The College of Agriculture has received funding from the state legislature to begin a major overhaul of its facilities. The rest of the funding will come from a combination of private donations, and federal and state funding.

In the first phase of construction, an agricultural complex will be built north of Wellsville along the U.S. 89-91 corridor on property already owned by the university.
The current livestock teaching and research facilities on the northern edge of USU’s Logan campus are 50 years old, outdated and worn out. That location blocks the path of expansion for USU’s Innovation Campus, a center of economic development which is hemmed in on two sides by urbanization.          

The Wellsville location allows for a complex of buildings that will be equipped to train students for careers in the nutritional sciences, and the global food and fiber production and processing industries. Architect Robert Jacoby of Jacoby Architects says the main, 20,000-square-foot facility will be comprised of a central commons with two wings for classrooms, laboratories and offices. It will also house the international sheep genome project and the university’s veterinary and other animal care facilities.

In the second phase of construction, the aging E.G. Peterson Agricultural Science Building will be replaced with a technologically enhanced facility on the Quad where the old Merrill Library used to be.

“The move will place us in a prominent location on the Quad—a site consistent with our land-grant heritage and future,” agriculture dean Noelle Cockett says.
Utah State University is the only university in the state that offers advanced agricultural degrees. The Peterson building, built in 1953 to handle the requirements of the time for agricultural education, has not undergone a major renovation since.

The new classroom facility will be more accessible for people with disabilities, meet modern fire and earthquake codes, and cost less to cool and heat. It will also be large enough to house the agricultural economics program, currently a 10-minute walk away in the College of Business building.