While other university dairies dry up, USU's Caine keeps churning out research

By Katie Ashton

May 16, 2005 | Cache Valley could not see life without it. Utah would miss its technological advances. And there would be an outcry from dairy commodity groups in neighboring states.

Life without the Caine Dairy seems unthinkable, Mark Healey, Utah State University's animal, dairy and veterinary science department head, said. The dairy, properly known as the George B. Caine Dairy Teaching and Research Facility, is one of three research facilities left in the Intermountain West associated with a university.

"We have tremendous grass-roots support from residents in this valley because dairy is so important," Healey said. "If there were an attempt to close the Caine Dairy there would be a tremendous outcry."

The traditional family farm is disappearing, John Wallentine, managing director of the Caine Dairy, said. This trend doesn't reside in the pastures of local farmers either, many universities are following this rapid movement.

Most universities with research dairies have gone "out of business" due to the high maintenance costs dairies incur, Healey said. Utah State invests $500,000 into the dairy each year. Since research dairies are not designed to make money, most universities are investing into a black hole, he said.

"We're not in business to make a profit," he said. "We can't make a profit."

Like most private and research dairies, the Caine Dairy has felt the impact of the rapid trend of small farms disappearing into large, consolidated farms of 5,000 cows or more.

This trend doesn't remain within Utah's borders either. North Dakota farmers are feeling the same strain of a changing industry. According to J.W. Schroeder, a North Dakota State University Extension Service dairy specialist in Fargo, in 1991, North Dakota had 2,100 dairy farms, but today there are just 438.

"In the last 12 years, we have lost 5 to 15 percent per year," Schroeder told the Telegraph Herald.

According to the New York Times, New York is estimated to lose 6,000 small dairies in 15 years and family farms will be replaced by a few huge dairies.

"We are seeing fewer and fewer dairy farms a year," Wallentine said. The remaining dairy farms continue to grow in size, although there are fewer farms nationwide. Surprisingly, cattle numbers haven't dropped because of this trend, Wallentine said, but rather have increased.

"In 1990 there was roughly 126,000 dairy farms in the United States," he said. "Today there is around 68,000 to 70,000. In the course of 15 years, we've dropped thousands of dairy farms in the United States. Good or bad, that's just the way it is. And that's the way it is with most agriculture." Paralleling this trend are the student applicants for dairy science majors. At Utah State, eight to 12 students are in the four-year dairy science program at any given time, Healey said, and about 20 students graduate in the one-year herdsman program per year.

"While we would like to have more dairy science majors, those being four-year students that are going to graduate with a [bachelor's] degree, the fact is we just usually are somewhere between eight-12," he said. "I think the nature of the industry is such that there isn't a lot we can do."

Despite the low number of students entering the program, the Caine Dairy, which originally started one USU's main campus in the late '30s early '40s, remains an essential research facility for the university.

Utah State is a land grant university, Healey said, which means it has a three-prong mission it must fulfill to maintain federal grants. The mission includes teaching, research and extension.

"The Caine Dairy is really the epitome of representing the land grant mission," he said.

The dairy is used as a teaching facility for the one-year herdsman program, a faculty research station and for others from the Intermountain West to learn from the dairy's techniques and equipment, Healey said. Since the dairy is one of three left associated with a university, neighboring states look to Utah State for information on dairy advancement.

"We're not just a dairy for Utah, we're not just a dairy for Utah State, we are in fact the regional dairy for the Intermountain West, or at least we're perceived that way," he said.

The Caine Dairy continues to thrive as a research facility, however, it is no longer the financial black hole most research dairies are, Healey said. Wallentine has been with the dairy for five years and was hired from the private sector by Healey. Healey said he hired Wallentine because he knew how to make a living in dairying.

"If you don't make money in dairying, your family doesn't eat," he said. Once Wallentine began working at the dairy, although forced with an operation designed to lose money, he started aiming to break even financially.

"I brought him into a situation that was geared at losing money, because profit wasn't on our totem pole of priorities," Healey said. "We're just thrilled at what he's done fiscally with that dairy because it is no longer a black hole in which we keep throwing money."

The milk from the dairy is primarily sold to Gossner's, a cheese company based in the valley, Wallentine said. A portion is also sold to Utah State's nutrition and food science department where Aggie ice cream is produced. The money that is generated is then put back into the dairy, Healey said.

On average, there are 150 milking cows that produce 73 pounds of milk per day, and 22,000 pounds of milk in the lactation cycle, or 305 days, Wallentine said. This yields about 3.3 million pounds of milk a year.

The productivity of the dairy, although impressive, isn't the most important attribute of the facility. Students interested in dairy science look to Utah State because of the programs offered and the hands-on facility.

The dairy, which was built in Wellsville in 1984, is geared to stay modern and progressive, Wallentine said, not only to attract students, but also to relate to the industry. One example of modernity of the dairy is its milking parlor.

The milking parlor is computerized for animal identification, activity and milk production. The quality of milk is also sent to the computer, Wallentine said.

Not only do students and neighboring dairy groups look to the Caine Dairy for its modern techniques, but it also remains an important part of Utah State. The dairy helps the university meet its land grant requirements, and although operation costs are high, the university has never considered closing it, Healey said.

With the nation's last recession, budgets were cut and financial losses were high, still, "The Caine Dairy was never a target," Healey said. "It would take a national disaster to cut our funds to the extent to say, 'You know, this dairy, we can't afford it anymore,'" he said.

The dairy keeps operating as support continues. With four full-time employees and seven or eight part-time, the dairy remains a resource to students, faculty and dairymen across the neighboring states.

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