OSU Agronomy Research Station Receives Multi-Million Dollar Gift To Help Build New Agronomy Discovery Center

An Oklahoma State Program that does research to help feed people around the world received a multimillion-dollar donation to help improve and grow the Agronomy Research Station.

Tucked away in Stillwater, Oklahoma, is one of the country's top wheat research and production programs.

"So, they take different types of wheat, cross them together, and they're looking for varieties of wheat that are more productive," said Jayson Lusk, OSU agriculture Dean and Vice President. 

On August 9th, 2024, the OSU Agronomy Research Station announced the program would get even bigger.

"Oklahoma Genetics Incorporated and Oklahoma Wheat Commission have graciously provided lead gifts totaling $6 million to begin the improvements to the OSU agronomy research station," Dean Lusk said. " It's an investment to help spur innovation in the wheat sector to ensure that Oklahoma remains one of the top wheat-producing states in the country."

But the announcement wouldn't just help the program grow. It would also help nourish other parts of the world.

"Everything we eat, worth eating, every kind of bread imaginable, OSU wheat is in that bread, the brand is in that bread," said OSU Wheat Improvement Team Chair, Dr. Brett Carver. 

Dr. Carver is also the Plant and Soil Sciences Professor. He said much of the wheat that's grown and studied at OSU helps feed people all over the globe.

"So we're making bread wheat, and so that bread wheat, or that wheat itself, is traded all across the world, so it's making bread all across the world."

But he said studying and producing enough of it was difficult in the school's aging facilities.

"It would be a little bit like, let's say develop or create a new Ferrari in a Model T factory," Dr. Carver compared it to. 

The multi-million-dollar donation will help the program build new state-of-the-art greenhouses, replacing the current ones that were nearly 75 years old.

"Having newer facilities will allow us to really apply now what we can do best and that's work with the science," Dr. Carver said. 

Both Dr. Carver and Dean Lusk look forward to seeing not only wheat growing in Stillwater but the impact of the science of wheat production around the world.