The buildings and equipment were very impressive. There is office space for the herdsman, who spends most of his time there on the farm. There is also considerable office space for graduate students who will be doing research there. Dr. Vanzant expressed the importance of having students get plenty of hands on exposure to their individual research projects and how having office space on the farm can help students spend quality time working there. In addition to graduate students, there will be undergraduates living and working on the farm.
Equipment is available that allows for the precise onsite mixing of feed rations.
Nutritional research can be done on single animals, small groups, and large groups. The technology to do reliable research on groups of animals sets the research unit apart from many others. A state of the art livestock surgical room, which is very rare outside of certified veterinary schools, is also included in the research site. These features, combined with rigorous building specifications, helps to ensure that the UK Beef Research Unit will meet the standards for virtually any nutritional research grant, from private entities or government institutions, for which many livestock research facilities would fail to qualify. Dr. Vanzant was an extremely friendly and informative tour guide.