Antelope and Cottonwood Range and Livestock Research Stations / Ag Engineering Research Unit photographs

The Morrill Act of 1862, the act that allowed for the 1881 establishment of South Dakota State University, required instruction in agriculture. Courses in all areas of agriculture were taught, and many courses in other disciplines had an agricultural focus. In 1897, when the first official departments were established at South Dakota State University, four specifically agricultural departments were formed: Agriculture, Architecture and Agricultural Engineering, Dairy Science, and Geology and Agronomy. Other related departments, specifically Horticulture/Forestry and Botany/Zoology, were also established at this time. In 1908, the School of Agriculture joined these departments as a secondary school program devoted to "preparing rural students for life on the farm."

By 1924, the Division of Agriculture established many of the departments that are found in the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences today. The division included not only the various academic departments, but also the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, which had been founded by the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. The School of Agriculture was included until it was dissolved in 1960. In 1964, the Division of Agriculture became the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences when South Dakota State College became South Dakota State University.

The academic program in the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences is twofold: one deals with the traditional field of agriculture and the other deals with the biological sciences. / Agricultural work is divided into four areas: academic programs, research, extension, and statewide services. Experiments and investigations for the benefits of agriculture are done in connection with problems of livestock, natural resources, field crops, veterinary science, horticultural crops, agricultural economics, dairy, landscape design, and mechanized agriculture. The results of research form the basis for classroom instruction, extension work, and for a means of answering inquiries coming into the university. The Extension Service takes the work of instruction statewide by bringing results of research to every home.

Work in biological sciences is mainly in the departments of biology/microbiology and wildlife/fisheries sciences. Biological science is an integral part of all departments that deal with plant and animal sciences.