UW-River Falls Dairy Learning Center

"As a faculty member and chair of the department, I'm excited that we'll be able to use this new tool, but mostly I'm excited for our students. A project like this required a lot of vision and a lot of perspective and understanding of what this institution is about."
- Chair of Animal and Food Science Department, Steve Kelm at the DLC Groundbreaking, October 20, 2006.

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Students have access to the latest dairy science technology.

On October 20, 2006 ground was broken for the new Dairy Learning Center complex located on the Mann Valley Laboratory Farm. It replaces the old dairy facility, constructed in the 1950s, located on the Campus Laboratory Farm

The new Dairy Learning Center features:

An environmentally-friendly composted bedding housing system for 100 lactating cows
Systems to minimize wastewater – water to cool the milk will be reused for the livestock, the equipment wash water will be reused to clean the floors
A waste-handling system that lends itself to research studies on manure resource management
A Bou-Matic double-6 herringbone parlor with a StepMetrix lameness detection system that will monitor the weight distribution of the cow in order to identify lame animals
Research bays with Calan gates allowing the herd to be split into groups for nutrition trials. Continuing research on composted bedding systems.
Two – 25 student classrooms attached to the milking center, expandable to hold groups of 50 for industry events
Both confinement and pasture-based management systems

The DLC is used by many academic programs at UWRF, most notably the Dairy Science program, which is one of the three largest undergraduate dairy science programs in the U.S. with approximately 110 majors.

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Facility Map

Students have access to the latest dairy science technology.