The BeeF center
At the Cal Poly Beef Center, students connect classroom learning with hands-on experience in beef cattle production and research. The facility supports education and research in embryo transfer, artificial insemination and cattle management.
Home to Cal Poly’s heifer development program and annual Bull Test (put on by the Bull Test Enterprise), the center provides opportunities for students to apply animal science principles while working with cattle. It also supports industry-sponsored workshops and research projects.
The facility includes eight lay-up pens for heifer development and health management, 10 breeding and embryo transfer stalls, seven 3-acre paddocks for bull performance testing and a student residence.
The Beef Cattle Evaluation Center
Serving as the site for applied feedlot research projects and progeny testing of cattle, the Beef Cattle Evaluation Center is also used for heifer development and lab instruction. Due to its ideal on-campus location, it also serves as the site of feeding operations for the Cal Poly Meat Processing Center.
Parker Barn
At Parker Barn, students in the Heifer Calving Enterprise, gain hands-on experience managing commercial and purebred heifers during their first calving season. Each fall, the heifers arrive in August and remain through late October. Students use three surrounding pastures to group cattle by their expected calving dates.