Southernultrablack,
We have been to both so I can give you my experiences with both test facilities.
Pros(both)
Fantastic people that take care of the bulls on a daily basis. Extension personnel that work hard to do the best job at both places.
Cons(both)
You are gonna have a tough time selling bulls at either place if you dont have a buyer or two in you pocket on sale day. You are considering going for the same reasons I went to them, think you have bulls that can do people some good and dont have buyers knocking on your door to buy them private treaty.
Florida bull test
I like the feed efficiency part of the equation, dont like the ration. The ration has no corn. Imo you you are doing feed efficiency you should have a ration closely matching a feed yard type ration to see what the bulls progeny might look like in a feed yard. That being said, Our bulls did really well on feed efficiency in 4 years we finished 2nd twice and out of a total of 8 bulls we only had one finish outside the top 50 and he got hurt lost weight first half of test, finished between 50th and 60th. We had 4 bulls out of 8 in top 10 for their years. In good years bulls brought good money averaged 4800 on year, averaged 1800 the next on our bulls. In 2019 had a bull finish 17th overall,
2nd in feed efficiency, Sold 9th bring 1800.. cost 1000 bucks for the test and sale per bull (round numbers)
North alabama
Ration is plenty hot, maybe too hot, gains in the 6 to 7 lb range for the warm up. These bulls were on feed before delivery. We haven't been there since 2014 so ration might have changed. Bring a bull that is at least a 6 frame. Really nice shade for the bulls, really hilly ground.
Gizmom is doing it the right way, test them, bring them home, sell them for what they are worth to her.
If you have any questions shoot me a pm..