Department of Animal Science

Animal Science Building
The Department of Animal Science moved into its current building in 1982. There are fourteen research laboratories in the Animal Science Building including physiology, food science, dairy microbiology, non-ruminant nutrition, ruminant nutrition and general nutrition. In addition, the building houses a computer-data processing complex; 3 classrooms seating approximately 220, 108 and 40 students, respectively; a student autotutorial room; and one large and two small conference rooms.

Noble Research Center

The Noble Research Center is a tremendous facility constructed in three phases over a decade during the 1980s and early 1990s. Construction of Phase III was completed in 1992 and 1993. The Department of Animal Science occupies three laboratories, each about 600 square feet. Two are wet laboratories and one is a dry laboratory. The dry laboratory is shared with Plant Pathology as is part of one wet lab. At present these laboratories are used primarily for molecular genetics.

Purebred Beef Center

Purebred beef cattle are maintained at two principal locations: the Beef Cattle Center, located on 160 acres three miles west of Stillwater on State Highway 51, and the "purebred range" consisting of 1,400 acres of native grass and 350 acres of Old World Bluestem improved pasture on the north side of Lake Carl Blackwell. The purebred herd has a current inventory of approximately 100 Angus, 25 Hereford, 25 Polled Hereford, 15 Brangus, 25 Limousin, and 25 Simmental mature females. Additionally, replacement animals number approximately 150 or more.

Buildings located at the Beef Cattle Center include: office, sale pavilion, student dormitory, a show barn with 12 individual pens and outside pens where cattle are maintained for class, sale and show purposes, a "working barn" where general cattle management activities are performed, and the Progeny Test Barn, which is used primarily for nutrition research by various faculty. These animal facilities are used extensively in our teaching program and related activities, including some Extension activities with numerous tour groups, etc.

Dairy Cattle Center

The Oklahoma State University dairy herd consists of approximately 120 registered Holstein cows. The rolling herd average has been in the range of about 23,000-25,000+ lb the past three years. Seventy-five heifers are maintained as replacement animals. The milking facility is a double-six herringbone parlor with automated cow identification, milk yield recording and milking unit detachers. The parlor and dripshed are flush-cleaned into a two-cell lagoon system. Free-stall housing is used. Stalls are bedded with sand, cleaned by scraping, and designed to facilitate separation of the herd into as many as five groups. All potential runoff is contained in a recently constructed new lagoon system. Animals are fed a total mixed ration in a new lock stanchion system adjacent to the free-stall facility. Lagoons are dewatered on a regular basis to irrigate bermudagrass and to prevent overflow. Additionally, a new lock-gate feeding system, installed under a new roofed and concrete pad area, was recently constructed. Other feeding areas were also recently added to improve management control. A heat watch system was added in 1992.

The brick building that previously housed the milking parlor serves as a research and calf raising barn. There are 92 stanchion or tie stalls which can be used to individually feed research animals or as individual calf raising pens. This building also contains 13 box stalls. Individual stalls also exist for raising calves in the East wing. The former Bull Barn currently provides stalls for individually feeding or penning cows who may need isolation or attention for health purposes, or which may be used in embryo transfer or cooperative work with the Veterinary College.

Feed storage facilities include new overhead drive-under grain bins (45 ton capacity), nine other grain bins with a total capacity of 50 tons, a 2,000-ton bunker silo, and three 250-ton pole barns for alfalfa hay storage and a newly constructed, four bay bulk commodity shed. A calving shed (50' x 16') was recently completed. The Dairy Center encompasses approximately 300 acres of pasture; an additional 80 acres of tillable land nearby is devoted to raising sorghum for silage.
 

Grazinglands Research Station Ft. Reno

The Department of Animal Science currently cooperates with the Grazinglands Research Station primarily in two areas of research 1) Evaluation of Postpartum Reproductive Performance of Tropically Adapted Breeds of Beef Cattle, and 2) Effect of Lamb Genotype and Finishing System on Growth Rate, Feed Efficiency and Carcass Traits. A cooperative beef cattle project was recently completed in the area of Genotype x Environment Interactions with Beef Cattle on Native Range. The Department also administers a Research Support Agreement (RSA) as well as all state research related financial activities for the Station. This includes all purchasing and accounting related financial, activities, in addition to handling pesticide applicator permits, etc.

