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Agriculture Facilities

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Students in the College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources learn and practice in state-of-the-art facilities.

NDSU Campus Map

Animal Nutrition and Physiology Center - State-of-the-art facility used for conducting animal physiology research primarily in the areas of growth, nutrition, and reproduction. Consists of approximately 46,000 square feet capable of housing a variety of animals, from mice to cattle. Animal research takes place in individual pens or stanchions, flexible penning arrangements, farrowing crates and group pens. Six environmentally-controlled rooms are available in a small animal suite for research with rabbits, rodents, and poultry. Additionally, the facility contains a surgical unit with two surgery rooms and a post-operative room, classroom, benchtop laboratory, and a feed center to mix specialized feed rations.

Richard H. Barry Hall - Home to the nation’s first university lab dedicated to the marketing of agriculture commodities. The trading room is equipped with state-of-the-art technology for students and faculty to monitor and analyze markets in real time. The building also features 13 other classrooms, 13 conference rooms, a 284-seat auditorium, student study areas, a branch of the NDSU library, a coffee shop, and six-story faculty office building. Virtual tour

Beef Cattle Research Complex - State-of-the-art facility designed to accomplish the vast array of research needed to meet the challenges of 21st century beef cattle production. The complex consists of a feeding area, animal handling, calving pens, office and laboratory space, and feed storage and mixing area covering 22,900 square feet.

Beef Cattle Research and Teaching Center - NDSU's main beef facility. It serves as the winter headquarters for the NDSU cowherd, while the Ekre Grassland Preserve southwest of Kindred, ND, provides summer grazing for the herd. Angus, Simmental, and crossbred herds are maintained to demonstrate genetic diversity for classroom and outreach use.

Bolley Agricultural Laboratory – This future facility will house a variety of agricultural research programs including plant pathology, plant breeding, weed science, agronomy, soil science and horticulture. Construction began in the summer of 2024.

Dairy Cattle Research and Teaching Center – Registered and grade Holstein are the only breed found at the Research Unit with selective mating from popular sires. The herd is Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) tested, and has recorded monthly production for over 30 years. Although it is a working dairy, the main goals of the facility are to conduct applied and basic research, to teach career-minded students current dairy technologies, and to demonstrate new concepts to the region's dairy producers.

Dalrymple Research Greenhouse - Facilities for advanced research in plant breeding, genetics, horticulture, entomology, plant pathology, plant nutrition and associated disciplines. In addition to greenhouse rooms, the facility has research labs and equipment available, including spray booths, misting chambers, seed drying, seed cleaning, long-term seed storage, growth chambers, vernalization chambers, prep rooms and cleaning rooms.

Equine Center – Located four miles west of main campus on 14 acres of land, the 600’ x 134’ facility contains a climate-controlled barn with an indoor riding arena, spectator seating, and stall accommodations for over 300 horses, as well as an outdoor turnout space. The Equine Science academic program conducts much of its teaching and outreach here. In addition, the equestrian and rodeo teams, made up of students majoring in many different areas of study at NDSU, utilize the facility heavily for their practices and competitions.

Field Research Plots – Agronomic research plots located near campus and around the state.

Horticulture Research & Demonstration Gardens – Located on the west edge of campus, the Gardens are used for education, research and display purposes. Bedding plant performance trials are conducted each summer and there is an official display garden of the American Daylily Society that contains almost 2,000 unique daylily cultivars and species. 

Horticulture Research Farm and Dale E. Herman Research Arboretum – An 80-acre farm located 37 miles northwest of campus with research plots involving small fruits, vegetables, tree fruits, woody ornamental plants and other high-value crops as well as certified organic research land. The center portion of the farm is a 35-acre research arboretum containing the most extensive collection of woody ornamental plants in the northern Great Plains.

Hultz Hall

Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Family Life and 4-H Center

Ladd Hall

Loftsgard Hall

Lord and Burnham Greenhouses – Five greenhouses linked by a head house for the study of plants, plant diseases, and plant variety testing. Some horticulture courses are taught in the greenhouse classroom.

Morrill Hall – NDSU Agriculture administrative offices

NCI Feed Mill - Full-service facility producing complete feeds, concentrates, supplements and custom premixes for the teaching and research animals. Provides hands-on experience in feed manufacturing technology to undergraduate and graduate students.

Peltier Complex - This facility brings together NDSU’s food science, meat science and cereal science laboratories along with the Northern Crops Institute (NCI), a four-state-focused agency committed to promoting, developing and marketing crops grown in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana.

  • Cereal Science, Food Science, and Meat Science teaching and research labs
  • NDSU Meat Lab - A fully functional butcher shop and retail store that sells specialty items including pulled pork or beef, dried beef, jerky’s, snack sticks, brats, and sausages.
  • Northern Crops Institute (NCI) - Equipped to bring together customers, commodity traders, technical experts, processors and producers from all over the world for discussion, education, and technical service programs.

Pilot Plant - The NDSU Pilot Plant provides maintenance, repair and fabrication of equipment used for plant and animal research. The facility contains laboratory space dedicated to work in renewable fuels, biobased industrial products, and food and bioprocess engineering. It also houses a large general wet/dry processing laboratory, a bioprocessing/wet chemistry laboratory, an explosion-proof laboratory, and quality control laboratory.

Plant Sciences Greenhouse - Researchers from the USDA-ARS, North Dakota State Seed Department, and NDSU use the facility in their efforts to improve North Dakota agriculture.

Potato Research - Houses research areas for the Departments of Plant Pathology and Plant Sciences. The plant pathology department conducts potato disease research, while the plant sciences department conducts research on potato breeding and physiology.

Robinson Hall - Home of the Veterinary Technology undergraduate program. It contains two classrooms, a small animal surgery suite, a radiography room and darkroom, a Veterinary Wellness Clinic, small animal housing, and the offices of the Veterinary Technology faculty.

Sheep Research and Teaching Center - The NDSU sheep flock includes purebred Hampshire, Columbia and Katahdin ewes, as well as commercial Whiteface ewes. During the summer, some of our sheep are kept at the Ekre Grassland Preserve near Kindred, ND, as part of the range research program.

Shepperd Arena – Livestock arena used for 4-H, FFA, judging contests, classes, events, and the annual Little International Livestock Show.

Sugar Beet Research – Facility for sugar beet research. Its cold storage facilities are used extensively for sugar beet storage studies.

Swine Research and Teaching Center - Farrow-to-finish operation that houses approximately 130 sows, and produces about 2,500 finishing hogs per year. The animals are used for research and teaching purposes, and constitute a very important phase of the animal science academic program.

Van Es Hall

Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory - Accredited, full-service laboratory offering toxicology, bacteriology, virology, molecular diagnostic, clinical and anatomic pathology, parasitology and serology testing services.

Waldron Hall - Houses agronomic research and the NDSU Plant Diagnostic and Soil Testing labs. These programs will move to the new Bolley Agricultural Laboratory after construction is complete.

Walster Hall

Wiidakas Laboratory - Built as a cold storage facility for seedstocks preservation among the facilities of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station.