Branch Research Stations In Agriculture: History, Development, Operation, and Future

By Gale A. Buchanan

Branch research stations fulfill a critical role in the success of agricultural research. The development of these stations requires individuals with unique skill sets in new, innovative technology and a sound knowledge of production agriculture. Branch Research Stations in Agriculture presents a comprehensive examination of the BRS system in the United States, a topic on which there has been little written to date. Author Gale Buchanan provides a historical perspective, describing the development of the foundation of the BRS system as it exists today. Then he explores the system’s function, operation, and future, illustrating the power and relevance of branch research stations to present-day agricultural research. An appreciation and understanding of the BRS system will help ensure a bright future for US agriculture. Offering extensive resources for agricultural researchers, this study provides a thorough consideration of the American system of branch research stations in agriculture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: May 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781483499314

Gale A. Buchanan

Gale A. Buchanan is the Former USDA Chief Scientist and Undersecretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics. In his early career, he was a teacher and research professor of weed science at Auburn University and ultimately Dean and Director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station. He then served at the University of Georgia, where he was appointed as Dean and Director of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Now retired, Gale has written and published several books. Unexpected Chef is his most recent book.

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Copyright © 2019 Gale A. Buchanan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0213-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9199-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9931-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904755

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 04/17/2019

Dedica

tion

To all personnel who have devoted their careers to providing support for agricultural research on branch research stations.

PREFACE

A lthough the overall agricultural research effort is often poorly understood by much of American society, one aspect of the agricultural research process that is often completely overlooked is the effort made by personnel located at branch research stations (BRSs) ¹. In today’s terminology, branch has largely been replaced by agricultural; however, branch is employed in the generic sense to describe these research facilities. Those who work at agriculture’s branch research stations are often taken for granted; however, in the community where a BRS is located, their efforts and the research work that they conduct are often genuinely recognized and appreciated. They have unique opportunities to solve problems in close partnership with stakeholders. Frankly, many university members consider these BRSs to be the front door to their land-grant institution.

While I was engaged in conducting research during the early part of a fifty-year academic career, much of my research was conducted on BRSs as well as at a few temporary branch research locations. During this time while working as a research scientist and later as an administrator with responsibility for several branch research stations, I formed many insights on which this book is based. Even agricultural scientists who are not directly involved in applied, site-specific agricultural research on BRSs often fail to appreciate this aspect of agricultural research. It’s easy for senior agricultural research administrators and department heads not to show much interest in BRSs as long as things are going well.

There are more than five hundred BRSs across the United States in the 1862 state agricultural experiment stations, and several of the 1890 land-grant institutions also have BRSs as do some of the insular agriculture institutions. In addition to these state-supported BRSs, the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has more than ninety research locations across the United States and in four foreign countries. Some ARS sites are collocated with state agricultural experiment stations. The US Forest Service also has a number of sites devoted to various aspects of forestry research.

Because my personal research was conducted primarily on BRSs, I developed an early appreciation for this aspect of the agricultural research effort. My opinions are based on what I expected and needed to successfully conduct my research. Then, serving as a resident director of a major BRS that had other smaller BRSs assigned to me provided a unique perspective from a different vantage point. Serving as administrative head of agriculture with overall responsibility for all agricultural programs in one state provided still further insight into various aspects—people, facilities, equipment—of branch research stations in the agricultural research, extension, and teaching process. While serving as undersecretary of agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics in the USDA, I had responsibility for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, which provided yet another experience with research stations.

There is great variability among BRSs (e.g., number in each state, size, method of funding, and scientific and support staffing). In addition to the variables, there are widely different expectations among BRSs. In some states, there are no assigned on-site research scientists; therefore, they are totally dependent on the main station, other BRSs, or other agencies, such as ARS for scientific support. On the other hand, some states include one or more research scientists assigned to the BRS. In this case, especially when several research scientists are assigned, the BRS acts more like a main station.

I am deeply indebted to many colleagues including research scientists, BRS personnel, and fellow agricultural administrators for providing further insight regarding the role and importance of BRSs. Also, these experiences further illustrated how they fit into the total agricultural research process. I am especially indebted to those BRS superintendents of research stations in Alabama, who are still fighting weeds I introduced many years ago.