Feedmill

The Feedmill is located just northwest of the Beef Cattle Center. It has the capability to grind, roll and pellet feeds with a capacity of up to 600 tons per month. There are 53 bins with a storage capacity of 575 tons. The mill prepares the feed used by all departmental units. Two trucks are available, one with a 12,000 LB capacity, in two compartments, and one with a 24,000 LB capacity with four compartments.

Swine Facilities

The swine farm is located on approximately 80 acres of land southwest of the campus and includes facilities to produce approximately 228 litters annually (22 litters every 5 weeks). These facilities, include:

1. Two raised crate farrowing units, with 11 individual stalls each - Environmentally controlled
   
2. Four wire floored nursery units, each one with 84 head capacity - Environmentally controlled
   
3. Growing-finishing facilities - confinement facilities with a capacity of approximately 600 head. These include 24 pens for growing pigs (20 to 55 kg) and 24 finishing pens (55 kg to mkt wt) in a slatted floor, flush gutter, environmentally controlled unit with a capacity of 288 head. Other growing finishing facilities are Cargill type semi-confinement units with a solid concrete floor.
   
4. Non-confinement sow pens with capacity of 10 head each
   
5. Non-confinement boar pens

 

The boar stud area has space for housing 6-10 boars and lab facilities for collecting and processing semen.

Facilities are also available for use as an off-site nursery in the Veterinary Medicine building for housing 80 pigs from early weaning to approximately 25 kg. New environmental chambers to assess metabolic activity in pigs up to approximately 40 kg were recently developed at the Poultry Farm. These units will afford the same opportunity to do fundamental studies on physiological monitoring as with our poultry studies.

The Cross Timbers Experimental Range

The Cross Timbers Experimental Range (CTER) was developed by the Agricultural Experiment Station in the early 1980s. The unit is dedicated to long-term grazing-scale research of integrated resource management systems in the upland hardwood forest vegetation type. Although the management of the research unit is coordinated by research scientists in the Departments of Plant and Soil Science and Animal Science, an interdisciplinary research team, composed of a range scientist, range nutritionist, brush and weed scientist, wildlife ecologist, and an agricultural economist, designs and conducts research on the unit.

The 1760 acre unit lies seven miles southwest of Stillwater near the western edge of the Cross Timbers resource area. The CTER occupies a rugged landscape which is dissected by stream drainages with steep slopes. The vegetation is dominated by blackjack and post oak with interspersed tallgrass prairies. The upland forest varies from open savannah with productive grass understory to dense thickets with negligible forage production in the understory.

The CTER is subdivided into twenty-two 80-acre pastures. Two pastures are utilized for livestock shipping and receiving. The remaining 20 pastures are part of a study initiated in 1983 to compare vegetation, livestock, and wildlife responses to five brush management treatments, consisting of a factorial arrangement of two herbicides with and without spring-burning and an untreated control. Each treatment is replicated four times. After 14 years, the various brush management schemes have produced five vegetation types of differing diversity and potential for multiple-use management and research.

Bluestem Research Range

The Bluestem Research Range is located seven miles west and two miles south of Stillwater. This area includes 700 acres with 250 acres of Plains Bluestem and 450 acres of native tallgrass pasture. Intensive pasture management practices (fertilizer, herbicide and fire) are applied to the bluestem pastures. Approximately 250 acres of the native rangeland is managed in a rotational system with the remaining 200 acres under continuous grazing management. The major facility is a stall barn with the capability to simultaneously feed 36 head, of either cows or stocker cattle. In addition, this facility includes an extensive corral and covered cattle handling facility, Extensive water developments in both native and Old World Bluestem pastures allow accessibility to the entire forage base year-round. Research capabilities include supplementation studies with individual feeding to measure stocker or cow/calf performance, milk production, forage intake and utilization, diet quality, fiber degradation, and grazing systems research.

