The University of Kentucky (UK) has a reputation nationwide as a respected research institution. The Animal Science Beef Unit at the UK Animal Research Center, located in Woodford County about 15 miles from the UK campus, is one of the elements upon which that national reputation is built.
The center provides state-of-the-art facilities for conducting beef cattle production and management research. The Intensive Research Building provides space for offices and laboratories, 36 individually housed animals, a surgery suite, and animal handling and support, all with environmental control. Forage-based black crossbred stocker and registered Angus cow-calf production surrounds the center on approximately 450 acres, including 32 7.5-acre pastures used for grazing-nutrition experiments.
All work at the facility is forage-based. Employees at the center vary with seasonal projects but typically include three full-time staff and four faculty, as well as several graduate students and undergraduate workers.
Production facilities include 48 pens for feeding experiments, 60 radio-telemetry-controlled gates for individual feeding, and 24 individual pens for intensive sampling or feeding studies. A nutrition center for diet preparation and a handling facility for sorting and weighing animals round out the support facilities for the center.
