Veterinary school honored for dairy teaching herd

The School of Veterinary Medicine recently received a 2004 Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection’s Division of Food Safety for maintaining outstanding milk quality and commendable farm conditions for more than three years with its dairy teaching herd.

The herd is self-supporting, with help from industry grants.

Purchased by the veterinary school in August 2000, the 50-cow herd allows veterinary students to learn production, handling and health-care skills in a real-life dairy situation. The herd is one of only five veterinary teaching herds in the nation, and the only one where veterinary students are involved in day-to-day operations such as milking, feeding and barn chores.

Despite a nontraditional labor structure – a rotation of 30 to 40 students per semester, rather than a few steady caretakers – the herd has maintained a production average of 82 pounds of milk per cow per day, high milk quality (the average somatic cell count is below 200,000) and very sanitary farm conditions (standard plate count under 1,000).

“Our goal is to encourage pre-veterinary and veterinary students to serve the dairy industry and consider a career in food animal production medicine,” says Bill Goodger, a veterinarian at the School of Veterinary Medicine who oversees the herd. “So far, it’s been a great educational experience for the 275 students who have worked managing the day-to-day activities of the herd.”