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High Plains Ag Lab -- Sidney, NE
High Plains Ag Lab seeks support to replace 70-year-old headquarters
A fund-raising effort is under way to build a modern office and laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s High Plains Agricultural Lab (HPAL) north of Sidney. The new building would replace a 1940s-era structure that was part of the Sioux Army Ordnance Depot when the U.S. government gave the property to the university in 1970. The project proposes construction of a new building with an estimated cost of about $500,000, according to Drew Lyon, Extension Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist for UNL and faculty supervisor of the High Plains Ag Lab. Lyon said the building will provide office space for visiting scientists and graduate students and provide a more suitable area for processing samples of grain and forage than now exists.
About the High Plains Ag Lab
Our mission: The High Plains Ag Lab (HPAL) is a satellite unit of the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff. Our mission is to improve the profitability of dryland crop and livestock production through applied research responsive to the needs of local producers.
Location: Six miles northwest of Sidney, NE, in the heart of western Nebraska’s major dryland crop production area. View a map.
Research Capacity: Total acreage: the HPAL covers 2,400 acres, one-third in dryland crop rotations and two-thirds in pasture.
Expertise: Fifty to 60 research trials are conducted each year by scientists based at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center as well as University of Nebraska-Lincoln and neighboring states. Expertise includes agronomy; plant breeding, physiology, and pathology; soil fertility; irrigation; entomology; weed science; marketing and economics; and livestock nutrition.
Administration and Staff:
Interim Director, Panhandle Research and Extension Center: Dr. Gary Hergert
Ag Lab Supervisor: Dr. Dipak Santra
Farm Manager: Mr. Tom Nightingale
Advisory Board Chairman: Alton Lerwick, Farmer, Lyman, NE
Rob Higgins, Cropping Systems Technician
Paul McMillen, Animal Science Technician
Vernon Florke, Alternative Crop Breeding Technician
Crop Research:
Crop rotation systems: Research crops are produced on 27 fields ranging in size from 22 to 36 acres. View a 2009 map of research plots. Seven different crop rotations range in length from two to six years. Various cropping system components are represented: summer fallow, no-fallow, minimum tillage and no-tillage. These systems allow research with the same crops and rotations used by our clientele. In 2006, 75 acres were certified for organic production.
Irrigated plots: A 15-acre, lateral-move irrigation system enables scientists to simulate different precipitation patterns.
Long-Term Tillage Plots: Established in 1970 to compare moldboard plow, sub-tillage, and no-tillage fallow systems on winter wheat and soil parameters. A native sod treatment has been maintained.
Grain dryer and storage: A continuous flow dryer and grain storage system allow direct harvest of proso millet and emerging alternative crops with a stripper header.
Livestock Research
Nine pastures: Cattle graze crested wheatgrass pastures to assess supplementation, feed additives or health measurements on performance.