Our facilities include several hundred acres of research plots, irrigation systems and other equipment, well equipped greenhouses, and laboratories. Research is focused on crops and conditions specific to the High Plains of western Nebraska, such as corn, dry edible beans, sugarbeets, potatoes, and specialty crops or alternative crops. Our research also concentrates on cattle feeding and nutrition, cow-calf production, range management, and rangeland ecology.
Dryland Crop Research
Dryland crops research is conducted at the High Plains Agricultural Laboratory (HPAL) 6 miles northwest of Sidney, NE. Located on 2,400 acres, HPAL research and extension focuses on crops and cattle grazing studies emphasizing dryland production systems.
Dryland Crop Research
Irrigated Crop Research
Irrigated crop research is focused on crops and conditions specific to the High Plains of western Nebraska. The Scotts Bluff Ag Lab, surrounding the Panhandle R&E Center, comprises 156 acres of irrigated cropland. The Mitchell Ag Lab, 5 miles to the north (the original experimental station site), has 269 acres of irrigated cropland.
Irrigated Crop Research
Beef Research
Research conducted at the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center is aimed at addressing the challenges facing producers, answering their questions, and improving their net return. The Panhandle Research Feedlot north of Scottsbluff is able to conduct precision, bias-free research in topics vital to the industry, in the same climactic conditions that producers face in the real world. Research into beef production systems, including grazing and forages, also is conducted at the High Plains Ag Lab near Sidney and the UNL experimental range site in southern Sioux County.
Beef Research