By Macy Byars
Some U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers could be relocated to Nebraska under a plan to close a Washington D.C.-area research facility. Nebraska researchers say more USDA personnel could benefit the state’s research efforts, but with few details announced about project and staff movement, how much help they’ll get is unclear.
In July 2025, the USDA announced it would close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Maryland as part of a department “reorganization” effort. In an April announcement, the USDA said it would relocate employees to at least 27 USDA facilities across the country.
One of those locations is in Clay Center. The U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) works on animal health, animal food production, food safety, and soil and air quality projects. Its employees work for the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) – a USDA subagency that conducts and funds research.
University of Nebraska researchers and faculty often collaborate with USDA scientists, said Derek McLean, dean and director of the UNL Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources’ Agricultural Research Division.
“The mission of our researchers to help support Nebraska agriculture, to help develop new innovations, to work closely with them and to be responsive to the challenges that they face, basically on a daily to yearly basis – that mission is strongly overlapped with the ARS mission and their commitment to research excellence and scientific integrity to help in field-based research that can help support our producers,” McLean said.
He said he welcomes any ARS scientists offered relocation to Nebraska.
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