Although temporary stations were started at McKinney and Wichita Falls in 1893, it was Beeville that the Texas Legislature chose as a site for the first permanent regional station in 1894. Initially the station consisted of 151.5 acres contributed by area rancher, John Cook. In the early 1900s, research centered on citrus and other subtropical crops, cabbage, cauliflower and the Bermuda onion. Field crops gradually superseded fruit and vegetable research. The Beeville station is credited with planting the first flax in Texas (in 1918) and the first flax harvest with a combine (in 1938). By 1930 the station was conducting its initial beef research and in 1938 an additional 298.2 acres were purchased.

In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the station continued as one of several regional stations that contributed immeasurable to its home area by advancing forage research. Experiment station breakthroughs in breeding hybrid sorghums and in converting tropically adapted sorghums into useful temperate-zone and subtropical sorghums brought many high-yielding, disease- and insect-resistant varieties into the fields both inside and outside Texas.

Beef cattle management research included many feed and forage projects, including introduction of the first Kleingrass in Texas (in 1967) and extensive trials on Rhodes, Blue Panic and bluestem grasses. Bufflegrass, developed cooperatively by experiment station and federal scientists, was also tested in Beeville and is used extensively in South Texas.

Improvements and land acquisition allowed numerous advances in beef reproduction and forage research. The station will continue its research to integrate animal physiology, molecular biology, biotechnology and forage utilization and management into applied management and environmentally sound beef cattle production systems. Partnership between the Texas AgriLife Research Station, residents of South Texas and others across the state will remain the key to its success.