The Marvin Klemme Range Research Station

The Marvin Klemme Range Research Station is located in northern Washita County about five miles west of Bessie, in western Oklahoma. The station was donated to the OSU Foundation by Mr. Marvin Klemme in 1989 and is administered by the Plant and Soil Science Department. Research is conducted in cooperation with the Department of Animal Science here at Oklahoma State University. Currently, research is under the direction of a range scientist and a range nutritionist.

The station had originally 1,150 acres of land, but with the purchase of 550 acres in 1996 this expanded the research capabilities of the station to 1,700 acres. With the exception of 21 acres of introduced pasture (Old World Bluestem), the vegetation on the land is primarily midgrass prairie range. This station is the only rangeland research station on this range-type in Oklahoma. Currently, rangeland on the station is subdivided into seven pastures of approximately equal size (120 to 140 acres), two larger pastures (250 acres) and two traps.

Research was initiated in 1990. An interdisciplinary study to establish relationships among stocking rates, vegetation and livestock responses, and enterprise economics is currently ongoing. Additionally, summer supplementation studies are currently underway.

Willard Sparks Beef Research Center

Our new Willard Sparks Beef Research Center became operational in late summer, 1998. The Willard Sparks Beef Research Center had been under construction for approximately two years and represents an investment of more than $2.3 million dollars. A Dedication ceremony was held December 19, 1998. We were pleased to have over 100 guests join us to celebrate the opening of this great facility. It is the finest beef research and educational facility in the country. It will be a great benefit in fostering our research, teaching and extension programs to better serve the beef industry.

The Center was financed by a grant from the USDA, matching private cattlemen and industry funds raised by the Oklahoma Livestock Industry Foundation, Randy Ward, Chairman, and by Capital Improvement Bond moneys form the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment State and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The new beef research unit will also enhance our cooperative efforts with the College of Veterinary Medicine and provide excellent hands-on training, work and clinical experience for many students - undergraduate, graduate and veterinary medicine in training our leaders of tomorrow.

One of the first research trials was partially funded by a grant from the Oklahoma Beef Industry Council to study genetic markers associated with marbling in beef cattle. Two of our other earliest studies investigated the use of unusual by-product feeds and low roughage diets in formulating feeding strategies for drought management programs since much of Oklahoma experienced severe drought in 1998. A drought field day was held at the center in November if 1998 demonstrating the successful use of unorthodox feeds and diets. A variety of other diverse research studies are currently underway at the center.

Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Center

The Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Center was developed to stimulate the value-added processing segment of Oklahoma agriculture. The facility was designed and constructed entirely with State funding. A total of 16.2 million dollars was made available for design, construction, furnishing and partially equipping the facility. Additionally, 2.3 million dollars have been appropriated per year for the annual operating budget. The facility includes approximately 90,000 square feet of assignable space.

The Center has been designed to address the needs of all commodities processed within the state of Oklahoma. It thus represents a major expansion at Oklahoma State University relative to value-added processing of agricultural products.

The largest component of the Food Technology Center is the Pilot Plant area. Facilities specifically for animal products include a livestock holding area, an abattoir (designed for cattle, swine, sheep and goats), carcass coolers, three cutting rooms, fresh meat processing room, cured meat processing room, and packaging rooms. A thermal process pilot plant area within the Center houses a computer operated smokehouse, a drying chamber and impingement oven. Additionally, various coolers and freezers are available for storage of products. All these areas are under USDA-FSIS inspection. There also is a retail sales room to sell surplus meat products. Additionally, an area has been designed in the building to accommodate a pilot plant scale slaughter and evisceration line for poultry as well as for further processing. This area too will be under USDA-FSIS inspection.

A liquid products processing pilot plant area is included to accommodate research and teaching related to dairy products. Pilot plant scale equipment in this area includes a plate heat exchanger with necessary controls for high temperature short time pasteurization, a self contained ice cream pilot plant unit and a continuous flow ice cream freezer. Also included is a pilot plant scale spray dryer, small separator and various other items.  


