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CMREC - Upper Marlboro Facility
This 202 acre area known as the Upper Marlboro facility is located in Prince George's County. This facility focuses on the development of alternative crops to replace the declining tobacco crop in Maryland. Cut flowers, exotic fruits, hardwood trees and ostriches are all under study as a replacement for tobacco.
One of the primary emphases at this facility, during the past few years, has been to provide support for the research and extension initiatives investigating alternative agricultural opportunities for Southern Maryland. In that regard, AGNR faculty have been investigating horticultural and agronomic crops that may offer an alternative to tobacco production. Studies of note have included cut flower production, investigations with various vegetable crops, melons, pumpkins, and raspberries, malting barley production potential for Southern Maryland, and a research project looking at the performance of edible soybeans in this region.
The most recent addition to the facility has been the Applied Poultry Research Laboratory (APRL) facilities which were relocated from there long-time College Park campus site to the Upper Marlboro facility in 1996. At present there are two broiler grow-out houses that can be adapted to handle a variety of research activities ranging from nutrition to physiology to animal behavior, a combination feed handling/shop/storage/office building, and a machinery shed. The APRL is regularly used by five Animal and Avian Science Department research faculty and their graduate students.
The passage of the 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act by the Maryland legislature has resulted in stringent nutrient management regulations for farmers and a considerable amount of issue related research and extension activities. A regional Nutrient Management Specialist has recently been assigned an office at the Upper Marlboro facility. In addition, recent grant funding was received by two of the AGNR research faculty who are conducting research at the Upper Marlboro facility.
A total of 32 AGNR faculty use Upper Marlboro on either a regular or a periodic basis for their research, instructional, and/or extension programs. These faculty represent the Department of Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture, the Department of Entomology, the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, the Department of Biological Resource Engineering, and Maryland Cooperative Extension. In addition, there are generally 2-3 USDA-BARC research faculty that use the facility annually.
For more information, contact Cindy Mason
Last updated: 05/20/2008
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