The University of Arkansas has offered agriculture classes from its early days as part of its responsibility as a land-grant institution. The first degree in the study of agriculture was awarded in 1904. While a separate college of agriculture had been part of the original administrative structure of the university, it wasn’t until 1905 that this became a reality. The college has closely collaborated with the Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service since the inception of both entities. In the 1890s, the College of Agriculture offered the following courses: dairy husbandry, elementary and advanced agriculture, veterinary science, stock breeding, and horticulture. Course offerings increased over the years to include twenty majors and twenty minors over nine academic departments and a school as of 2019.

In 1954, the college was renamed “College of Agriculture and Home Economics”. In 1995, the college’s name was changed again to “Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. That same year, the home economics department became the School of Human Environmental Sciences and remained a unit of the college. The first dean of the college was W. G. Vincenheller who served in that capacity from 1905-1908. Successive deans were as follows: Charles F. Adams (1908-193), Martin Nelson (1913-1920), Bradford Knapp (1920-1923), Dan Gray (1924-1939), W. R. Horlacher (1939-1946), Lippert Ellis (1946-1959), Gerald T. Hudson (1959-1964), Glenn Hardy (1965-1987), Gerald Musick (1987-1993), Charles Scifres (1994-2001), Greg Weidemann (2001-2009), Michael Vayda (2010-2016), and Deacue Fields III (2016-Present).