Animal Science Research Facilities

Located 10 miles west of Amarillo in Bushland, TX, Texas A&M AgriLife Research proudly shares the ruminant nutrition research facility with USDA-ARS-CPRL.  This cooperation includes collaborative agreements to participate in livestock nutrient management research.  The research facility contains a metabolism laboratory and research feedlot.  The facility boasts the ability to feed individual animals as well as pen fed animals to complete a variety of innovative ruminant research techniques.

Metabolism Laboratory

This complex is a 5000 sq.ft. facility that features an office, wet chemistry laboratory, and sample preparation laboratory.  The space also contains an indoor metabolism facility outfitted with metabolism stalls for both sheep and cattle, and four respiratory chambers.

Research Feedlot

The feedlot is comprised of 40 (8-10 head) pens, 54 individual feeding head gates (6 pens with 9 individual gates per pen), 12 covered individual feeding pens, hospital pens, and receiving pens.  The sheep barn onsite contains 6 individual feeding pens as well as three larger pens for various uses.  The animal processing barn contains a bud box, double alley, hydraulic chute with scale, and sorting pens.  A pen scale is available for animal weights when individual weights are not needed.  The feed room and commodity barn contains a multitude of mixing capabilities, as well as the ability to keep a variety of dry/liquid commodities and supplements on site for research.

James Bush Research Farm

The Bush Research Farm is comprised of approximately 320 acres of dry grazing land and 320 acres of irrigated crop land.  The Ruminant Research team shares the facility with Crop Science and Plant Pathology teams to pursue integrated livestock grazing and crop research.  The facility contains fenced grazing plots, dry lot pens, individual feeding pens, and a cattle handling facility.

Comments are closed.