Recombinant DNA/Protein Resource Facility

The Recombinant DNA/Protein Resource Facility located in the Noble Research Center is available to Animal Science faculty, and graduate students. The purpose of the Recombinant DNA/Protein Resource Facility is to stimulate research in the molecular biosciences at Oklahoma State University and within the state of Oklahoma by providing access to the latest technologies in molecular biology and encouraging the use of such technologies. The facility offers services and provides access to equipment and instrumentation that may be unavailable to the average research program. In addition, the facility offers individual consultations and formal hands-on training workshops to assist researchers in learning new techniques. Major services offered by the facility include oligonucleotide synthesis and purification, automated DNA sequencing, automated peptide synthesis and purification, automated protein microsequencing and restriction and modification enzymes. Computer facilities include DNA and protein sequence analysis system, digital imaging systems and molecular modeling system. The facility offers hands-on workshops in "Recombinant DNA Techniques"; "PCR: Methods and Applications" and "Protein Purification: Basic Isolation, Methods and Applications".

Animal Science Arena

In 1988, the Department of Animal Science dedicated a new Livestock Arena built to replace the arena in the old Animal Husbandry building which was razed to make way for the Noble Research Center. The new arena is a state of the art structure with 46,318 square feet. The facility includes a 92' x 192' (17,664 sq. ft.) arena floor with adjacent chair back seating for 779 people. It also includes excellent animal working areas, office and kitchen space, and a 1,675 sq. ft. classroom. Most importantly, the superb sound and lighting systems make the facility excellent for both teaching programs and special events

The Equine Center

The Equine Center is located on approximately 60 acres adjacent to the new Animal Science Arena. The Center consists of a 25-stall barn (financed through donations from industry) constructed in a double breezeway configuration. This barn also has a tack room, feed room and double wash rack. Other buildings include a 30' x 85' concrete block building that serves as a breeding shed and office, a 30' x 50' pole barn with three 16' x 16' stallion stalls (also financed by industry) and 10,000 square feet of exercise paddocks. A set of pipe and cable holding and teasing pens are also associated with the breeding and stallion barns. Additionally, a 30' x 100' hay barn is located on the premises. The 60 acres includes six native and bermuda grass pastures that range in size from 5 to 20 acres. An additional 100 acres off site are used for grazing, production and additional acreage for producing hay.

The Equine Center currently has 65 head of primarily Quarter horses in its inventory. Of this total, 22 are broodmares over the age of three, 4 geldings over the age of three, 7 two year old fillies and geldings, 16 yearling fillies and geldings, and 3 breeding age stallions. These horses are used for a variety of activities encompassing research, teaching and extension. The goal is for every horse to be used in some activity. All broodmares and stallions have been secured through donations or raised from donated stock. Each year, some of the mares are bred to the top sires in the industry, again on a donation basis, in an effort to raise high quality horses as replacements, for use in class and for sale.

Poultry Research Center

The Poultry Research Center currently houses considerable research capability for supporting both basic and applied research. Private funds have also been very helpful in recent renovation efforts. Overall, the center contains 172 floor pens (132 in remodeled buildings) that may be used for applied broiler, layer, turkey and breeder studies. Additional facilities include a poultry processing laboratory; computer laboratory; sample handling-laboratory; two large scale environmental chambers (1680 bird capacity) and 84 calorimetry-environmental chambers. Poultry research has focused on energetic, environmental distress and growth modeling research. The large scale environmental chamber may be used to generate specific cycling ambient temperature-relative humidity environments for applied-basic experiments. The 84 open circuit respiratory units equipped for real-time physiological monitoring are divided between 3 chamber rooms for poultry and a new complex for swine. The units are used in basic thermobalance studies for the determination of bird heat production, evaporative cooling, nonevaporative cooling, respiration rate, apparent respiration efficiency (Joules heat dissipated/breath), body temperature, bird heat content, protein and fat deposition pattern (by C and N balance), electrocardiogram, blood pressure and numerous metabolic variables determined in blood samples obtained via indwelling catheters. All chambers are monitored - and data recorded by the Workhorse Data Acquisition and Control System (Omega Engineering, Stanford CT 06907). Gas concentration quantifications are made once on each of the 60 compartments every 12.5 minutes. Body temperature, heart rate, electrocardiogram and blood pressure observations are made utilizing a radio telemetry system with data recording every 1.5 minutes for all birds. This is a one-of-its kind facility in the world. Similarly, twenty four environmental chambers have recently been added to accommodate pigs, up to 40 kg. Several buildings have also been remodeled in recent years to help support teaching related needs.

