Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/92825
The After five years Cornell is back in the dairy business. Since the old teaching dairy barn, "R" barn, was demolished to make way for the Animal Health Diagnostic Center, we have been without this superb Cornell tradition. On August 28 the first cows arrived from Sunny- side Farms, to the delight of Jerry Willis, the herd manager, who said he's mucked his last horse stall. In true Cornell fashion, Jerry slept with the cows the first evening to "make sure none of the girls got into any trouble." Since the cows arrived, he has been doing double shifts, and Professor Chuck Guard cleaned the barn during milking until additional staff were on board in September. Now, as before, every first-year student, whether they grew up in Batavia or Brooklyn and whether they are tracking production or ex- otic medicine, will spend a morning doing barn chores beginning at 6:30am. Labs for second-year students began in September, and when Carolyn and I dropped in during the 4:30pm milking shift on Labor Day, Jerry, Chuck, and several veterinary student employees had things well in hand. Fifteen student employees help at the 4:30am/ pm milkings, overseen by the student manager Liz Brock, Class of 2015. When full, the barn will house about 150 milking and 30 dry cows, as well as calves. The new Teaching Dairy Barn is within walking distance of the College and is an open free stall facility with a 20-cow milking par- lor and soaring arched ceilings. An observation classroom above the parlor allows the public to see a modern dairy facility in operation and facilitates meetings of stakeholders and outreach educational activities, while maintaining appropriate biosecurity. The Barn will also be used for teaching labs for Animal Science students, providing easier access and a more typical commercial dairy experience than the CALS T&R barn in Dryden. But most of all, it will be a home away from home for our production medicine students, house staff, and faculty, and a learning center that will expose every single Cornell veterinary student to modern dairy practices. My sincere thanks to Jerry and Chuck, as well as Drs. Lorin Warnick and Alfonso Torres, whose hours of planning have paid off. Girls Cordially, are back in town! Michael I. Kotlikoff, VMD, PhD Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine