Central Iowa Research and Demonstration Farms

Location

Story, Boone and Polk counties

Size

8,300 acres

Owners

Iowa State University
City of Ames
ISU Agricultural Foundation, established in 1937 to support programs for beginning farmers and help the College of Agriculture acquire land for research activities.
Committee For Agricultural Development, a nonprofit corporation organized in 1943, works with ISU researchers to purify, increase and distribute seed and germplasm of crop varieties developed by researchers at experiment stations in the North Central Region and the USDA.
ISU Foundation, a nonprofit, tax-exempt Iowa corporation, is the official fund-raising and gift-receiving organization for ISU. It manages donated assets for the benefit of ISU in accordance with donor-imposed restrictions.

Background

Agricultural land owned by ISU and its affiliates provides room for future growth of research programs and of the university's infrastructure. In addition to research, the agricultural land is also used for demonstrations, feed production for livestock and as areas to spread manure. Affiliate ownership of this land keeps it on the local tax rolls and provides greater flexibility in buying and selling property.

Agro-Climatic Zone

Central Iowa

Soils

Terrain is gently sloping, broken by a rectangular grid-work of roads and fields. Much of the land is drained by tile systems and open ditches because the land has poor natural drainage. Predominant soils are Clarion, Nicollet and Webster.

Research

The College of Agriculture's Agriculture Experiment Station assigns farmland to departments based on their research needs. The departments include: agronomy, animal science, agricultural and biosystems engineering, horticulture, forestry, animal ecology, entomology and plant pathology. In addition, researchers at the USDA's National Soil Tilth Laboratory and the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station use land for research.

Agronomy Department. The agronomy department conducts research on about 1,400 acres. The Agronomy and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Research Farm, located along U.S. Highway 30 west of Ames, serves as a headquarters for this research. For more information on agronomic research at this site, call (515) 432-5348.

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department. This department shares its field research headquarters with the agronomy department. Research on surrounding cropland focuses on tillage and water quality issues. Many USDA researchers from the National Soil Tilth Laboratory conduct research at this site. For more information on research at this site, call (515) 432-5350.

Animal Science Department. This department uses a number of farm sites in Central Iowa for teaching and research.

The Animal Science Teaching Complex includes several farm sites located south of Ames and is used for laboratory studies, applied research and demonstrations of production systems on beef, sheep, swine and horses.

The Ruminant Nutrition Research Farm, located north of Ames, was remodeled in 1996 to better accommodate continuing research on management and nutritional needs of ruminants, especially beef cattle.

The Ames Dairy Farm, located south of the ISU campus, is used for laboratory study and applied research on the nutritional and physiological aspects of dairy production. The farm also serves as a teaching site for coursework in the animal science and dairy science majors.

The Ankeny Dairy Farm is located south of Ankeny and north of the Des Moines Area Community College on Highway 69. The farm is used for dairy breeding and related research. Two lines of cattle are selected for high and average pounds of milk protein and milk fat. Correlated responses in health and feed efficiency are studied as are differences in maternal lineages (mitochondrial effects) and ability to change milk composition to higher protein and lower fat.

The Bilsland Farm, located near Madrid, is used to study the importance of genetic variation in economic traits of swine. Researchers evaluate the influence of various genetic lines and breeding systems on producer profit and product composition.

The Swine Nutrition and Management Research Farm, located west of Ames, was completed in 1993. It is used to study nutrition and management techniques to improve feed utilization, lean tissue gain, animal well-being and meat quality of pigs.

The Poultry Science Research Farm is a nine-building complex located south of Ames and is used to study nutrition and genetics of turkeys and chickens. The complex includes animal holding, laboratory, classroom and office facilities. For more information on animal science research conducted at sites in central Iowa, call (515) 294-2160.

Horticulture Department. This department uses a 235-acre farm 10 miles north of Ames for research on horticultural crops and practices. The Horticulture Station includes research, classroom and cold storage facilities and irrigation for about 55 acres. For more information, call (515) 232-1978.

Other facilities:

The 50-acre Hinds Farm, located on sandy soil north of Ames, is the primary irrigated farm available to ISU researchers. Agronomists and plant pathologists conduct most of the research. Forestry, entomology and botany researchers also use the farm. For more information, call (515) 294-0359.
The Animal Resource Station is a 160-acre farm located south of Ames. This unit is under the administrative direction of the Vice Provost for Research and supports university teaching and research programs by housing a variety of animal species including the respiratory pathogen-free swine herd. For more information, call (515) 294-8507.
The Ag 450 Farm has been student-managed since 1943, serving as a laboratory for students enrolled in Agricultural Education and Studies 450, Farm Management and Operation. The farm includes 266 acres of ISU-owned land and additional rented property. The farm includes a farrow-to-finish swine operation. For more information, call (515) 294-6924.
The North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, a joint USDA-ISU facility located south of Ames, uses 120-acres of ISU-owned land for its germplasm preservation, evaluation and distribution efforts. Primary crops include amaranth, Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus, buckwheat, carrots, chicory, sweet clover, collards, coriander, corn, crambe, cucumber, dill, endive, millet, ornamental landscape plants, melons, mustards, parsley, parsnips, pumpkin, spinach, squash, sunflowers and zucchini. The facility, funded by the USDA, state experiment stations in the North Central Region and ISU, maintains a germplasm collection that includes about 1,000 species and more than 40,000 accessions (different samples of plant material). For more information, call (515) 294-3255 or (515) 292-6502.
The Committee for Agricultural Development's foundation seed conditioning plant is located south of Ames. The plant processes seed of plant varieties developed by researchers in the North Central Region for distribution to seed companies and certified seed producers. For more information, call (515) 292-3497.