Washington State University (WSU) describes itself as a public research university committed to its land-grant heritage. Its oldest and largest campus, in Pullman, was founded in 1890. The system has six campuses, Extension offices in all 39 Washington counties and four research and extension centres, and reported 25,477 students in fall 2025.
Agriculture is taught and researched in the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS), which reports close to 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 550 faculty and 18 subject matter centres. CAHNRS lists ten research farms, among them the Cook Agronomy Farm, launched in 2000 by WSU and USDA-ARS scientists as a long-term direct-seed cropping systems programme, the Lind Dryland Research Station, the Knott Dairy and the Eggert Family Organic Farm. The college says it is using USDA-ARS, Murdock and National Science Foundation grants to add equipment for phenomics, high-performance computing and data analysis. Its named research strengths include plant breeding; food safety, security and production; and trans-omics and big data.