[204] University Breaks Ground on New Diary Nov. 15

Release date: Nov. 12, 2010

News & Public Affairs contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
School of Agribusiness and Agriscience contact: Dr. Warren Gill,
615-898-2404 / 615-478- 3828 (cell)
or wgill@mtsu.edu

University Breaks Ground on New Dairy Nov. 15


(MURFREESBORO) — Officials will conduct a groundbreaking ceremony for a new dairy facility at the MTSU Farm, located at 3001 Guy James Road, at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 15.
The public and MTSU community are invited. The property is located 5.5 miles east of campus off Halls Hill Pike.
“The start of the new dairy is an exciting and wonderful event for the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience,” said Dr. Warren Gill, director of the school.
“We are the only school in the state where students milk the cows and process the milk for students to drink,” Gill added. “By doing this, the students learn practical lessons in food safety, cattle management and quality assurance, which makes them highly desired (as employees) by Tennessee’s large food-processing industry.”
Farm Lab Director Tim Redd noted that the expansion “will be an outstanding opportunity as a lab for our students.”


“We’ll now have a greater opportunity for teaching,” Redd continued. “The facility will be state-of-the-art. It will be much more functional for cattle comfort. It’s something we look forward to.”


MTSU’s Campus Planning office said the university received $4.375 million for the new dairy facility. The funding will pay for design and construction, including a milking facility and equipment, free-stall barn, hay barn, grain bins, shop and storage area, feed shed, fuel and chemical storage and all associated infrastructure, roads and fencing needed to support the facilities. 


The new dairy will cost $2.7 million, Gill said, adding that the additional funding will pay for fencing, moving costs to transfer the cattle herd from the current dairy on Manson Pike, bedding for the animals, improving the grass areas at the Guy James Road location, buying equipment such as tractors and trucks and purchasing office furniture.


“Fencing is expensive but needed,” Gill said. “It costs something to move cattle. We need to get the pastures ready, and the office furniture and chairs all cost something.”
Designed by Nashville-based Lose & Associates Inc., the project began in earnest in mid-October by Hardcastle Construction Co. Inc. of Madison, Tenn.
Gill said the agreed-upon 180-day completion date would have the project finished “in early spring, April or thereabouts.”
MTSU’s herd of 60 cows is a combination of Holsteins and Jerseys, Gill said, adding that they provide all the white and chocolate milk consumed on campus by MT Dining customers. Redd indicated that milk consumption on campus is about 3,800 pounds per week or one-third of the MTSU Dairy’s production, Gill said.
“Holsteins provide more milk per day. Jerseys provide richer, more flavorful milk,” Gill said. “Chocolate milk is one of the most popular things that students consume. We’re famous for our chocolate milk.”
The remaining milk is sold to the Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, which proclaims at its website that it is “marketing milk for dairy-farm families from Pennsylvania to Alabama.”
Gill said the dairy will be a “double-eight parallel parlor with state-of-the-art computerized equipment. Initially, we will milk 60 to 70 cows, but the facility will be capable of expanding to as many as 350 cows. 

“We are going to make it as environmentally friendly as possible. We currently are evaluating the use of geothermal technology to assist in cooling the milk and utilizing solar panels for electricity.”

Gill said he does not anticipate expanding the herd soon.
In addition to Redd, dairy personnel include Liz Troup, the dairy-processing lab manager; Jason Tanner, Stark Dairy herdsman; and Ralph Smith, assistant dairy herdsman.
About 30 students a year are hired part-time to assist with MTSU Farm Lab operations, Gill added.
For more information about the Nov. 15 groundbreaking ceremony, call 615-898-2523. For more information about the dairy, contact Gill at 615-898-2404.

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Media welcomed.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

For MTSU news and information, go online to mtsunews.com.