The NDSU Hettinger Research Extension Center has new and renovated facilities that will help improve research, outreach and business in North Dakota.
The NDSU Hettinger Research Extension Center this year unveiled new and renovated multimillion dollar facilities that will help advance livestock research in North Dakota, educate the community and improve outcomes for ranchers in the state. The projects were funded through capital improvement funds by the North Dakota Legislature.
The facilities include a 5,600 square-foot research feedlot that features six large pens equipped with automatic waters and a smart system to evaluate individual livestock feed utilization and gas emission. It’s one of the few smart, small ruminant facilities in the country.
“This state-of-the-art facility substantially expands our research capacity within the climate sustainability sector where we are currently pursuing funding to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions in finishing lambs and growing rams,” said Rachel Gibbs, the livestock systems specialist at the Hettinger REC.
Gibbs said the new facility allows the Hettinger Research Extension Center to provide producers participating in the Dakota Performance Ram Test with a much more detailed analysis of ram growth performance related to feed intake and efficiency. The Dakota Ram Test program was established to identify the differences in wool traits for rams managed under the same environmental conditions and plane of nutrition. It also measures post-weaning growth weight as indicated by weight gain.
The Hettinger dairy barn also has recently been renovated and is now used as a small ruminant animal handling facility.
The Hettinger Research Extension Center Livestock Lab is now equipped with the top-of-the-line, small ruminant handling system, which utilizes radio frequency identification tags to automatically catch, sort, weigh and record processing of small ruminants. The facility will be used for an array of outreach programs, including the NDSU Sheep Shearing School, the NDSU/HREC Sheep and Goat Artificial Insemination Day. The livestock lab also will serve as a key research facility for scientists throughout the NDSU system.
“These two combined facilities (smart feedlot, updated barn) paint a stark contrast between historic and modern facilities meeting the needs of our agricultural producers that dates back to the Homestead era of southwest North Dakota,” said Christopher Schauer, director of the Hettinger REC.
Schauer said the two facilities, as well as the new Livestock Lab built this past year, represent the biggest investment in the Hettinger REC since its inception in 1909. Nearly $4 million in livestock facilities were completed in Hettinger this past year.
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