West Texas A&M University breaks ground on feedlot, education complex
On Nov. 10, the West Texas A&M University Foundation broke ground on their new $15 million research feedlot complex.
According to a news release, the WTAMU Foundation Research Feedlot and the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation Feedlot Education Facility will provide a state-of-the-art education for WT students, directly benefitting beef producers around the Panhandle, the state and the world.
Support for the multimillion-dollar facility comes from a combination of individual donors and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
WT President Walter V. Wendler said in prepared remarks that he hopes the complex will help strengthen the fed-beef and related industries through research, innovation and education.
“This feedlot, coupled with the other facilities and disciplines, will serve as a hub for discovery—where science meets soil, where data meets hard work, and where students learn not only the how but the why behind feeding a nation,” Wendler said.
Planning for the new facility has been ongoing for several years, culminating in a 2024 land legacy gift of 42.84 acre s adjacent to WT’s Nance Ranch by brothers and Canyon ranchers Mike and Gary Kuhlman, as well as in a $2.1 million USDA grant for the attached education center.
The combined facilities, which will be constructed southwest of the existing WT feedlot near Nance Ranch east of Canyon, is expected to include an educational center with a classroom and small auditorium; 90 10-head pens; 40 70-head pens; state-of-the-art technology for monitoring and feed manufacture and delivery; and a top-of-the-line animal-processing facility and feed mill.
Watch for more information about this complex in a future issue of High Plains Journal.
