Charles C. “Buddy” Miller III speaks at the Nov. 4 dedication ceremony for the new poultry research and education center, named for his late father, Charles C. Miller Jr.
Auburn University administration, faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends gathered Nov. 4 to dedicate the new Charles C. Miller Poultry Research and Education Center. The event honored the family of the facility’s namesake, the late Charles C. Miller Jr., a forward-thinking poultry industry pioneer and Auburn alumnus. Miller’s son, Charles C. “Buddy” Miller III, and daughter-in-law Pinney Allen have supported the construction of the new center through a $2.5 million gift in honor of Miller III’s parents.
The Miller Center will support programming and activities of Auburn’s Department of Poultry Science and the National Poultry Technology Center. Poultry is Alabama’s leading agricultural commodity, with a $15 billion economic impact. And Alabama is one of the country’s leading poultry-producing states.
The recently completed first phase of construction for the Miller Center included two poultry research houses and a poultry equipment testing and evaluation house. The testing and evaluation house is the only facility in the nation dedicated solely to testing and refining equipment to improve poultry farming efficiency and profitability.
Phase two of construction will begin this spring and will include an administrative building with classrooms, offices and a reception area. The third phase of construction will include live-bird research houses, a processing facility and a visitors’ center.
The Miller Center is situated about two miles north of the Auburn University campus beside the $7.1 million Auburn University Feed Mill and Animal Nutrition Center, constructed in 2012.
The Miller Center is replacing the university’s existing Poultry Research Farm Unit, which was built more than 40 years ago off South College Street on land that now borders Auburn Research Park.
