FPAC 2025 Research
Brad Shelton, Superintendent
1117 State Road 458
Bedford, IN 47421
812-279-8554
sheltonb@purdue.edu
https://ag.purdue.edu/department/arge/PACs/fpac/fpac.html
Department of Agronomy
Purdue Automated Agricultural Weather Station (PAAWS)
Purpose: Automated collection of weather data from this site is sent to the Indiana State Climate
Office at Purdue University - data can be observed at: http://climate.agry.purdue.edu
Contact: Beth Hall, Department of Agronomy
Department of Animal Sciences
Indiana Beef Evaluation Program (IBEP)
Purpose: Provide a common environment for growing young bulls from cooperators in Indiana
as well as surrounding states. To provide a source of superior, performance tested bulls to
commercial cattlemen intent on improving their herds.
Contact: Nick Minton, Department of Animal Sciences
Evaluation of New Cattle Weighing Technology
Purpose: Evaluate the accuracy and importance of automated weighing technologies for its
integration in genetic evaluation and herd management.
Contact: Nick Minton, Department of Animal Sciences
Soybean Supplementation Following Timed-artificial Insemination in Beef Heifers on
Fresh Pasture
Purpose: Determine the effectiveness supplementing soybean hull pellets of heifers grazing
washy pasture immediately after insemination.
Contact: Ron Lemenager and Nick Minton, Department of Animal Science
Measuring Individual Forage Intake of Replacement Heifers
Purpose: Animals can have the same genetics and same average daily gain but eat drastically
different amounts of feed. The project collected weights every time heifers drank from the
Vytelle system.
Contact: Nick Minton and Matt Wilson, West Virginia University, Department of Animal Science
Department of Animal Sciences
Resilient Beef Cattle
Purpose: Developing methods that enable precision selection decisions for animals in diverse
production environments is expected to result in large productivity gains and a reduction in
welfare issues, all while mitigating the environmental impact from suboptimal allocation of
resources to ill-adapted animals.
Contact: Luiz Brito and Camila Santos, Department of Animal Science
Department of Botany & Plant Pathology
Corn Disease Sentinel Plots
Purpose: To monitor for the on-set of various diseases in corn and soybeans throughout the
growing season.
Contact: Darcy Telenko, Department of Botany and Pathology
Soybean Disease Sentinel Plots
Purpose: To monitor for the on-set of various diseases in corn and soybeans throughout the
growing season.
Contact: Darcy Telenko, Department of Botany and Pathology
Department of Entomology
Insect Pest Monitoring Network
Purpose: Monitor insect pests of corn, soybean, wheat, and pastures.
Contact: Laura Ingwell, Department of Entomology
Department of Forestry & Natural Resources
Forest Inventory Studies
Purpose: Provides location for woodland research activity across the 234 acres of forest at the
Feldun-Purdue Agricultural Center. Current effort includes forest inventory. Feldun-PAC
possesses mature woods with a long data base history dating back to the early 1950's.
Contact: Don Carlson, Department of Forestry & Natural Resources
Wildlife Monitoring with UAVs
Purpose: Conduct aerial surveys with UAVs to estimate the density of deer, turkey, coyote at
the PACs as part of a larger survey with DNR across Indiana.
Contact: Pat Zollner – Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
Collaborations
National Weather Service Station (NWS)
Purpose: Manual collection of daily weather observations from this site are sent to the NWS via
a web-based application known as WxCoder. Data has been recorded at Feldun since 1893.
Contact: Brad Herold, National Weather Service
Cross-Breed EPD Development Collaboration with Simmental Assoc
Purpose: Early 2000’s American Simmental Assoc wanted to develop cross-breeding EPDs and
was looking for large commercial herds with phenotypic data. Feldun maintains a Simmental x
Angus cow herd. Feldun has provided pedigree and phenotypic back to the early 1980s and
continues to provide data from birth until death, or until the animal is culled. Approximately
8000 animal points and 1300 DNA samples have been submitted to the Simmental Assoc to
help with this effort.
Contact: Brad Shelton, Feldun Purdue Ag Center
U.S. Surface Climate Reference Network (USCRN)
Purpose: Provide a continuous series of climate observations for monitoring trends in the
nation’s climate and for supporting climate-impact research
Contact: National Centers for Environmental Information.
Effectiveness of Annual Ryegrass to mitigate negative effects of fragipan soils.
Purpose: Establishment of annual ryegrass on fragipan soils and measure differences in
soybean production as compared to no ryegrass treatment. Measure fragipan depths overtime.
Contact: Brad Shelton, Feldun Purdue Ag Center; Claire Phillips – USDA/ARS
Monitoring Tick Populations in Indiana
Purpose: Drag field edges and log roads for various tick populations and to monitor for the
relatively new Asian Longhorn tick that will be an increasing issue for livestock producers
Contact: Doug Ginder, Indiana Department of Health
Select Sires – Young Sires Program Collaboration
Purpose: Provide unbiased data on newer herd sires that Select Sires has added to their stud
line up. Feldun utilizes sires through the AI program that suit the needs of the cow herd. Data
from birth through slaughter, for steers, is provided to Select Sires.
Contact: Brad Shelton, Feldun Purdue Ag Center