While N.C. State plans on selling its largest property, the 80,000 acre Hoffman Forest, one piece of University-owned land might be too valuable and close to campus for a price tag.
The Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory, located minutes away from main campus, is almost 1,500 acres of land owned by the N.C. State.
The field lab caters to students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, especially those studying animal science, biological and agricultural engineering, entomology and food bioprocessing and nutrition sciences.
According to Superintendent of the LWRFL, Curtis Powell, the facility is used for research, but another focus is to give students hands-on experience.
The field lab is essentially a fully functioning farm to give students access to livestock— including pigs, chickens and cows for education and research.
In addition, the facility contains gardens and a soil and water technology center.
“We do some research, but our main priority is teaching,” Powell said. “Hands-on labs for CALS are also taught here, but students from other colleges benefit too. One group of engineering students was here testing an air cannon, for example.”
According to Assistant Director of the LWRFL, Reid Evans, the field lab is also used for extending research and the complex’s facilities to students from other schools, as well as farmers, making it a statewide agricultural initiative.
“We have a lot of extension activities where groups come in learn about the latest research going on here. For example, experts visited to hear about research we’ve been doing on intensive grazing,” Evans said. “We bring in high school students and do the same thing for them. We’re interacting directly with farmers across the state, and sometimes they’ll come to these events.
In addition to studies on intensive grazing, experts at LWRFL are also doing nutritional research on animals’ diets, and how certain nutrients stimulate or hinder performance.
Evans also mentioned the construction of a new facility that measures air quality.
Evans discussed the field lab’s history, and how the University previously owned several smaller properties similar to the LWRFL. However, as N.C. State has expanded, farms have been consolidated to make room for other construction projects.
“[The LWRLF] started in the mid sixties. Before that time the University had different farms, they just weren’t as unified as the field lab,” Evans said. “Historically since the University was started, the farms were operated on lease land. Student apartments used to be dairy farms, for example. Things have changed as N.C. State has grown and other farms became consolidated at Lake Wheeler.”
Evans also said the field lab functions like an internship, where students can get practical, real-world experience in their major to determine if they want to pursue a particular career.
“Different units will hire students and get them to routinely do work here and get them used to research, whether that be crop or animal research,” Evans said. “Interns can interact hands-on, and doing that daily gives people an understanding of what they get with that type of job.”
While the University plans on selling the University’s largest piece of land, the Hoffman Forest, in response to budget cuts and the recession, Powell thinks the LWRFL is too valuable to sell.
“I don’t get the feeling that the Lake Wheeler Lab will be sold,” Powell said. “This isn’t the only farm we have, but I think this one is too valuable with all the experience we give students and all the livestock we have on hand.”
