The Tifton campus which houses the Coastal Plain Experiment Station has played an important role in the development of modern agriculture for almost 100 years.
Engineering programs at the Tifton campus were officially established on February 15, 1946 under the guidance of James Shepherd with the mission of conducting research on peanut harvesting, irrigation, and tobacco curing. One of the hallmarks of these programs was the development of the peanut combine which essentially remains unchanged today. Current research programs by biological & agricultural engineering faculty, staff, and graduate students focus on the areas of precision agriculture, machine systems, water quality, irrigation/water conservation, bioenergy production, and olfactory sensing. These and other engineering programs are very interdisciplinary and include interactions with crop and soil sciences, entomology, plant pathology, horticulture, agricultural and applied economics, and animal science researchers from the University and the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service.
In addition to the main 20,000 sq. ft. biological and agricultural engineering building, engineering faculty in Tifton manage several facilities on campus to support their programs. These facilities include a Precision Agriculture Laboratory, two Olfactory Sensing laboratories, an Anaerobic Digestion Laboratory, laboratories within the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL) building (http://www.nespal.org) such as the state-of-the-art Water Quality Laboratory and extensive field sites. They also have farm-scale agricultural equipment such as 4-row cotton and peanut harvesters, tractors, and a variety of other field vehicles which are used routinely for their research programs.
More information about the Tifton Campus is available at http://www.caes.uga.edu/campus/tifton.
Research, Extension and Instruction Coordinator: Dr. George Vellidis
2329 Rainwater Road
P.O. Box 748
Tifton, GA 31793-0748
(229) 386-3377
Fax (229) 386-3598
Driving Directions to Tifton campus
