CAIA Testbed: Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center

The CAIA testbed at the Tidewater Agricultural Research & Extension Center welcomes those wishing to collaborate on research, teaching, Extension, and technology transfer initiatives. Tidewater AREC collaborates with public and private entities on projects involving numerous crops including corn, cotton, soybeans, peanuts, sorghum, wheat, cover crops, swine, native flora and fauna, vegetables, and emerging specialty crops. Projects cover a wide range of disciplines including agronomy, soil science, plant physiology, precision agriculture, plant breeding and genetics, weed science, entomology, plant pathology, engineering, and agricultural economics.

Tidewater AREC is equipped with facilities/laboratories focusing on soil science, nematology, precision agriculture, grain analysis, peanut grading and analysis, controlled-environment agriculture, and swine physiology. Tidewater AREC offers a variety of equipment related to precision agriculture applications including (but not limited to) standard drones, multispectral drones, spray drones, a Trimble RTK system (coming summer 2022), a variety of GPS and autosteer farm equipment, precision planters, a Perkin-Elmer 9500 Grain Analyzer, and a LeeAgra precision sprayer.Tidewater AREC is located 4.5 hours from Blacksburg and 15 minutes from Downtown Suffolk, VA.