In 2020, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s agricultural laboratory moved into a brand-new facility in Manhattan, next door to the KDA headquarters building. A virtual open house tour is now available to allow Kansans an inside look at this state-of-the-art facility.

The KDA lab includes six lab sections: metrology, dairy, microbiology, pesticide, industrial hemp, and feed and fertilizer. The lab serves the rest of the agency’s divisions and programs as well as the citizens of Kansas by providing accurate and timely test results. The lab conducts tests regarding food and feed safety, serving KDA’s mission to protect human and animal health, as well as testing to verify label claims which helps to protect consumers from economic fraud. The metrology lab provides a broad scope of mass and volume calibration services.

The new agricultural laboratory was designed specifically to meet the needs of the program, so KDA can be more efficient in the lab’s day-to-day testing activities as the agency works to meet specific program needs, and provides room to grow for future agricultural testing needs. The lab employs chemists, microbiologists and metrologists who work together to ensure that the quality of the test results continues to meet nationally and internationally recognized standards for traceability and legal defensibility.  

Watch the virtual open house video and read more about the features of the new KDA agricultural laboratory at www.agriculture.ks.gov/AgLabOpenHouse.