Los remates de la Central de Toros de Kiyú y los factores que determinan el valor de los reproductores.

For more than 30 years, the Central Kiyú has been a reference for marketing Hereford purebred bulls in Uruguay. As a performance test center, it played a key role in incorporating objective information for marketing Hereford sires. The particular characteristics of Kiyú make of its auctions an excellent source for studying bulls' market behavior. In particular, this research assessed the economic value buyers assigned to this information, using a hedonic price model. The results from 11 years of auctions performed at Kiyú reveal that both sale order and sale weight were the most relevant variables in determining bull's sale prices. Other bull traits such as variety and eye pigmentation were also identified as important. Polled bulls received price premiums compared to horned or non-polled bulls, ceteris paribus. In addition, buyers preferred bulls with pigmented eyes rather than animals not having this condition. With regard to measures of genetic merit, sires reporting lower values for birth weight EPDs and higher values for weight at 18 months EPDs obtained better prices, other things equal, than sires that did not excel in those traits