Brigham Young University's 9,000-acre Skaggs Research Ranch in southern Idaho will now include a 3,000-square-foot bunkhouse and multipurpose facility donated by founders Sam and Aline Skaggs.

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a member of the BYU board of trustees, presided over a "rope-cutting" ceremony Friday at the ranch.Sam Skaggs, president of American Stores, and Aline Skaggs donated the large parcel of farmland near Declo, Idaho, to BYU in 1984 to create a "living ranch" to help train the next generation of ranchers and farmers. They made additional grants of land and cash in 1991 and 1992.

"The Charles Redd Family initially made a major cash contribution to the ranch, and many other individuals and companies both in and outside of Idaho have donated cattle, cash, equipment, custom services and construction labor for roads, corrals and buildings," said Max V. Wallentine, director of BYU's Agricultural Station.

BYU students interested in careers in agriculture will now have a comfortable residence from which to explore 20th-century farming methods, including artificial insemination, improved animal genetics, embryo transfers and genetic alterations on plants, said Wallentine.

The new 14-room, L-shaped bunkhouse can house up to 50 students, with male and female dormitories and lounges, a cookhouse-multipurpose area that can seat up to 130, and storage areas.

Significant changes in American farming necessitated the residential facility on the ranch. "Farms in America are becoming larger and fewer, and more and more of our students have not had practical farming experience," said Wal-len-tine. "The Skaggs ranch provides a place where our students, both men and women, can get hands-on experience in ranch management

training." A major research thrust at the ranch has been mastering new methods for producing beef with less fat and more tenderness.

BYU students initially prepare for their studies at the Skaggs ranch by learning the basics of agriculture in classrooms on the BYU Provo campus and at the university's Spanish Fork farm. They then travel to the relatively isolated ranch to begin a semester of 12-hour days learning how to implement their classroom knowledge.

Future plans for the ranch include developing funding that would allow other local institutions of higher education, including the College of Southern Idaho and Ricks College, to use the facility in a cooperative ranch production and management program, said Wal-len-tine.

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"Students would attend classes at one of the cooperating institutions to acquire the needed information and to graduate from a university," he said. "Some of the classes would be taken by tele-com-mun-i-ca-tions."

In the cooperative program, the students would then augment their classroom studies with regular internships at the ranch, where they would concentrate on beef and crop production and the management of range, time and money, he

noted. Plans for on-site laboratories and additional research facilities at the ranch are also being considered, Wallentine said.

In the early 1900s, Sam Skaggs' grandfather homesteaded on a stretch of land less than 50 miles from the BYU property. There, with his wife and 12 children, the Rev. Samuel Skaggs farmed the land, preached and opened a small store that became the basis of a chain of highly successful businesses for the Skaggs family, including the Safeway food store chain.

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