04/17/07 Palouse Research, Education Center

The newly formed Palouse Research, Extension and Education Center encompasses a pair of University of Idaho research farms and two others near Moscow and Genesee. Weed science professor Donn Thill is the superintendent of the new center which has 1,200 acres of cropland, greenhouses, barns and laboratories and will be used to educate students. Thill says the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will be able to make better use of staff and facilities, providing more efficiency. THILL "Another thing of course is on the animal side they have a large feed demand of various sources of feed and by bringing all of the land that we farm or do research plots on together and then coordinating with the dairy center, the beef center, the feed mill and so on we can maybe come closer to meeting some of those needs by the crops that we grow within our own farms in the bulk areas that are not being used for research plots." Nearly 30 research, teaching, and extension faculty use facilities at the center each year. Their work is funded by about $1.2 million in grants from external sources each year. In addition to addressing delayed maintenance on aging facilities, Thill will also have to find agricultural research areas large enough to serve farming needs. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott