Beef Unit
The purpose of the beef unit is to help fulfill the three parts of the Land-Grant Institution mission: research, education and extension. Cattle and facilities provide opportunities for intensive and extensive research in nutrition, genetics, physiology, growth and development, and meats. Teaching labs are conducted to provide undergraduates and veterinary students with hands-on learning. Undergraduate students are also employed to help manage the farm and to enhance their learning. The farm hosts various extension activities as well as provides cattle for off-site events. Facilities at the farm were completed in 1986 and include eight barns, two handling facilities and a feed center on approximately 500 acres. Typically, 50 to 75 head of heifers are developed, bred and calved as well as 150 mature cows. Steers are finished or sold as feeders depending on research needs; some are used in teaching meat science concepts and processed at the Purdue Meat Lab.