Donated land bolsters agricultural research at UNL

When James and Clifford Barta passed away, they left behind more than just their name.

The brothers donated about 6,000 acres of land to the University of Nebraska Foundation to be used as a research facility.

The land, located on the southern Brown and Rock county lines, was given as a gift in 1996 and has been used ever since to facilitate agricultural research through the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said Ann Kepler, manager for the Barta Brothers Ranch.

"The donation of the land has been great," Kepler said. "It opened up a lot of opportunities that students wouldn't have had to do research on grazing and cattle."

For six months of the year, students live at the ranch and work on projects dealing with range management and livestock production, she said. Aside from a shop and a building used for housing, there is little on the ranch except for pasture.

"I think their biggest thing was that they didn't have any family," Kepler said. "They were just two bachelor brothers. They ranched their entire lives. Their parents had homesteaded the place. That's what they decided to do with their land."

It's generational transfer, said Steve Waller, dean of CASNR. When people get to the point that they have to do something with their land, they think about donating it to educational purposes, especially if they don't have heirs to take the land.

"The reality is we have a lot of people that give to the college," Waller said. "We've enjoyed another year of enrollment growth in this college. Part of that success is the wealth of donor support. About 50 percent of students in the college are on scholarship."

It's not just a legacy that's left behind for the people that donate, he said. There are sometimes clauses that say the land can't be sold or it has to be used for research. There also are tax incentives.

According to a handout from the NU Foundation, donors have the option of donating all or part of their land to the university. Arrangements can be made to allow tenants to live on the land until their death and take immediate tax deductions.

Donations like this are more common than people think, Waller said.

Current projects at the Barta Brothers Ranch focus on rotational grazing and studies on ecosystems, Kepler said. For more information on the ranch, visit http://snr.unl.edu/fieldsites/BartaBrothersRanch.asp.

mimiabebe@dailynebraskan.com