Research Facilities
The Department of Animal Sciences has a wide array of modern research
facilities and resources available for the in depth examination
of molecular processes, whole animal metabolism, and multi-faceted
systems involving animals. Laboratories,
research farms, on-campus resource facilities, and off-campus research
stations are all used to tackle both applied and basic problems
related to animal production and animal-derived food processing.
Farm Facilities
In addition to on campus research
facilities, the Department operates several research farms in the
greater Lexington area. The 1500 acre Animal
Research Center (ARC) in nearby Woodford County is currently
home to the Beef Research Unit and Sheep Unit. Dairy and poultry
research are currently conducted at the Coldstream Farm located
just north of Lexington. Maine Chance is the home of the Equine
Research Unit.
Part of our mission is to conduct
research relevant to a variety of production systems and environments.
Therefore, several off-campus research farms are located throughout
the state. The Eden Shale Farm in Owen County has activities related
to beef cattle management. Beef nutrition and swine research are
conducted at the West Kentucky Substation Farm in Princeton, Kentucky.
Maine Chance Farm:
Equine Research Unit
The Department of Animal Sciences
at the University of Kentucky operates a 100 acre horse farm for
teaching and research. The farm is located about 10 miles from the
main University of Kentucky campus. The farm includes two separate
barn areas with more than 15 pastures/paddocks of various sizes.
The farm routinely maintains 60 to 80 horses, depending upon season
and research needs. The farm is staffed by a full time manager with
an M.S. degree, a full time animal technician and a number of student
workers.
Animal Research Center: Beef
Unit
The Animal Science Beef Unit at
the UK Animal Research Center located in Woodford County, approximately
15 miles from campus, provides state of the art facilities for conducting
beef cattle production and management research. The Intensive Research
building provides space for offices and laboratories, as well as
36 individually housed animals, a surgery suite, and animal handling
and support, all with environmental control. Production facilities
include 48 pens for feeding experiemnts, 60 Calan gates for individual
feeding and 24 individual pens for more intensive sampling or feeding
studies. A feed center for diet preparation and a handling facility
for sorting and weighing animals surrounds the center on approximately
450 acres including 32, 7.5 acre pastures for grazing nutrition
experiments.
Animal Research Center: Sheep
Unit
The 350-ewe flock is located
on 110 acres of the 1500-acre Animal Research Center. Sitting in
the center of this acreage is a Lambing Barn, Nutrition Center,
office Complex, and Student Quarters. The 336 x 48-foot Lambing
Barn contains 12 pens, each with enough square footage to maintain
20 ewes and their twin lambs. Each pen opens to a 32 x 44-foot gravel
"runout." These pens will also be used for drylot lamb
feeding. Four bays of 4 x 5-foot lambing pens are located in the
center of the barn. Each bay can house 16 ewes and their newborns.
These pens can be transformed into 32 individual lamb feeding pens.
The entire barn is wired for computerization and video recording.
Coldstream Farm: Poultry
Unit
The UK Poultry Research Facility,
located on the College of Agriculture's Coldstream Farm, is a vital
part of teaching, research and extension programs in poultry science.
It also provides support for other programs in Animal Sciences and
other university departments.
The facility includes three layer-cage
rooms with a combined capacity of 2,600 laying hens and two grower-cage
rooms that hold 2,800 pullets. The cage rooms are equipped with
a unique direct-cage ventilation system that provides a very uniform
environment through each room. The cage rooms have heating, air
conditioning and evaporative cooling to provide a high degree of
environmental control throughout the year.
Coldstream Farm: Dairy
Unit
The Coldstream Dairy Research Farm Complex
was originally constructed in the early 1960's. There have been
many renovations and facility updates since then. The complex includes:
| · |
a free stall
barn with 108 stalls for the milking herd |
| · |
a tie-stall barn
with 36 stalls, used primarily for cows on research trials that
require individual feeding |
| · |
a small free
stall barn with 18 stalls and Calan individual feeders; used
primarily for nutrition research |
| · |
a milking parlor
that holds eight cows (essentially 2 "double 2" parlors) |
| · |
heifer, dry cow
and maternity facilities |
| · |
a management
building that includes an office, teaching facilities and laboratory
space. |
University Resources
The University is categorized
as a Research Category I instituition by the Carnegie Foundation.
There are a wide variety of resources available for state-of-the-art
research in many biological disciplines. Some of the major resources
are:
-
Macromolecular Structure Analysis
Facility
-
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Spectroscopy Center
-
Flow Analysis and Cell Sorting
Facilty
-
Transgenic Mouse Facilty
-
Advanced Science and Technology
Commercialization Center
The entire campus is electronically
connected via an Ethernet network. An IBM 9672 Parallel Enterprise
Server and HP/Convex Exemplar X-Class Supercomputer are the focus
of the centralized computing resources.
The University of Kentucky Library
System has over 2 million volumes and receives over 23,000 periodical
and serial titles. The W. T. Young Library houses the majority (1.2
million volumes) of the collection in 361,000 square feet on 37
miles of shelving. The Young Library is fully equipped to take advantage
of electronic information technology: there are nearly 5,000 data
jacks, 600 personal computers available for patrons and staff, 50
miles of fiber optic cable, and wireless network capability. The
library system provides on-line catalog searching and other automated
services throughout campus.
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