Research Facilities

The College of Agriculture is committed to experiential learning or learning by doing. So, nearly all college research facilities and many of our experiment fields in Manhattan are located on campus or about a mile away. This is unusual. But it makes it possible for undergraduate students to be very hands-on and involved in actual research.

K-State College of Agriculture has research facilities dedicated to animal science, food and feed safety; animal and crop genetics; milling; and the creation of value-added foods.

This is the only university in the world with access to a full continuum of biosecurity laboratories located on or adjacent to campus. The College of Agriculture uses these to provide research on food and feed safety, and, with the opening of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, the college will soon be able to provide the latest in plant disease diagnostics research, surveillance and training in disease vector biology.

Agricultural research and its benefits extend to the state’s 105 counties through K-State Research and Extension’s agriculture research centers, experiment fields and extension services. The wide variations in precipitation, temperature, elevation and soil types throughout Kansas provide a unique testbed for crop production and agricultural systems that can mimic climates on every non-arctic continent.

Biosecurity Research Institute

Bioprocessing and Industrial Value-Added Program

International Grains Program Institute Conference Center

O.H. Kruse Feed Technology Innovation Center / Cargill Feed Safety Research Center

This facility is used for teaching the sciences of feed processing, pet food development and grain handling. It includes the Cargill Feed Safety Research Center, a biosafety level 2 facility focused on increasing the safety of stored grain products.

The O.H. Kruse Feed Technology Innovation Center is key in the training the next generation of feed industry leaders. Within this facility, research and training is conducted to test new products and feed manufacturing processes that allow animal agriculture to efficiently produce a safe food supply of meat, milk and eggs. This facility includes the Cargill Feed Safety Research Center, a biosafety level 2 center focused on the study of pathogens, such as Salmonella and E. coli, to address safety issues facing the feed industry.

Hal Ross Flour Mill

The Hall Ross Flour Mill provides full-scale equipment and control systems found in today’s milling industry and is used for research, teaching and workforce training.

The Hal Ross Flour Mill is a state-of-the-art pilot scale flour mill that has a daily milling capacity of 400 cwt/day flour or 24 mt/day wheat milled. The flour mill is used for teaching, research and industry training and contains the same full-scale equipment and control systems found in the commercial flour milling industry today. In addition to wheat flour milling, the Hal Ross Flour Mill contains processing equipment designed for whole-grain products including sorghum, corn, beans and pulses. Teaching and research at the Hal Ross Flour Mill is conducted by our faculty, industry-trained scientists and a full-time operations manager.