While some university dairies have shut down in the last few decades, others are breaking ground on new research dairies to replace aging facilities or making renovations to update their current ones. Here is an overview of some of the facilities currently under construction.
University of Idaho
After nearly two decades of discussion between the University of Idaho (U of I) and dairy industry stakeholders, construction of a new research dairy facility is currently underway in Rupert, Idaho, in the heart of the Idaho milkshed, across the state from the university’s main campus in Moscow. The research dairy, which is one component of the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE), is expected to be completed in early 2026 and will help address the big issues facing agriculture moving forward, including environmental research.
“I feel like this facility will represent dairies in the western part of the U.S., but when I think about the bigger picture of net zero by 2050, the information coming from the research that will be done here will be helpful on a national scale,” says Michael Parrella, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at U of I.
This future environmental research and its potential impact on the dairy industry excites both the college and the state’s dairy industry stakeholders.
“The greatest benefit that it will have for us will be the environmental work that’s being done, which will help us to defend our existing practices with science and prove that our farm practices are environmentally sound,” says Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association. “As we understand the science better, it will help us to identify where we need to make changes to how we operate.”
Naerebout says it will also provide opportunities to explore new and emerging products while being a testing ground for new technology.
Upon completion, the dairy will start milking with about 400 cows and build up to 2,000 to match the scale of dairies in Idaho.
While a freestall barn is in later plans for the project, the facilities will primarily be drylot corrals, which are popular among dairies in the area due to the high desert climate in southern Idaho.
Construction is divided into two primary phases with phase one focused on milking infrastructure, including the rotary parlor, in addition to site work to level the soil and prepare for construction. Phase two includes lagoons, commodity barns, maternity calving barns and a classroom and office facility for the center. Phase one will be completed later in 2024, and phase two is currently underway.
While there is plenty of excitement from stakeholders and the university, Naerebout says there is also some apprehension from the producer community about whether this new research dairy is necessary, to which he says it “absolutely is necessary.”
“With all the environmental pressures that are coming at the industry and the potential catalysts that there could be for consolidation, we absolutely view this research center as a necessity to support our small- and mid-sized dairies so they can have a better opportunity to navigate challenges, whether it’s a greenhouse gas reduction requirement that’s coming at them or water quality concerns. It’s needed to help both defend but also navigate going forward all these new expectations coming at producers,” Naerebout says.
Kansas State University
Plans have been in progress to replace the aging dairy facilities that support research, teaching and outreach at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. However, Billy Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University, says they are facing a setback with funding.
“The legislature passed the funds at the request of the state’s dairy farmers, but the Governor wanted the request to come through normal channels via the university and Board of Regents,” Brown says. “Currently, there are efforts on multiple fronts to gain support from the university president to make the request through typical funding avenues for university projects.”
Michigan State University
The dairy herd at the Michigan State University Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center is expected to more than double by the time construction of their new dairy facilities is complete in summer 2025 at the existing location on south campus in East Lansing, Michigan.
Nearly all the barns housing cows will be new. With the exception of one freestall barn that will be used for dry cows, the current barns will be demolished and replaced with a tunnel-ventilated barn, which will be located in what is currently a crop field adjacent to the current barn. The tunnel-ventilated barn will be built with the capacity for 680 cows in different configurations, but Barry Bradford, the Clinton E. Meadows chair in dairy management at Michigan State University, says they are targeting a herd size of 550, which is a substantial increase from the current herd of 220. Once demolished, the space where the barns are now will become a concrete pad for silage. The anaerobic digester and feed infrastructure will remain the same.
“Allowing for more research trials is the biggest motivator,” Bradford says. “We also have a sincere desire to bring elementary students and the general public to the facility and explain what the industry currently looks like.”
One of the major research focus areas is systems sustainability.
“We have a digester that has been part of our research portfolio for the last 10 years, but we haven’t really integrated it with what we are doing in nutrition and with the cows in terms of looking at overall sustainability,” Bradford says. “We want to start integrating those things and looking at the whole system. We hope we can make this facility one where we can track everything coming onto and off the dairy – whether it’s solids, liquids or gases.”
Another primary goal of the new and improved dairy facilities is to interest more students in the dairy industry.
“We feel that it’s part of our mission here to help open students’ eyes to the opportunities available in the dairy industry that they may want to consider,” Bradford says. “Having a more updated dairy will make this easier. I think there are some well-known people in the industry who had their first experience on a dairy by getting a job at the dairy here, and I think we need to really promote that as more and more people managing farms realize that we can’t just be looking to hire people that grew up on dairies, because that pool is getting too small.”
While there is much to be excited about with this project, Bradford says he is most excited about how it has brought the industry together to support the university and strengthen the dairy programs.
“We had about 60 different organizations sign letters to the legislature advocating for this investment, and it helped that we were pushing forward with the dairy and greenhouse projects at the same time,” Bradford says. “We had the people from the blueberry industry advocating that we needed a new dairy, for example, and I think that had a huge impact on this happening. These partnerships are important because they help build those political coalitions that can make big projects, where otherwise there’s just not resources to do them.”
Ohio State University
Construction is expected to begin soon at the Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, which will be the home of a new dairy research facility at Ohio State University. The new dairy, which is expected to be completed in spring 2025, will house a 60-cow Jersey herd.
“The project will bring a modern, small-scale, fully autonomous dairy to the CFAES [College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences] Columbus campus, supporting our work for years to come,” Graham Cochran, CFAES associate dean for operations, said in a press release.
The new dairy facility will also provide more hands-on learning opportunities to prepare students for careers in the dairy industry.
“The new facility will allow students to be ready for a career in the dairy industry in all sectors, from farm management to sales and service,” Jason Hartschuh, a field specialist in dairy management and precision livestock for Ohio State University Extension, said in a press release. “It will assist with workforce development, as we’ll also be able to use the technologies in this facility as training tools for dairy producers and their employees.”
University of Wisconsin – Madison
The University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW – Madison) and the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center hosted a formal groundbreaking for their newest research dairy in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, on June 10. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2025 on what the architecture and engineering firm is anticipating to be a 30-month build. However, it could “very likely take the better part of four years,” according to Dennis Hancock, center director at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center.
“We’re really excited because this new facility is going to broaden our opportunities to do even more research and research that is relevant to the next generation of the dairy industry while being scalable and applicable to dairies of all sizes,” Hancock says. “The main work that we will be adding [to our environmental research] at the new dairy is the capacity to really focus on methane mitigation and other greenhouse gases. We will have completely enclosed chambers where we can measure with a very fine amount of detail the amount of methane emissions occurring. We will be measuring gases coming in and the gas concentration going out of the chambers, and with this information, we will be able to measure how much methane is being produced.”
Hancock adds that one of the things that will be unique about these chambers is the ability to manipulate the temperature and humidity levels to model different climates and how they affect methane emissions.
The new research dairy will include 18 buildings and structures near the current facility on the opposite side of their cropland in Prairie du Sac.
“Parts of the current facility will be demolished, and some other areas will be renovated,” Hancock says. “The current facilities are dated and reflect what the dairy industry was like in the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was built. It was pretty clear early on that it was going to be much cheaper to build new than to completely renovate the existing facilities. That’s one of the main reasons we are building the new one.”
The new research dairy and the current facility are both part of the partnership between the university and the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center. This partnership was formed shortly before the current farm began operating in 1980. At the current farm, the university owns the cows, oversees animal use protocols and manages the labor, while the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center operates all the facilities and manages the crop production side of the operation.
