Gift of Farmland Aims to Close Gap in Precision Agriculture Technology at SDSU
Gift of Farmland Aims to Close Gap in Precision Agriculture Technology at SDSU
Publish Date: 2026-05-21 08:23:00
Source Domain: www.americanagnetwork.com
BROOKINGS, S.D. — The launch of the nation’s first four-year degree in precision agriculture and the establishment of the Raven Precision Agriculture Center have contributed to South Dakota State University becoming a national leader in precision agriculture technology.
The university has even expanded its global reach by partnering with the University of Debrecen in Hungary to engage international students in precision agriculture technologies.
Although SDSU has been recognized as a leader in this area, a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering noticed a gap in precision technology coursework related to livestock. This gap prompted Dick and Jeune Nicolai’s gift.
Growing up on a farm, Dick Nicolai’s father taught him the value of adapting to the latest technology. For example, in 1958, they incorporated a slot air inlet for a power-ventilated swine barn rather than a single hole-in-the-wall type of inlet that would chill the pigs near the inlet.
After receiving his engineering degree, Nicolai worked for Ford Tractor and then returned to the farm. In 1994, he was approached by the University of Minnesota to cover for a professor on sabbatical, but upon the professor’s return, he was asked to continue helping a team of researchers addressing livestock air quality issues. This led to the development of a tool to predict the impact of odor on neighbors before the construction of a livestock facility.
When Nicolai was about to retire, he received a call from SDSU inviting him to apply for a job in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. That first day at SDSU was 25 years ago, and until his retirement in 2011, he taught classes and conducted research on environmental issues in agriculture. Since then, he has been asked to teach a class on agricultural livestock waste management several times, including this past semester.
For most of his career, Nicolai’s work has focused on technology, the…