Nutrition Physiology Research Center (NPRC) The NPRC is a 15,000 sq. ft. building located about two miles west of Stillwater near the Beef Complex. It provides a combination of controlled environment and open-air facilities for intensive research with cattle, swine and sheep. The unit is staffed with a herd manager and student labor is used to offer experience to students. The Center has the following capabilities:

1. Metabolism stalls (16-cattle) - use frequently for cow/calf pairs in physiology studies.
2. Small surgery room.
3. Dry Lab - (drying ovens, refrigerated centrifuge).
4. Wet Lab.
5. Feed storage and mixing room.
6. Pens on slats (31 - 8 x 10 ft. pens).
7. Feeding barn on slats (17 pens).
8. Cattle working area-scale, chute.

Recently, remodeling of the previous Live Animal Evaluation Center has been initiated to retrofit the building as an NPRC Annex. It is located next to the NPRC. It is currently equipped with 10 pens on slats. The swine reproductive physiology programs have been moved from the NPRC to the Annex. Additional remodeling has been started to create a surgery room and an isolation room for physiological monitoring. The current remodeling provides:

1. Swine pens on slats (10 - 6'x9').
2. Surgery room.
3. Isolation room (12'x IT).

  Beef Cattle Breeding Facility - North LCB Range

The beef cattle breeding research program is conducted at the North Lake Carl Blackwell Range which consists of approximately 2700 acres. Native pasture and hay meadow constitutes about 2500 acres with the remainder in Bermuda-grass The unit supports approximately 240 cows. There are two working facilities with scales in the area. In addition, there is a calving barn and storage buildings in the headquarters area.

Range Cow Research Center-South LCB Range

The South Range consists of approximately 3200 acres of native range (15% wooded) and 250 acres of bermuda grass. The range area is divided mostly into 100 to 160 acre pastures. Most of the acreage surrounds Lake Carl Blackwell. Pastures are in four main tracts, 640 acres, about 600 acres north of the lake, 380 acres in a single pasture and the remainder comprising the "headquarters" area.

The herd is comprised of 300 beef cows (Hereford and Hereford-Angus), 10 bulls and 65 replacement heifers. About 90 cows calve in the fall and the remainder in the spring. Cattle inventories of both research leaders (Lalman and Wettemann) are combined and selected for projects according to most appropriate breed, age, weight, condition, etc.

Headquarters facilities consist of a 60 X 72 ft metal building containing electronic cattle scales And squeeze chute, rest rooms, tool and equipment storage and office.

Excellent and extensive cattle holding and sorting pens are integrated with the building. Pens also permit limited cattle feeding experiments. Two individual feeding barns, each with feed storage areas and 42 individual covered stalls, are located in this area. Portable cattle scales and portable sorting facilities are located about 1.5 miles from the headquarters to permit limited weighing and sorting without driving cattle to the main facility.

The Highway 86 area has an individual feeding barn identical to those at the headquarters, covered cattle scales and working facilities and limited, but adequate, permanent cattle sorting facilities. The 380 acre pasture located just west of this area is used only for temporary grazing of cattle because of lack of any handling facilities.

Section 32 has one permanent holding pen for small groups of cattle. Weighing is conducted with portable scales and corral equipment. This area is used primarily for less intensive studies because of its lack of facilities.

In addition to studies on nutrition and reproduction, cooperative studies with researchers in Veterinary Medicine and Entomology are conducted.

