Northeast Research & Extension Center

Research Focus

Research at the Center encompasses all facets of pest management, soil fertility, and agronomic trials for corn, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, and soybean production. The Center serves as one of the primary stations for soybean and cotton breeding research.

Facts

• Encompasses 780 acres in Mississippi County located on the west side of Interstate 55 near Keiser, AR
• Has facilitated the development and release of four cotton varieties and more than 80 germplasm lines by the cotton breeding program
• Predominant soil series include the Sharkey silty clay and Sharkey-Steele complex with a small acreage of Steele loamy sand and Convent fine sandy loam
• Combination of loamy and clayey soil textures allows for a wide range of agronomic research opportunities
• The Judd Hill Research Farm, a 25-acre farm located in Poinsett County, is supervised by the NEREC in cooperation with Arkansas State University and the USDA-ARS
• Oversees cotton research on 24 acres adjacent to the Manila, AR airport that has Routon-Dundee-Crevasse complex soil with a sandy texture

Resources

• Staff consisting of the station director, resident director, 3 faculty, 7 full-time research technicians, and 10 full-time employees
• Meeting facility with seating capacity of 150
• 750 acres in precision-graded fields for research and production
• Field and specialized research equipment for crop planting, maintenance, irrigation, and harvest
• Hardy-Caviness greenhouse and headhouse complex for cotton breeding, soil fertility, and entomology research

History

The Northeast Research & Extension Center (NEREC) was authorized in 1957 and made operational in 1958 as the Northeast Branch Station with the purchase of 632 acres and the donation of an additional 40 acres (less some acreage to the construction of I-55) to address the high frequency of cropping problems encountered on less-productive clayey soils of northeast Arkansas.

Research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in northeast Arkansas began in 1948 in Osceola, AR, to assist northeast Arkansas farmers to solve alfalfa production issues on a leased farm called the Alfalfa Substation. The research was later expanded to include cotton disease problems in 1951. In 1953, the USDA signed a cooperative agreement with the Agricultural Experiment Station to expand alfalfa research in the area and entered into another cooperative agreement with the AAES on soybean research in 1955. The new branch station eventually expanded its alfalfa research, and into all phases of cotton and soybean production, as well as the evaluation of experimental lines of corn, cotton, grain sorghum, small grains, and soybeans. In 1972, Lee Wilson & Company donated 73 acres to the branch station along with a dwelling. This, along with the construction of a laboratory and greenhouse the same year, allowed the AAES to add a soybean breeder to the staff. Funding from the Arkansas General Assembly in the late 1970s allowed for the creation of three research and extension centers. The Northeast Branch Station, now at 743 acres, was merged into the newly established Northeast Research & Extension Center on July 1, 1979. Construction on the present 10,000-square-foot office, meeting and laboratory building started in 1978. The center and building were dedicated on Aug.27, 1980. The research was expanded into rice in 1980, and water management on 700 different plots in 1985.

The Hardy-Caviness Greenhouse Complex building and renovation project, named for former Dean Glenn Hardy and famed soybean breeder Charles Caviness, was completed in 2011. The project added a new greenhouse, doubled the size of the associated head house, and renovated an old greenhouse and head house. These improvements greatly enhanced the ability to provide materials for field testing, evaluate field samples, and conduct tests throughout the year.