This book could not have been written without the help, advice, counsel, review, and contributions of Stan Jones and Bobby Moss (Georgia), Wendy Wintersteen and Mark S. Honeyman (Iowa), David Teem and Jim Bannon (Alabama), Calvin Pearson (Colorado), Bobby Moser and David Benfield (Ohio), Joe Street (Mississippi), Susan Brown and Jan Nyrop (New York), John Sweeten and Jaroy Moore (Texas), Sandy Stewart (North Carolina), Neal Van Alfen, Bill Frost, Wendy Powers, and Lisa Fischer (California), John Patrick Jordan, USDA Agricultural Research Service, retired administrator Eric Young, Mike Harrington, Jeff Jacobsen, and Rick Rhodes, executive directors of Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors in the South, West, North Central, and Northeast regions, respectively. Stan Wilson, retired vice president, Auburn University, was exceedingly helpful. My son, Brad Buchanan, deserves special thanks for checking grammar and providing the book cover. I am especially appreciative of the word processing skills of Mrs. Leanne Chafin and for formatting tables in preparation of this manuscript, Miss Katibeth Mims for checking websites, and Mrs. Evelyn Folds and Mrs. Lesa Cox for assistance with correspondence with reviewers and contributors. Also included are all administrative heads, experiment station directors, BRS leaders, other administrators, and their staff for agricultural programs in our land-grant universities and the administrators and staff of the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Forest Service for their help and contributions.

Another major help was the constant and steadfast support and encouragement by my wife, Carol, during the preparation of the manuscript and putting up with me during my research days, when I got up and left home at 3:00 a.m. to go to a BRS to initiate an experiment.

Tifton, Georgia

2017

INTRODUCTION

B ranch research stations have played a pivotal role in the success of agriculture and the advancement of the agricultural sciences in the past century. Much of agricultural research efforts that are site-specific are accomplished on a BRS. This includes soil fertility as well as most soil test calibration, new cultivar evaluation, and assessment of new forages developed in experiment station breeding programs. Many BRSs include research scientists located on site who make important contributions that are non-site-specific in nature.

There is exceedingly wide variations in structure and function in BRSs. While many stations serve the site-specific function for the main station, the BRSs that have on-site research scientists make many fundamental contributions as well. This book describes the development and evolution of BRSs and how they contribute to the agricultural research mission.

In the past 175-plus years, the agricultural research enterprise has become more complex and highly technical, with ever greater levels of sophistication. In the early stages of development of agricultural research, most European agricultural research stations were decentralized—that is, they were separate standalone institutions. However, in the United States, the headquarters for agricultural research was usually located in conjunction with state land-grant universities as provided for in the Hatch Act of 1887. These stations are usually referred to as the main station or headquarters station. As discussed in some detail in chapter 2, it was recognized early on that because of variations in soils, geographic, and climatic conditions, along with different crop and livestock production enterprises, there was a need for multiple research sites to address area-specific research problems. Such sites go by many different names; however, I’ve chosen for the purposes of this book to label all research sites located away from the main or headquarters station as branch research stations (BRSs).

Branch research stations may be of two distinct types. The first type is permanent branch research stations (BRSs). These are part of the permanent structure of the state experiment station. The other type is temporary research sites (TRSs) ². Temporary means they are not part of the permanent structure of the state experiment station. They are usually on land that is provided either by lease or rented on a temporary basis from private landowners. A more complete description of these two types of branch research stations is in the following paragraphs.

Temporary Research Sites

TBRSs are utilized for a single experiment or timeframe to take advantage of a unique research opportunity. This may be a special infestation of an insect, disease, weed population, or other pest. It may also include some particular soil condition, a unique environmental factor, or a special crop. Basically, a temporary research site takes advantage of a unique experimental parameter or situation. In addition, the advent of new technologies coupled with new statistical tools has created opportunities for large-scale projects with multiple sites; these were not possible in early decades of field research. They allow the researcher to address a particular problem without introducing the problem or situation onto a permanent BRS or the main station, but most importantly, they allow site-specific work to be conducted often in conjunction with stakeholders.

Because such a situation or opportunity may occur anywhere, personnel at permanent BRSs are often involved in coordinating and managing the research on such temporary research sites.

Branch Research Stations—Permanent

BRSs comprise an integral component of the typical state agricultural experiment station. Such stations are identified by many different names. Some of those names include research center, research unit, agriculture laboratory, research and education center, research and extension center, agricultural research station, station, research farm, research demonstration farm, research demonstration center, research and outreach center, ranch, branch station, experiment farm, experiment field, AgriLife research and extension center, farm, research park, research site, and many others. It is apparent there are many names that describe branch research stations. In addition to the wide variation in names of BRSs, there is great disparity in size and function of stations across the US. Some of these differences will be discussed in later chapters.

