are. On RanchOS Global, each animal record works as a catalog page online and as a printable sales sheet.