The Plant and Soil Science/Animal Science Research Range

Land resources assigned to the Departments of Plant and Soil Science and Animal Science and located west of the CTER are used for range management/livestock management research. The area is predominantly tallgrass prairie and is dedicated to the study of grazing management systems, prescribed burning and range livestock nutrition. Management of the area is coordinated by research scientists in the Departments of Plant and Soil Science and Animal Science. Research is conducted by two range scientists, a range nutritionist and an agricultural economist.

Since 1983, numerous small-scale studies on seasonal livestock nutrition and forage utilization, vegetation and livestock response to intensive grazing management, and eastern red-cedar control have been conducted. Currently, a large portion of the area is dedicated to the study of the impacts of grazing system and stocking rate on vegetation stability, livestock production, and enterprise economics. Twelve 50-60 acre units representing two replications of two grazing systems each at three stocking rates are involved in the study.

The Expanded Wheat Pasture Research Unit

In 1989, the Department established the Expanded Wheat Pasture Research Unit with major assistance from a special grant from CSRS-USDA. This is a unique resource unlike any other in the country. The Unit consists of 385 acres of wheat pasture, 42 acres of cool-season perennial grasses, and two native grass pastures (about 50 acres total) near Marshall, Oklahoma (30 miles west of Stillwater). The area is leased from two landowners and is divided/managed as 18 to 20 wheat pastures which allows for replication of experimental treatments. The cool-season perennial grasses are being studied as complementary forages to wheat pasture. It is equipped with a weather station, cattle receiving, handling and weighing facilities and feed storage areas. The Unit is managed by the Department of Animal Science but the research program is designed and conducted cooperatively between faculty from the Departmental of Animal Science, Plant and Soil Science, Agricultural Economics, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering and Entomology.

In addition, a wheat pasture research facility consisting of 85 acres, a barn with 26 stalls for individually feeding cattle, four Pinpointer feeders on pasture, cattle handling facilities and a feed storage and sample preparation lab is available for intensive studies with smaller numbers of cattle. This facility is four miles west of the campus.

Sheep Facilities

The sheep farm is located on approximately 80 acres just west of the campus. The farm is in bermuda grass pasture, of which 36 acres is overseeded in the fall with small grains for winter pasture. The facilities at the sheep farm include the following: Main Sheep Barn (built in 1930); North Sheep Barn (previously a swine barn-used for sheep since 1980); West Barn (built in 1967) - 20' x 120' shed with opening to the south. Working facilities such as chutes, foot bath, cutting gates, and turning cradles are available at the North Sheep Barn.

The purebred sheep flock is primarily used in teaching several Animal Science courses such as 1124, 2112, 2253, 3242, 3013, 3443 and 4553. In addition to the on-campus uses, the sheep flocks are used widely for 4-H and FFA schools and field days.

OSI Ram Test Facility

The Oklahoma Sheep Improvement Ram Test Facility is a producer owned facility on ground leased from OSU. The facility is a 30' x 50' open front barn with the capacity to hold 100 ram lambs. The barn was constructed in 1989. The facility is located 1/2 mile north of the purebred beef center.

Oklahoma Beef, Incorporated

Oklahoma Beef, Inc. (OBI), is a central bull testing station located eight miles west of Stillwater, OK, on Highway 51. Approximately 60 acres of land are leased from Oklahoma State University for the bull testing program. Over 1,000 bulls are tested per year representing as many as twelve breeds and over 30 testing groups. Many of these bulls are sold through all-breed, performance tested bull sales held in April and October each year at the test station. Facilities include seven open-fronted bull testing barns for breeders to use for gain testing as follows: for Brangus, Angus, Hereford, Polled Hereford, Limousin, Charolais , Beefmaster, Simmental, Gelbvieh and Red Angus member breeders. Sale barn and sale pens exist on property, as well as office space and working facilities. Non-member breeds (Saler and Chiangus) use any existing facilities available for their gain tests. Oklahoma Beef, Inc., is governed by a board of directors and officers representing member breeds. Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service faculty assist in the advisement of test station activities and summarization of performance data collected through 112-day gain tests.