Founding dean William Arnon Henry moved the program from South Hall onto its own, four-building campus.

Stephen Moulton Babcock, the department chair of agricultural chemistry, convinced Henry to build a station to study cattle feeding.

Babcock continued to petition the university for the building and finally animal husbandman W. L. Carlyle agreed in 1897.

[3] Carlyle and Babcock set up an experiment testing if salt was required in a dairy cow's diet.

By the time the experiment ended in 1911, it was clear that the corn-fed group was significantly healthier than those fed oats, wheat, or a mixture of the three.