Future Students | Current Students | Alumni | Community & Friends

Bradford Research and Extension Center celebrates 50th anniversary, opens new conference facility

Published: October 09, 2009

Story Source: Tim Reinbott, 573-884-7945

COLUMBIA, Mo. -University of Missouri's Bradford Research and Extension Center celebrated its 50th anniversary by dedicating a new technology transfer center to provide expanded space for specialized field days, workshops, clinics and meetings of civic organizations.

"We were really limited before," said Tim Reinbott, center director. "If you had more than 35 people, we couldn't do it here. Now we can have more than 200 people very easily."

The 6,800-square-foot building can be divided into three separate rooms, allowing the center to host multiple meetings simultaneously or concurrent sessions of large meetings. The facility includes a catering kitchen and office space for small meetings.

"It's going to make scheduling a lot easier," Reinbott said. "We will make the facility available to civic and agricultural groups at very reasonable rates," he said.

Events at the facility will highlight Bradford's research and extension programs, which include developing new varieties of wheat, soybean, corn and forages. Other research includes weed and pest management, aquaculture, wildlife habitat and environmental issues.

In 1959, Mary Robnett Bradford and her daughter, Estelle, deeded their 524-acre farm to the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

"Such a farm was needed to conduct crop, plant breeding, soil fertility and other agronomic studies," Reinbott said.

The farm has a soil type similar to several million acres of farmland in central and northeast Missouri.

Over the last 50 years, researchers at Bradford have pioneered much of the science-based technology used by Missouri famers, he said.

Special events at Bradford include annual tomato festivals, rose workshops and FFA field days, crop injury clinics and field days on bobwhite quail and weed and pest management. The new facility will expand learning opportunities for the public.

For more information on Bradford Farm and the Bradford Technology Transfer Center, see http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford or contact Reinbott at 573-884-7945.

Bradford Technology Transfer Center at MU Bradford Farm
Photo credit: Steve Morse, University of Missouri Cooperative Media Group

Ribbon cutting at Bradford Technology Transfer Center, Oct. 7, 2009. From left: Donna Thomas, administrative associate, Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station; John Poehlmann, assistant director, AES; Marc Linit, associate dean for research and extension, MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Tim Reinbott, superintendent of MU Bradford Farm; Jabbok Schlacks, general contractor, Shepherd's Company; Thomas Payne, vice chancellor and dean, MU CAFNR; Carla Rathmann, administrative assistant, MU Southwest Center.
Photo credit: Steve Morse, University of Missouri Cooperative Media Group