University of Wyoming's Largest Ag Research Center Details 2023 Work in New Report

Perched at 7,220 feet along Highway 230 west of Laramie, the Laramie Research and Extension Center has released a digital report laying out a 2023 research calendar that stretched from pulmonary hypertension in cattle to songbird populations in pastures, underscoring its standing as a national leader in high-altitude livestock and crop production research.

The center is the largest of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station's four sites, which also operate in Lingle, Powell and Sheridan. WAES, founded in 1891, describes its mission as addressing "the current and future needs of the state, region, nation and world through rigorous scientific investigation." The Laramie center anchors that network with the broadest footprint: livestock facilities for cattle, sheep, horses and swine off Wyoming Highway 230, extensive greenhouse facilities inside Laramie, and a rangeland study site at the McGuire Ranch northeast of the city.

The 2023 report details student and faculty research across seven identified areas: pulmonary hypertension in cattle, ruminant nutrition, forage production, applications of precision agriculture technologies, the relationship between grazing and soil carbon, controlled environment agriculture, and songbird populations in working pastures. That last topic reflects a broadening of the center's scope beyond traditional production agriculture into ecological monitoring on agricultural lands.

The center also served as a hub for agricultural education throughout the year. It provided instructional space for University of Wyoming courses in animal science, botany, plant sciences and rangeland ecology, and regularly hosted 4-H, FFA and collegiate judging teams. In a notable regional partnership, LREC worked with the National Wildlife Federation to host the America's Grasslands Conference tour.

The Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station operates under the University of Wyoming, the state's only public university and a land-grant institution with an enrollment of approximately 13,000. The LREC report is available through WAES; for more information, call (307) 766-3667 or visit uwyo.edu/uwexpstn. The UW Institutional Communications Department can be reached at (307) 766-2929 or cbaldwin@uwyo.edu, located in Room 137 of the Bureau of Mines Building at 1000 E. University Ave.