News Releases for May 2008
May 30, 2008
For further information, please Contact the Governor's Office
Hoeven, Campus, State Officials Break Ground for New NDSU Greenhouse Facility, Beef Cattle Research Center
FARGO, N.D. – Gov. John Hoeven today was joined by campus and state officials at North Dakota State University to break ground for two new agriculture research facilities, the new Greenhouse Facility and the Beef Cattle Research Center. Both projects will provide enhanced capabilities for crop and livestock research.
Present for the ceremony were NDSU President Joseph Chapman; Jerry Effertz, chairman of the State Board of Agricultural Research and Education; D.C. Coston, NDSU vice president for Agriculture and University Extension; and Ken Grafton, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. Also on hand for the groundbreaking were legislators, faculty, staff, industry leaders and donors.
During the last legislative session, Hoeven signed into law a $42 million comprehensive renewable energy and agriculture package, which included $7 million for the new Greenhouse Facility. The funding was in addition to $2 million appropriated in the previous biennium. The Legislature also provided $1 million in spending authority to help develop the Beef Cattle Research Center.
“The new Greenhouse Facility will be integral to maintaining North Dakota’s continued leadership in agriculture production,” Hoeven said. “The complex will facilitate innovative research in plant breeding, pathology, nutrition and the development of higher-yield and higher-quality crop varieties that will keep our producers on the cutting edge of the industry.”
Hoeven and the officials also broke ground for the first phase of the Beef Cattle Research Center. The facility will play a central role in the NDSU Experiment Station’s research efforts related to animal nutrition and physiology, feed efficiencies, genetics and food safety.
The facility will be used to conduct research trials for existing and future studies conducted at NDSU and the Beef Systems Center, one of the state’s Centers of Excellence projects. It will provide an opportunity for researchers to take controlled scientific data from the laboratory to a more open environment for further testing. Construction of the first phase of the research center will cost over $700,000 and is scheduled to be completed by October.
E-mail comments to the Governor
