Celebrating 100 years of Purdue Agriculture @ Davis Ag. Center

A CENTURY OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IS SOMETHING WORTH CELEBRATING

By Darrin Pack

FARMLAND -- More than 400 visitors helped the Davis Purdue Agricultural Center celebrate a century of service during a memorable field day Aug. 31.

The land that would become DPAC was donated to Purdue in 1917 by Martha Davis in memory of her son, Herbert Davis. DPAC includes 523 tillable acres with a variety of soil types and 100 managed forest acres known as the Herbert Davis Forestry Farm, located in Randolph County, east of Muncie.

Purdue Extension specialists Bob Nielsen and Shaun Casteel provided updates on grain crop conditions, while Jeff Boyer, the center’s director, and Fred Whitford, director of the Purdue Pesticide Programs and Extension historian, explored the center’s rich tradition and promising future. Karen Plaut, interim dean of the Purdue College of Agriculture, and Jason Henderson, director of Purdue Extension and associate dean of the Purdue College of Agriculture, thanked DPAC staff and visitors

“This is a time to celebrate but also to look ahead,” said Jerry Fankhauser, director of the Purdue Agricultural Centers.

The field day included exhibits of antique tractors and farming implements, as well as other agricultural memorabilia.

When the center was established a hundred years ago, tractors with internal combustion engines were very new technology - the way driverless cars are today. Most plowing and harvesting was done with implements pulled by livestock or people. The average yield per acre for Indiana grain crops was lets than half of what it is today.

A lot of things have changed in the ensuing century but the DPAC mission has remained constant.

“We’re here, as we have always been, to do the research that helps farmers manage their crops and land for the best possible results,” Boyer said.

In 1926, forestry professor Burr Prentice numbered, mapped, described, and tagged every tree on the property. Later generations of Purdue researchers have continued the work, making the Davis-Purdue Research Forest the oldest and largest mapped forest in North America. It has been designated as a Registered Natural Landmark.

In recent years, DPAC has been at the forefront of vital research into agricultural water use and drainage issues along with Precision Agriculture projects.