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A
boon for farmers and gardeners across the state soon will open
on the Auburn campus.
The Alfa Agricultural Services
and Research building is predicted to be completed this August.
This building is made possible by a $5 million |
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gift from Alfa Insurance
Companies and the Alabama Farmers Federation in commemoration
of their 75th anniversary.
Located
near the corner of Donahue Drive and South College Street this
24,000-square-foot, L-shaped, brick building will combine three
separate diagnostic laboratories that are presently located
in different buildings on Ag Hill. Those labs are the Soil Testing,
Plant Diagnostic and Fescue Diagnostic laboratories.
This
new facility will provide each laboratory significantly more
space than they are currently using to operate. It is expected
that Soil Testing will double and Plant Diagnostic will increase
its space eight-fold when the move is completed. The extra space
will allow more individual attention to special case samples
that come in and allow more people to work in the lab simultaneously.
“We are thrilled to be moving
(to the new building) and can’t wait,” says Jackie
Mullen, manager of the Plant Diagnostic Lab. “We can all
work at the same time instead of working in shifts.”
The added space means more room
for new equipment. Each lab will receive new equipment paid
partially by the Alfa and Farmers Federation donations and the
Alabama Agriculture Experiment Station (AAES).
New
computer programs will allow clients to access their test results
via the Internet. Hamp Bryant, manager of Soil Testing, explains
that results will be available over the Web using a private
password that will be available only to customers and their
county agents.
This is especially
important to customers who cannot afford to wait too long for
their results. The new facility plus the new equipment will
continue to help the laboratories report accurate results to
the customers in a short amount of time.
“Right
now in Funchess we have a problem with dust because the soil
is dried and ground up, which can contaminate samples,”
adds Bryant. “The new facility is designed for high dust
factors to be eliminated.”
Each
lab offers services to researchers, farmers, home gardeners,
foresters, nurseries and students. Moving into the new facility
and having new equipment will not result in an increase in charges
for each test.
Customers
also will benefit from the facility’s location. Previously
these labs were scattered across campus, which made them hard
to find. In addition parking was difficult for off-campus, new
and out-of-town customers. Soil Testing is in Funchess Hall,
Plant Diagnostic is the Duncan Hall Annex and Fescue Diagnostic
Lab is in the Rouse Life Sciences building all on Auburn’s
campus.
“When looking
for sites, this one was considered to be the easiest access
to people from out of town and avoid the main traffic of campus,”
says Don Seay, director of Land and Facilities for the AAES.
The new location provides ample parking and it is more convenient
to I-85 and Highway 280.
“Like Auburn University,
this new facility has a three-part mission to fulfill. These
labs provide invaluable information to homeowners, farmers and
industry,” says John Jensen, interim dean of the College
and director of the AAES, at the groundbreaking ceremony on
Aug. 28, 2002. “They truly reach far beyond the borders
of this campus or of academia and extend the land-grant mission
to the people.”
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