In this book, we will describe the history, development, operation, and future of branch research stations and their contribution to the research process. Indeed, much of the success of the agricultural research effort in the United States can be directly attributed to site-specific applied research carried out on BRSs. This is especially true for many aspects of research involved in production agriculture.

Location of BRSs should always be selected with great care and after careful evaluation and analysis of all aspects of each site. Occasionally, producers will take matters in their own hands and seek legislative support to establish a BRS. This is particularly important if some specific agricultural interest or commodity group feels their agricultural needs are not being met. This is a good reason why administrative heads of agriculture should be knowledgeable of state politics and all relevant commodity and trade associations in the state. Although TBRSs usually last only a season, or at most a few years, BRSs are major long-term commitments. Likewise, a similar argument could be made when considering terminating a BRS. If the BRS was located and made operational for clearly justified reasons, its loss may result in a seriously negative impact on the overall research effort. Consequently, such decisions are usually not easy, often attract political interests, sometimes require the approval of the state legislature, and may include complex ownership issues. In times of budget contraction, the question often boils down to making cuts that have the least negative impact on overall research programs, leading to a decision that may shut down a BRS.

To ensure success of such sites, it’s important to recognize that research on BRSs must be a collaborative effort and that all parties understand and appreciate the role of each participant. Those who provide support for scientists who are charged with research on BRSs have a responsibility that must be recognized and met—if the relationship is to be successful and productive. Detailed descriptions of BRSs for five major agricultural states are included to illustrate the great diversity and unique role of each station. This also shows that each location has a unique role and contributes to the overall mission of research for that particular state. Another important component of this book is an inventory of branch research stations in the State Agricultural Experiment Station system and research locations of the USDA Agricultural Research Service and US Forest Service.

Given the multitude of branch research stations in the United States, it is sometimes mistakenly assumed that there are excessive numbers of such stations. Many state experiment stations as well as USDA ARS research stations are in a constant state of review to ascertain the relevance and importance of each location. It is also important to note that the function and focus of an individual BRS changes, in some cases dramatically, as decades go by and the needs of the agricultural community evolve. A decision to terminate a BRS should be taken only after careful study. In such situations, the sound judgment of experiment station leaders, other administrators, advisory groups/councils, research scientists, and stakeholders is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, such decisions are usually stimulated by fiscal considerations. A chapter is devoted to a description of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, which I have dubbed America’s Agricultural Experiment Station.

Because there have been few articles and little comprehensive information about the BRS system in the US, I have addressed three major issues in this book. From a historical perspective, the history and development provides a foundation of the system as it exists today. Also of great importance is the function and operation of the system. Finally, the future of the system. These themes illustrate the power and relevance of the BRS system and help to provide an understanding of this component of the agricultural research enterprise. An appreciation and understanding of the BRS system will help ensure a bright future for the system.

CHAPTER 1

EVOLUTION OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES

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T he emergence and development of agricultural research has been addressed in many publications (e.g., Carrier, The Beginnings of Agriculture ; Edmond, The Magnificent Charter ; Kerr, The Legacy ; and True, A History of Agricultural Experimentation ). The emergence and institutionalization of the agricultural experiment station system in the United States and its role in providing food, fiber, and energy for the population of this country and the world is described by Buchanan in Feeding the World: Agricultural Research in the Twenty -F irst Cen tury .

The agricultural research system in the United States was stimulated by a real need for information and several developments in both the United States and Europe. First was the emergence of the science of agriculture in Europe, and second was the creative and innovative spirit of American farmers who sought to improve agricultural productivity. Another significant contributor was federal legislation, including the 1862 Morrill Act, which created the land-grant colleges. Pearson and Atucha, in Agricultural Experiment Stations, have suggested that the Morrill Act of 1862 is the single most important event in the history of the US land-grant university system. Agricultural research was greatly stimulated in the 1862 land-grant institutions by passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, and in 1890 institutions by the 1977 farm bill. This latter legislation provided specific funds for support of a research mission for the 1890 institutions. These developments provided specific funds for support of and an unprecedented stimulus for agricultural research.

As teaching programs evolved, it became evident there was a need for more information about agricultural production. An increasing desire by farmers for more information about various aspects of agriculture provided a great incentive and stimulus for research. The agricultural research system in the US that evolved over many years has enjoyed great success. This has occurred despite generally modest levels of funding. Success of the agricultural research enterprise in the US can be attributed to several developments, including the following:

• Enlightened legislation that created the system

• Support and leveraging by both federal and state governments

• Active participation by both privately supported and publicly funded research

• Dedicated, competent, and highly