Northwest Research-Extension Center - Colby, Kansas.

The research program addresses agricultural production challenges specific to the region. Those include rainfed and irrigated cultural methods and management for most of the major crops grown in Kansas plus mitigating the effects of weed, insect, and disease pests associated with those crops. Irrigation is a major production input in northwest Kansas and development of new technology to improve irrigation efficiency is an important goal of the Center. The research agenda is coordinated with other KAES units to assure allocation of resources to priority issues, standardization of methods, and elimination of unwarranted redundancy. 

The Center’s primary region of focus are the northwest Kansas counties of Cheyenne, Sherman, Wallace, Rawlins, Thomas, Logan, Decatur, Sheridan, and Gove, with extensions into Norton, Graham, and Trego. This area is located in two of the crop reporting districts (NW, WC) defined by Kansas Agricultural Statistics. Target clientele include crop producers and county agricultural extension agents.

There are 2 research faculty located at Colby. Faculty expertise is complemented by 11 full-time support staff including clerical, maintenance, and crop technician classifications. Student workers are hired for the summer field season.

The research facilities at Colby includes 22 buildings. Both dryland and irrigated land resources are used for field crops research and production of foundation seed wheat or grain, hay, and silage.

The Colby Branch of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station was established in 1914 with the purchase of 314 acres plus improvements located adjacent to the southwest corner of the City of Colby. Later, the research land base was expanded to 727 acres. In 1987, the station was given its current name, Northwest Research-Extension Center, when the Northwest Area Extension office was moved onto the station.