Founded in the earliest years of the 20th century, the Upper Coastal Plain Research Station (UCPRS) outside of Rocky Mount is the oldest of North Carolina’s 18 research stations and remains a cornerstone for agronomic research in the state’s eastern region. What began as a trial site of about 201 acres in 1902 became an official state research facility in 1903. Over the decades the station expanded. An adjacent tract of about 240 acres was purchased in 1937, bringing the total size to just under 442 acres. The Fountain Farm has been part of the station’s operation since 1990. It’s just east of Rocky Mount, about ten miles from the main station, and it brought the station’s total acreage to about 780 acres (460 cultivated acres and 310 woodland acres) across the two sites.
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Upper Coastal Plain Research Station acreage: |
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| Cleared land | Woodland | Combined | |
| Main station | 260 acres | 182 acres | ~442 acres (~201 original + ~240 in 1937) |
| Fountain farm | 200 acres | 128 acres | 328 acres (transferred in 1990) |
| Total | 460 acres | 310 acres | 780 acres |
The station’s range of soil textures — from deep loamy sands to sandy clay and silt loams — is a major asset. Those soils allow researchers to evaluate herbicides and weed-management strategies across conditions that represent much of eastern North Carolina, which increases the real-world relevance of the results.
“At the end of the day, the research leaves here, goes to N.C. State, then Extension and eventually reaches the farmer,” said station superintendent Creig Deal. “That’s really what it’s all about.”
Today, the station’s cotton research is a major part of the activity in the fields.
Scope and infrastructure
UCPRS’s research program is focused on agronomic crops, including cotton, peanuts, tobacco, soybeans, corn, sorghum and small grains. The site has also supported work on cucurbits, switchgrass, trees and extensive weed-management trials.
To support the research, the station’s 28 buildings include drying and storage facilities, six tobacco curing barns, a tobacco pack-house, fertilizer and pesticide storage, a maintenance shop and office space. An on-site ECONET tower reports weather data to the State Climate Office at NC State and to the National Weather Service, giving researchers localized climate information critical to field trials.
Deal also pointed out a recent improvement to the station.
“We have a linear [irrigation] system now, and that has really improved as far as irrigation purposes,” Deal said. “This year [it] just made it so much easier.”
The system allows researchers to control water applications consistently across plots, which can improve the quality of yield and pest-response data.
Research priorities and tools
UCPRS has an international reputation for its disease nurseries. Long-running tobacco black shank nurseries, a tobacco bacterial wilt nursery and a peanut sclerotinia blight nursery help researchers develop resistant cultivars of crops.
“Our tobacco black shank nursery is perhaps the best in the world, and without the continued breeding and screening research done here for the development of black shank-resistant flue-cured and burley tobacco varieties, the tobacco industry could be devastated,” reads the station’s NCDA&CS webpage. “The location is close enough to NCSU for project leaders to closely monitor their research projects, apply treatments and collect data within a workday.”
Over half of the tobacco acreage in North Carolina and South Carolina is planted in black shank-resistant varieties that were developed at the station.
In addition to disease research, peanut and tobacco breeding have been among the highest-profile activities on the farm. N.C. State scientists evaluate breeding lines and varieties for yield and disease resistance. They screen fungicides and plant-growth regulators, and they run crop-rotation and weed-management studies.
Cotton has emerged as possibly the most substantial research on the station.
“One of the N.C. State University cotton specialists, Guy Collins, his office is here,” Deal said. “Cotton is probably our number one when it comes to tests.”
Deal also likes to joke about how he dislikes seeing the weeds that are part of trials done across several of the station’s crops.
“I grew up farming, and looking at weeds is not my favorite thing, but the tests are necessary,” Deal said. “In the end, it’s about finding solutions that help the farmer.”
Ultimately, the trials performed on the station — whether a new peanut line being evaluated for sclerotinia resistance or a herbicide regime tested across the station’s diverse soils — are designed to reach growers through N.C. State’s research and Extension pipeline.
People power
Operating a research farm like Upper Coastal Plane means depending on people just like a commercial farm. Deal described a small core crew of three guys show grew up farming, plus a fourth younger employee who’s become integral to the group. There are a few other newer hires as well.
“They are really excited when something comes along that would help the people we’re trying to help,” Deal said.
However, he worries about who will replace an aging workforce. Younger crew members provide some hope and so does the station’s long history of training students.
A mission that endures
More than a century after its founding, Upper Coastal Plain Research Station remains a working laboratory for crop improvement and production practices that matter to growers in North Carolina and beyond. Deal sums up the station’s purpose simply.
“I’m behind research. I’m behind what we do, and every test out here is important,” Deal said. “I take great pride that we are going to do good research and, I also take pride in at the end of the day, we are helping the farmer.”
Photos from the archive (2014):
