Each feeding pen is equipped with its own water trough. The feedmill has five overhead storage bins, two commodity bays for roughage storage, fat and molasses tanks, a Roto-Mix mixer, and Davis Precision Horizontal Batch Premixer. Future plans include the addition of a steam flaking unit. A unique feature at the feedlot is that each pen has an individual water line and water trough. Water consumption is monitored with flowmeters located in the water room within the processing barn.
Special dosimeters are available for adding minerals, vaccines and antibiotics to the water.
A reverse-osmosis water treatment system was recently added to allow for more flexibility in feedlot water research. An automated weather station located adjacent to the feedlot collects climatological data every ten minutes and stores the data in a datalogger. Collected data includes air temperature, soil temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, wind direction, and wind speed. The loading chute has two ramps for loading and unloading cattle from large trucks or small trailers. Feed Delivery Batches of feed for various diets are prepared using a stationary mixer located in the mill.