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College of Agriculture
> Dept. of Animal & Range Sciences
Department of Animal and Range Sciences
Facilities
The Livestock, Teaching & Research Center
The Center (often referred to as 'The Towne Farm')
is located west of 19th Street and the main MSU campus.
This Research Center comprises approximately 430 acres
and houses the Oscar Thomas Nutrition Center, Miller
Stock Pavilion, Equine Center, Horseshoeing School,
Feed Mill, and Beef Center. The Center is dedicated
to the service and support of research, teaching and
extension activities relating to livestock and livestock
management.
The Fort Ellis Research Farm
Situated on a historic U.S. Cavalry fort, this research
farm is located within a 20 minute drive of the Bozeman
campus. Fort Ellis includes approximately 640 acres
and was dedicated in 1930 as a "headquarters for
the range sheep investigations" as conducted by
the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. This facility
continues to play a large part in the research and teaching
of the Department of Animal & Range Sciences in
the areas of sheep, beef cattle, and horses.
The Red Bluff Research Ranch
Red Bluff Ranch is located near Norris in Madison County,
Montana, along the west side of the Madison River. The
operation comprises 13,750 acres of land, 10,000 deeded
and 3,750 leased. Most of this land is rangeland, with
limited hay meadows along the valley bottoms. Elevations
range from 4,600 feet to 6,200 feet above the Madison
River canyon. The ranch occupies most of the once thriving
late 19th-early 20th century gold mining community in
the Hot Springs Mining District which was second only
in gold production to Alder Gulch. At its peak of activity,
there may have been a population of approximately 3,000.
The ranch nearly surrounds the town of Norris. The founder
of Norris, Alexander Norris may have owned much or all
of the Red Bluff Ranch at one time. The Red Bluff Research
Ranch (previously known as the Rowe Brothers Ranch)
was purchased for $164,000 ($16.83 per acre). The total
acreage was 9,746. Two U. S. Forest Service Grazing
Permits (Muddy Greek, Cache Creek) in the Gallatin National
Forest came with the Rowe property. Some small additional
land exchanges and purchases have taken place over the
last 45 years. The grazing permits were returned to
the Forest Service in 1976. A new lambing facility and
mixing barn at the ranch was constructed in about 1990.
This made lambing much easier. There are currently about
170 head of cattle and 900 head of sheep maintained
on a year round basis at the research ranch. These livestock
along with the range areas are used for both teaching
and research.
Bandy Experimental Ranch
This is a 1,437 acre operating cattle ranch located
in the Blackfoot River drainage, 50 miles northeast
of Missoula, Montana. In 1993 the Montana Forest and
Conservation Experiment Station of the University of
Montana, Missoula, entered into an agreement with the
Agricultural Experiment Station at Montana State University,
Bozeman to conduct joint operations and cooperative
research on the property. The ranch is comprised of
1,827 acres of timberland, 1,226 acres of native pasture
and water which includes a 50 acre reservoir, and 384
acres of irrigated hay land. Ongoing research on the
ranch includes; analysis of riparian-wetland vegetation;
effects of wildlife and livestock grazing on riparian
areas; effects of early spring elk use on summer livestock
pastures; and studies of wildlife friendly fencing techniques
for livestock.
The Plant Growth Center
The Plant Growth Center (PGC) is a teaching and research
facility available to the College of Agriculture staff.
The current 60,000 square-foot facility, which was completed
in 1987 houses 29 glasshouse rooms with 8,300 square
feet of bench space - both temperature and light are
micro-computer controlled. For more information, click
here.
Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC,
cooperating)
The Center is located about seven miles southwest of
Havre on U.S. Highway 87. The Northern Agricultural
Research Center has approximately 500 acres of cropland
6000 acres of rangeland used for crop, beef cattle and
range management research. Normally 350 beef cows and
300 calves are used in different projects. For more
information, click
here.
USDA-ARS Fort Keogh Livestock & Range Research
Laboratory (LARRL, cooperating)
Fort Keogh is a 55,000 acre USDA - Agriculture Research
Service (ARS) rangeland beef cattle research facility.
It is 1 of 14 research locations that make up the 8
state Northern Plains Area of ARS. It is run in cooperation
with the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, the
agriculture research component of Montana State University.
The mission of Fort Keogh is to research and develop
ecologically and economically sustainable range animal
management systems that ultimately meet consumers needs.
For more information, click
here.
USDA-ARS U.S. Sheep Experiment Station (USSS,
cooperating)
The U.S. Sheep Experiment Station is located in Dubois
Idaho. The mission of the station is to produce technology
to increase efficiency of livestock production in a
manner that assures agricultural and natural resources
are available for our grandchildren. For more information,
click
here.
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