U.S. Meat Animal Research Center

The Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center is a federal livestock research station at 844 Road 313 near Clay Center, in Clay County, run by the USDA Agricultural Research Service. It covers just under 35,000 acres and has worked on beef, sheep and swine problems since 1964, splitting its effort roughly half to beef cattle, a third to swine and the rest to sheep. Five research units work there, on animal health genomics, genetics and breeding, livestock bio-systems, meat safety and quality, and nutrition, growth and physiology. It is one of the largest agricultural research stations in the United States and it works closely with the University of Nebraska.