Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc. announced letter of intent with University of Nebraska-Lincoln to collaborate to develop an integrated beef facility. The new facility would incorporate innovative barns, an anaerobic digester and a Bion 3G Tech system, to provide waste treatment, generate renewable energy, and capture and upcycle nutrients. The proposed project would be located at the Feedlot Innovation Center, which is being developed at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center, near Mead, Nebraska.

The newfacility will be both a working feedlot and a testbed where privatecompanies can see how emerging technologies work in a commercial setting. The objective of the collaboration is to support research and development of feedlot and other animal production technologies to advance economic, climate-smart, and other environmental goals that will improve livestock production through integration of Bion's technology with other innovative feedlot technologies and practices under development within IANR. The Feedlot Innovation Center will provide a unique opportunity for privateindustry to work alongside researchers, scientists, students, and producers to develop and evaluate emerging technology used in managing animals in feedlot settings.

It will include a complex with cattle comfort and research buildings, a feed technology facility, innovative open lots, and an animal handling facility. The expansion will create real-world facilities to test new precision technology, address environmental challenges facing the feeding industry, and improve cattle performance and welfare while comparing different environments and housing systems. The expansion will also allow for innovation in manure collection and management that will innovate both new and possible modifications for existing operations.