Savoy Research Complex

Research Focus

The Savoy Research Center complements research being conducted by the departments of Animal Science and Poultry Science at the Milo J. Shult Agricultural Research & Extension Center (SAREC). The Swine Research Center has extensive livestock inventories and facilities for swine management that are similar to industry conditions. Animal Science maintains a large herd at Savoy and has two beef research units focused on a systems approach from the birth of an animal to end product with an emphasis on efficiency and health. Poultry Science has two research units at Savoy and conducts managerial research applicable to the poultry industry, specifically data acquisition on poultry physiology, welfare, housing, and environmental needs.

Learn about Savoy Forestland Management Plans

Facts

• Currently 3,183 acres including 2,185 acres in forestland and the rest in pastures and infrastructure
• Twelve miles west of SAREC along Washington County Road 845 between US Highway 412 and State Highway 16
• Supplemented by the 240-acre Physiology/Parasitology Research Unit five miles to the south at the corner of Harmon Road/Washington County Road 31 and State Highway 16 acquired in 1957
• Clarksville and Nixa Gravelly silt loams and Captina silt loam soils series make up the majority of the area with the Clarksville and Nixa series being on the steepest slopes

Resources

COW / CALF RESEARCH UNIT

• 185 mature beef cows, 8 herd bulls, and 60 replacement heifers
• Two hay storage barns – 3,600 sq. ft. each
• One hay storage barn – 1,800 sq. ft.
• Two animal handling barns – 2,500 sq. ft. each
• One equipment storage shed –2,500 sq. ft.
• 2 feed trucks
• Field equipment – bush hog, sprayer, cattle trailer, hay trailer, and utv
• Replicated small pastures

STOCKER CATTLE RECEIVING AND BACK-GROUNDING RESEARCH UNIT

• Two 15,000 sq. ft. adjoining animal housing pens
• 1,500 sq. ft. and 10,000 sq. ft. sorting pen for animal handling and processing
• 7500 sq. ft. hay and feed storage facility
• 12,000 sq. ft. of equipment storage and shops
• 5 tractors
• Hay harvesting equipment and assorted attachments
• 16 semi-confinement pens
• 16 one-acre grass lots

• 150 sows and gilts and their offspring located at two sites; sows and gilts are in 3 farrowing groups with a group farrowing about every 7 weeks.
• Offspring at any one time of up to 350 nursing pigs, 336 nursery pigs, and 864 growing/finishing pigs
• Facilities to accommodate 150 sows and/or gilts in breeding and/or gestation
• Farrowing facilities to accommodate up to 40 sows and/or gilts/farrowing group
• Nursery facilities with 48 nursery pens with a total capacity of 336
• Growing/finishing facilities of 4 rooms with 36 pens/room for a capacity of 864 pigs
• Sufficient land for application of generated nutrients

• 4 full-sized broiler houses equipped with computerized environmental control and data collections systems capable of commercial-type production research

• Pullet house for rearing young hens
• Two production houses
• Egg collection room

History

Begun as the Beef Cattle Experimental Farm in 1952 with the acquisition of 3,185 acres from the USDA, the work of the unit was targeted to help local farmers transition their idle cotton farms to more diversified opportunities. The Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) purchased a herd of registered Aberdeen Angus cattle and got a major boost with the contribution of seven champion Herefords in 1953 from F.W. Dye, a leading cattle breeder in N.W. Arkansas.

In 1965, the AES swine farm was moved to the Savoy location. In 1991, the first poultry research facilities were constructed at Savoy, and in the mid-1990’s construction of new facilities at the now-named Savoy Beef Research Farm was commenced along with new long-range plans for the development of poultry, swine, and cattle research at the unit. A swine growing and finishing unit was built in 2001, and the farrowing and nursery units were remodeled. In 2003, AES constructed a broiler/breeder facility designed for research on the genetics and management of broiler breeding stock. Today, the Savoy Research Complex boasts a broiler/breeder research unit, a poultry research unit, a swine research center, a cow/calf research unit, and a stocker cattle receiving and back-grounding research unit.