"If you're in cattle today and you don't make a profit, there is something wrong."

E.L. Strickland first attended the annual Ocala Bull Sale nearly 40 years ago, when he helped push the purebred animals through the chute and into the sales ring at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion.

On Tuesday, Strickland, a lifelong cattleman and manager at the Circle Square Ranch in Ocala, was in front of the sales ring and bought two of the top Hereford bulls in the annual sale.

"I started way in the back there and worked my way to the top. Now, I'm back at the bottom again," said Strickland, who was the sale's chairman until 2011.

The sale began in 1956 as a way to infuse new genetics into the county with the introduction of purebred bulls. That is still the goal as the sale celebrates its 57th year.

Read more at the Ocala Star-Banner.