Animal production flocks and herds are maintained for undergraduate instruction and graduate experimental programs. Facilities on or near the campus make possible practical laboratories for the various majors. The university farm consists of fertile soils typical of the Southern California area with enough variation in soil type and climate to give students a broad background of experience. Over 700 acres of university-owned land are available for pastures, crops, groves, and ornamental plantings. To assure each student of occupational competence, the university provides an opportunity to learn the fundamental skills involved in the care, maintenance and operation of agricultural equipment and facilities.
All departments offer employment for student assistants.
The College of Agriculture is involved in a wide variety of continuing education programs. They range from workshops in equine management to cultural food classes from agricultural leadership conferences to food distribution seminars, pest management and citronomics. Industry and agricultural faculty work cooperatively together in planning and presenting conferences to satisfy the needs of the agribusiness industry. A unique conference for the past several years has been the Agricultural Business Management conference for Japanese supermarket operators on food distribution in the United States. Short courses are provided by the agricultural education faculty in the newly emerging technical areas.