New $7.2 Million Feedlot Innovation Center Breaks Ground at the University of Nebraska
The $7.2 million facility located at the University of Nebraska’s (UNL) Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead, Neb. has officially broken ground.
The commercial-scale, state-of-the-art feedlot will facilitate world-class research projects, teaching and extension opportunities and serve as a testbed for industry partners to see the new and emerging technologies at work.
“The Feedlot Innovation Center presents an incredible opportunity to bring together industry partners, cattle producers and UNL researchers and students to advance sustainable beef production,” says Mike Boehm, Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) and the University of Nebraska vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
The center will include a 240-head, commercial-scale open air and covered pen feeding facility, testing new precision feeding technology, expanding research on cattle performance and welfare, while comparing different environments and housing systems, finding solutions to environmental challenges and using innovation in manure collection and management. Additionally, the new cattle handling facility and enclosed classroom will give students hands-on experience and allow for training opportunities for the future workforce of Nebraska’s beef industry.
Approved by the University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents in June of this year, the project will be funded through a combination of private donors, grants and the IANR program funds.
A pledged $700,000 was recently announced, given by the Greater Omaha Packing Co., which also recently received USDA funding to expand their Omaha facilities.
“We all have a stake in the long-term success of the beef industry,” says Henry Davis, CEO of Greater Omaha Packing Co. in a release. “In partnership with the University of Nebraska and other contributors, Greater Omaha Packing is confident that our support of the Feedlot Innovation Center will lead to groundbreaking research, technology and insights that will help advance the industry, strengthen and expand the entire supply chain and ultimately drive value back to family farms.”
Other contributors to the project include John and Beth Klosterman; JBS USA; Farm Credit Services of America; Dennis and Glenda Boesiger; and the Klopfenstein Fund, which includes gifts from a number of alumni, colleagues and industry partners who knew and worked with Terry Klopfenstein. Daniels Manufacturing, FBI Buildings Rock Solid Concrete and others have made significant in-kind contributions, says a release.
