Wisconsin Ag Connection - UWRF to Break Ground on Dairy Learning Center

Wisconsin Ag News Headlines

UWRF to Break Ground on Dairy Learning Center
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 10/12/2006

Dairy students at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls are another step closer to learning the fundamentals of their industry in a brand new educational complex. The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences announced that the school will be holding a ground breaking ceremony next week for the long-awaited Dairy Learning Center, which is being built at the Mann Valley Farm.

The ceremony is slated for October 20 at 2 p.m. at the farm, which is located on St. Croix County Road MM, northwest of River Falls. The $9.3 million complex is expected to be completed by the summer of 2007 and will replace the aging dairy operation constructed in the 1950s, located at Laboratory Farm No. 1 on the main campus.

The new learning center will feature a lactating cow barn, special needs barn, milking center, calf barn, heifer barn, hay barn, feed shed, and machine shed. It will also include an environmentally friendly composted bedding housing system for 100 lactating cows, BouMatic double-6 herringbone parlor with a StepMetrix automated lameness detection system, and research bays with Calan gates.

Two 25-student classrooms will also be attached to the milking center, which can be expanded for industry-based workshops and meetings.

The project has been many years in the making, with the first phase of the center being approved by the Wisconsin System Board of Regents nearly five years ago.

UWRF has one of the largest undergraduate dairy science majors in the nation.