Farm News, IA
08-24-07
ISU to open new Dairy Animal Science Education building
Building scheduled for dedication on Oct. 20
By KRISS NELSON, Messenger correspondent
Silage is now being put up and contractors are working persistently to get
everything built for the new Dairy/Animal Science Education and Discovery
Facility located just three miles south of Iowa State University Campus.
Maynard Hogberg, chairman of the Department of Animal Science at Iowa
State University, said they have scheduled the dedication for the facility for Oct.
20 and they intend to move the cattle in at the end of that month and then they
will be up and running.
“It will be a fully functional dairy farm of 450 milking cows that will be used for
teaching, research and extension activities relating to the dairy industry,” said
Hogberg. “It will be used by faculty in Animal Science, Veterinary Medicine and
Ag and Biosystems Engineering as a place to teach students as well as research
programs.”
The farm will include, according to Hogberg, a cow maternity barn, calf barn, dry
cow barn, heifer barns for various sizes of heifers, a freestall barn for the milking
cows, a milking parlor, a special needs barn, classroom, laboratories, feed
storage, manure storage and a liquid/solid separation system, with a centralized
composting system that will be in operation by spring, 2008.
Solid manure, Hogberg said, after it is separated from the liquid will also be
composted along with food waste, leaves among other items from campus and
composting from other ISU farms and eventually made into a high quality product
to be used elsewhere.
The new facility replaces a dairy farm in Ankeny that is about 50 years old. The
Ankeny dairy farm is in a prime development area and the Iowa Legislature voted
in 2002 to have Iowa State sell the property, which it did, to the City of Ankeny in
2005.
Hogberg said the project budget is $14.77 million dollars, which does not include
the cost of purchasing land for the farm. The money, he added came from the
proceeds of selling the dairy farm at the Ankeny location.
The new dairy facility will be easier for Iowa State faculty and students to reach
as Ankeny took up some travel time and the nearly 100-year-old dairy farm on
Mortenson Road near the Towers Residence Complex was closed in 2003.
“The biggest advantage is that this will be a modern dairy farm and will be much
more labor-efficient. It will be close to campus which will make it more accessible
to students for class as well as those who want to work part time at the farm,”
Hogberg said. “This will have the capacity to be used by a larger number of
faculty across campus plus it will also be used by scientists at the National
Animal Disease Center in Ames.”
The new facility will also be easier on the cows and the people at the operation,
said Leo Timms, animal science professor and extension dairy specialist through
a statement. When the previous farms were designed, cow comfort used to
consist of keeping cows warm or cool. The new facility will incorporate natural
ventilation as much as possible with mechanical additions. A grid orientation of
fans will allow multiple positions to increase cow comfort, which as proven
effective in swine operations.
Another comfort issue is surfaces and stalls for cows. Many surfaces, from mats
to mattresses, will be tried to see if there are differences in milk production or
disease prevention.
Timms said the challenge was to design a dairy that could be managed and
operated to be profitable while efficiently integrating research, teaching and
extension activities.
Hogberg said the new facility is designed with the flexibility of research in mind
and for example, will be set up to allow for individual feeding for each animal and
the watering system will enable for some water to be medicated if need be while
leaving other water natural.
Hogberg sees two impacts on dairying in Iowa.
“It will help grow the number of students interested in the dairy industry either as
practioners or those who want to do research in the area. And the research and
outreach at the facility will address industry issues that should be an asset to
increasing the industry in the state,” he said.