Facilities and resources at Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute
The Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute is situated on 893ha of land suitable for winter field crop research with a temperate climate and average rainfall of around 600mm. The land is run as 5 mini farms (farmlets) each with their own crop/pasture rotation that allows paddocks to be “set up” in terms of soil fertility and weed burdens for the research group that will be using them in any one year. For example, if one of the research sections requires paddocks to have a certain soil nitrogen status this need is met by rotating crops across the paddocks within a “farmlet” in the previous years to use or add soil nitrogen so that it is at the desired level in the target paddock in the year that the new wheat lines need to be sown grown.
Commercial enterprises
Although primarily managed to facilitate a large number of field-based research programs, the Institute also conducts commercial winter cereal cropping and prime lamb production enterprises. Irrigation water is available under license from the Murrumbidgee River, and is used in both flood and overhead applications.
Laboratories
Besides a large land area dedicated to agricultural research, the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute has state-of-the-art laboratories, including;
- Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory: for genomic research, marker assisted analysis and DNA barcoding;
- Plant Health Laboratory: houses the soil microbiology, plant pathology and entomology research groups;
- Edible Oil Testing Laboratory: underpinning the canola and olive industries;
- The Alan Kaiser Ruminant Feed Testing Laboratory: supporting animal nutrition research and the Feed Testing Service;
- Cereal Science Laboratories: testing wheat for suitability for milling, breads, biscuits, noodles and steamed products; and barley for malting quality; and
- Two modern training laboratories located at the Wine and Food Industry Training Centre.
The Institute has world class accreditation for its laboratories and facilities (NATA and/or ISO 9001 Certification).
Animal Nutrition Facility
A modern Animal Nutrition Facility is located at the Institute, enabling intensive studies to be conducted on ruminant feeds (hay, grain, silage or mixed rations) using either sheep or cattle.
Other facilities
Institute staff have access to soil and agronomy facilities such as a number of new glasshouses, including one that is to PC2 standard, dehydrators for plant and soil samples, growth cabinets, seed cleaning and grading equipment, a fleet of tractors, seeding equipment, small plot harvesters for field trials and a small research library. The Institute also has conference and meeting room facilities, and hosts a number of small and large industry-based meetings annually.