Texas, USA
January 12, 2026
The Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center, a new state-of-the-art facility that combines research and education outreach to the greater Texas High Plains region, will open Jan. 21 in Canyon.
The new state-of-the-art Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center, located in Canyon, will provide research and education outreach to the greater Texas High Plains region. (Kay Ledbetter/Texas A&M AgriLife)
This new facility, with a new name, will include all the staff, faculty and programming from the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Amarillo. The Amarillo center, located at 6500 W. Amarillo Blvd., is scheduled to close its doors to the public on Jan. 15.
The new facility is part of The Texas A&M University System’s Charles W. “Doc” Graham ’53 DVM Center complex, located at 3211 Russell Long Blvd. on the West Texas A&M University campus. This center encompasses the Texas A&M Veterinary Education, Research and Outreach, VERO, and the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory complex.
“When we open our doors on Jan. 21 at the new location, we want to serve as an embassy for citizens all across the Texas High Plains,” said Brent Auvermann, Ph.D., center director for Texas A&M AgriLife Research at Amarillo.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held April 7 at 10:30 a.m.
AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension serving the High Plains
The multi-use facility will provide office space to support about 60 faculty and staff for the AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agencies.
Signature research programs headquartered at the new facility include beef cattle nutrition and health, wheat breeding and genetics, irrigation water management, water-limited forage systems, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, soil science and sustainable livestock systems engineering.
Notable AgriLife Extension programs include beef and dairy cattle production, agricultural law, agronomy, entomology, plant disease diagnostics, gerontology, human nutrition and agricultural economics.
Additionally, it will house public meeting spaces to support educational outreach and community events, and modern laboratories to support applied, solutions-oriented research by agency faculty.
“We will continue to use this space for many educational meetings, including 4-H and agricultural education, as well as the Panhandle Judges and Commissioners Association meeting twice a year,” said Josh Brooks, AgriLife Extension district administrator, Amarillo. “In addition to the very nice meeting space, we have a demonstration kitchen that allows us to continue our health and nutrition education. There won’t be a break in our service to our High Plains public.”
The center serves as the district hub for AgriLife Extension and its programming in the 22 surrounding counties.
Alternatives and techniques for residential and commercial landscapes
The center’s landscaping features a new demonstration garden for the Randall County Master Gardeners and a prominent ring of “Innovation” zoysiagrass, a recent product of AgriLife Research’s turfgrass breeding program at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center at Dallas.
“We’re delighted to showcase the horticultural skills and expertise of our AgriLife Extension volunteers,” Auvermann said. “We’re also excited to show landscapers a lovely alternative that requires far less water than our typical fescue turfgrass and that has proven itself even in the face of our region’s cold winters.”
Both “Innovation” and “Chisholm” turfgrass varieties have been maintained at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory, which is jointly operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and AgriLife Research, in Bushland for the last seven years, Auvermann said.
“Those Arctic blasts in 2021 and 2022 were real tests of the varieties’ cold tolerance, and they didn’t just survive, they thrived,” he said.
A synergistic approach to serving High Plains agriculture
This move completes an agricultural research, education and outreach powerhouse in the Texas High Plains under The Texas A&M University System umbrella, with all institutions strengthened by the synergy of the expertise, organization, programming, educational outreach and student enrichment at the Canyon location.
AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension faculty already work closely alongside colleagues in both the agriculture and engineering colleges at West Texas A&M University, Auvermann said.
“We look forward to building on both partnerships to solve real-world problems our region faces,” he said. “Opening our new High Plains facility in the agriculture complex at WTAMU creates superb opportunities for our agency faculty to train the next generation of agricultural scientists in the advanced technologies we’ll need to solve tomorrow’s problems in the High Plains.
“Our portfolio matches the breadth of the region’s production agriculture, from agronomy to wheat breeding to cattle nutrition to veterinary medicine to engineering – all of that, and more, will be right within arm’s reach for our region’s top students.”
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