WT says it is the largest federal award in the university's history. The USDA's National Institute for Food and Agriculture made the award through its Research Facilities Act Program, for a center for beef cattle research and innovation.
The grant comes with a match. The Texas A&M University System is putting in $4.875 million, and other sources are adding another $4.875 million, bringing the project total to $19.5 million. Robert Albritton, chairman of the system's Board of Regents, said the investment makes sense because research that strengthens Texas agriculture also serves the nation.
The facility will pair 90 small research pens for scientific studies with 45 commercial-scale pens. Plans also call for a precision beef cattle handling facility, a veterinary care and research hospital, an advance technology feed and production center, and a metabolism physiology center. Undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students will train and research there, which WT says will produce the next generation of feedlot employees, managers and owners. It fits WTAMU's broader push in agriculture education through the Center for Advancing Food Animal Production in the Panhandle and the Feedlot Research Group.