Crop & Livestock Production - South Central PPD

Crop & Livestock Production in South Central Nebraska

Crops produced in the South Central PPD service territory are:

Corn and Seed Corn
Soybeans
Grain Sorghum (i.e. milo)
Wheat
Alfalfa
Small grains (i.e. oats)
Popcorn
Sunflowers

Livestock operations in the area, while predominantly cattle and hogs, include:

Hog confinement operations
Cattle feed-yards
Cow-calf operations
Dairy production
Turkey production
Exotic animal production (i.e. elk)

For more information, view http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Nebraska/index.asp.

Meat Animal Research Center — Clay Center, NE

A significant portion of the land associated with the historic Naval Ammunition Depot, located west of Clay Center, NE, continues to benefit the entire country. 35,000 acres of the Depot have been the home of the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC), since development of this site as a research facility began in 1966.

MARC is a national research facility whose mission is to conduct research on national problems related to beef, swine and sheep. MARC is operated by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and is one of about 104 such locations in the U.S. MARC is named after Roman L. Hruska, a long-time U.S. Senator from Nebraska.

MARC is a unique federal research location because of its large breeding-age female population of approximately 6,800 cattle, 3,000 sheep and 700 litters of swine. During certain times of the year, animal populations for the various research experiments may exceed 27,000. Approximately 50 percent of the research program is devoted to beef cattle, 30 percent to swine and 20 percent to sheep.

Also in use within MARC are approximately 4000 acres of cropland. Most of these acres under cultivation are irrigated by the use of 27 center pivot systems with corn and alfalfa being the main crops produced. These crops are used to feed the research animals.

The research program at MARC is organized on a multi-disciplinary team basis to solve national problems for the U.S. livestock industries. The primary research units are focused on Genetics and Breeding, Nutrition, Reproduction, Meats, Animal Health Systems, Biological Engineering and Production Systems.

As a location of interest in South Central Nebraska, MARC has well over 1,500 visitors per year, including visitors from most every state in the nation as well as several foreign countries. We are fortunate to have this premier research facility in our service area.