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By Heidi Clausen
Regional Editor
RIVER FALLS
— After about 15 years of discussion — and more than a few trips back
to the drawing board — UW-River Falls will unveil its new Dairy Learning
Center next week.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the state-of-the-art, $9.3 million complex will
be held during Homecoming week, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12.
Speakers will include College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
Dean Dale Gallenberg, Chancellor Don Betz, UW System Regent Jesus Salas, UW
System Administrator David Miller, Matt Joyce of the Wisconsin Milk Marking
Board and State Senator Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls.
A community open house and tour will be offered from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct.
11. Another open house and tours for the public and alumni visiting during Homecoming
weekend will be 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13.
A groundbreaking for the facility, which is located on 26 acres at the Mann
Valley Laboratory Farm along county Highway MM north of River Falls, was last
October.
The new center replaces the existing, 50-cow university dairy facility that
has been in operation since 1957 at Lab Farm 1.
The UW-River Falls herd includes 75 registered Holsteins — 65 of them milking
— with a rolling herd average of more than 27,000 pounds of milk and daily
tank averages of 77 to 85 pounds of milk.
Since the late 1990s, officials in UW-River Falls' College of Agriculture, Food
and Environmental Sciences have been fighting for partial state funding for
the center.
But the project has been derailed by a series of failed bids, rising material
costs and state budget belt-tightening.
The first phase of the center was approved by the UW System Board of Regents
almost five years ago, and in more recent years, there has been a bipartisan
push for it to become a reality.
UW-River Falls is home to one of the nation's three largest undergraduate dairy
science programs, with more than 120 students majoring in dairy science. The
Dairy Club is one of the largest student organizations on campus.
UW-RF Chancellor Don Betz said the opening of the center 'marks the beginning
of a new era in the university's historic commitment to dairy education.'
Campus officials expect the center to translate into greater educational opportunities
not just for students but for those in the dairy industry at large.
The complex contains all the elements needed to run a commercial dairy operation,
plus technology-enhanced classrooms and other educational components.
Because of the campus' proximity to housing developments, the facility emphasizes
positive rural-urban interaction.
Special features include a sawdust composted bedding housing system for 100
lactating cows plus calves and heifers. Compost barns are designed to be environmentally
friendly and cow-friendly.
After the bedding material is removed from the barns, it will be placed into
windrows to continue the composting process. The resulting product will be available
for purchase by the public for use in gardens and landscaping. It also will
be applied as fertilizer on the university's fields.
Other components include systems to minimize wastewater in which water to cool
the milk is reused for the livestock. Equipment wash water will be reused to
wash floors and, in some cases, irrigate crops.
Cows will be milked in a Bou-Matic double-six herringbone parlor with a StepMetrix
lameness detector system to monitor cows' weight distribution.
Research bays with Calan gates allow for the herd to be split into groups for
nutrition trials. Attached to the milking center are two 25-student classrooms,
expandable to hold groups of 50 for dairy industry events.
Confinement and pasture-based management systems will be studied.
'The Dairy Learning Center will be a living, hands-on classroom for students
who are studying not only dairy science but many other programs within the College
of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences and across the UW-River Falls
campus,' said Steve Kelm, Department of Animal and Food Science chairman.
'The old dairy facility has served us very well in the past, but the new facility
offers a significant upgrade in technology for the dairy operation and most
importantly, for student learning,' he said.
Heidi Clausen may be reached at clausen@amerytel.net.