Texas A&M AgriLife held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center, a state-of-the-art facility that combines research and education outreach for the greater Texas High Plains region.
Texas A&M AgriLife held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center, located in The Texas A&M University System’s Charles W. “Doc” Graham ’53 DVM Complex on the West Texas A&M University campus in Canyon. (Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife)
The facility, at 3211 Russell Long Blvd, is a part of The Texas A&M University System’s Charles W. “Doc” Graham ’53 DVM Complex on the West Texas A&M University, WT, campus. This complex includes the Texas A&M Veterinary Education, Research and Outreach, VERO, and the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.
Regent John Bellinger of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents said the ribbon-cutting isn’t just about a building.
“The High Plains generates more than $20 billion annually in agricultural economic activity, and what happens here reaches far beyond this region,” Bellinger said. “This facility represents a long-term commitment to this region and to the people who depend on this work every day. It reflects our broader approach across the Texas A&M University System — working together, using our full strength, to serve Texans more effectively today and for generations to come.”
About the building
The $30 million multi-use facility will provide office space to support about 60 faculty and staff for the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agencies. In addition, it serves as the district hub for AgriLife Extension and its programming in the 22 surrounding counties.
The public meeting spaces incorporated into the facilities will support educational outreach and community events, and the modern laboratories support applied, solutions-oriented research by agency faculty.
Signature programs include beef cattle and dairy; wheat breeding and genetics; irrigation water management; water-limited forage systems; plant physiology, pathology and disease diagnostics; entomology; agronomy and soil science; sustainable livestock systems engineering; agricultural law and economics; gerontology and human nutrition.
Regional partners, producers and solutions
Texas A&M AgriLife works across the entire state of Texas, but Jeffrey W. Savell, Ph.D., vice chancellor and dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences, said that doesn’t mean it offers cookie-cutter solutions.
“Local work — paired with the power of our statewide mission — will focus on the opportunities and challenges that matter here,” Savell said. “When scientists, Extension professionals, partners and students work side by side, ideas move faster. Solutions become more practical. That’s what it looks like when a building brings people together.”
The Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center on the WT campus is a visible, tangible commitment to something important: partnership, said Walter V. Wendler, Ph.D., WT president.
“In the Panhandle, we understand partnership,” Wendler said. “We understand that no single rancher or farmer, no single researcher, no single institution can feed, clothe and fuel the state, nation and world. We work together because the land demands it and because our future depends on it.”
This region is home to key commodities like fed beef, corn, sorghum, cotton, dairy and wheat, among many others. High Plains producers generate more agricultural production than that of most states.
“The opening of this world-class facility marks a new era and technological leap in our scientific journey alongside the producers of the High Plains,” said G. Cliff Lamb, Ph.D., director of AgriLife Research.
“The science we generate here will build new and strengthened trust among our partners, in our ability to produce translational solutions across the region’s most important commodity systems,” Lamb said. “This center will be an integral part of a rapidly emerging paradigm around intelligent agricultural systems, which are critical to supporting healthy lives and livelihoods into the future.”
A space for community, outreach and service
The new center is an investment in both place and purpose, providing a home that inspires learning, leadership and service for youth, families and communities, said Rick Avery, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension director.
“This new center strengthens how AgriLife Extension serves the Panhandle by connecting counties, aligning priorities and expanding the reach of our programs,” said Avery. “It allows us to deliver meaningful, local impact at scale across the communities we serve.”
This center serves communities across the High Plains and every family and agricultural operation across the Golden Spread, said Brent Auvermann, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center director.
“We stand on the shoulders of the men and women whose very livelihoods have depended on the land since the pioneer days,” Auvermann said. “Today, we herald a new era in our long tradition of science, outreach, education and service to every resident of the Texas High Plains. This center will serve as an embassy for Texas A&M AgriLife — a place where we will be about the ‘people business’ of building trust, sustaining relationships and solving problems.”
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