Opportunities for research, learning at U of I dairy farm

URBANA, Ill. — The herd at the University of Illinois dairy farm provides animals for research projects, as well as an opportunity for students to learn about dairy herd management.

“We have a large variety of facilities here, some barns are about 100 years old and other barns are 20 years old,” said Ashley Dickerson, farm manager of the U of I dairy farm, during the 2025 Dairy Tech Tour, hosted by the Illinois Milk Producers Association.

The majority of the 87-cow herd is Holsteins.

“We have three Brown Swiss cows and milk production is in the mid-70s,” Dickerson said.

Graduate students are involved with several research projects with the herd, including in the transition barn.

“This is one of the best designed stalls on the farm,” said Phil Cardoso, U of I professor of animal sciences. “The stalls are much bigger and they are bedded with sand so the cows feel very comfortable here.”

Lizet Garcia is involved with a transition diet study that is focusing on forages.

“I have four cows right now that are in their second lactation and older,” she said. “They are on this trial from 35 days before their expected due date and they stay on until 28 days in milk.”

Hybrid rye is part of the ration for the cows in this trial.

“This is in cooperation with a German company, KWS,” Cardoso said. “They developed this hybrid rye that they say has more digestibility.”

Some dairymen don’t have wheat straw or it is too expensive, the professor said.

“Rye is a cover crop, so if dairymen harvest the rye as haylage, this could be a way of making the ration cheaper and provide an alternative to dairymen,” he said.

The hybrid rye was harvested at two different stages.

“It was harvested at the boot stage, which is right before the head emerges,” Garcia said. “And then we harvested one month later which was the milky stage after the head had emerged and we are interested in seeing whether wheat straw can be replaced by the rye milky in the ration.”

The milking parlor at the U of I farm is a double 12 parallel.

“We have four milking groups right now and it typically takes about two hours for milking,” said Derek Nolan, U of I teaching assistant professor. “We milk at 4 a.m. and 3 p.m. and we ship all our milk to Prairie Farms.”

Students are employed on the farm to do the milking.

“Every semester we have around 20 students that help with the milking so there’s a lot of training that has to be done,” Nolan said. “During milking we like to have three people — two in the parlor and one person pushing the cows to the parlor.”

Since Nolan’s background is in milk quality, the milking parlor is his favorite part of the farm.

“The average milk production is in the mid-70s and the somatic cell count is averaging around 180,000,” he said.

Mastitis is the most common and the costliest disease in the industry, Nolan said.

“It’s also the disease that causes the most use of antibiotics,” he said. “But depending on the bacteria causing the mastitis, maybe not all cases need to be treated with an antibiotic.”

Therefore, the U of I researchers are going to start taking more milk cultures.

“Any cow with a clinical case of mastitis or a high somatic cell count, we are going to take a milk sample and plate in on these culture plates,” Nolan said.

The culture plates have three different types of media.

“Depending on where the bacteria grow on the media, that gives us an idea of what bacteria is present and that can help guide our treatment decisions,” Nolan said. “So, hopefully we can lower antibiotic use on dairy farms.”

Depending on the number of milkings, the rubber components of the milking machines are replaced annually or twice a year.

“Every time the inflations are changed, we also have the vacuum levels and pulsations checked by the company that provides the inflations,” Nolan said.

“I also have a vacuum and pulsation tester that helps insure we’re keeping the cows’ teat end healthy,” he said. “If the cows don’t have a healthy teat end, that allows bacteria to enter the gland which will lead to cases of mastitis, so I can do a pulsator and vacuum test to make sure our equipment is functioning as it should.”

A vacuum tester is going to be attached to the milking units prior to the fall semester, to help with training students on proper milking procedures.

“If the timing is not right with procedures in the parlor, cows can have a bimodal milking,” Nolan said. “By having the equipment on the milking unit during the entire milking process we can track to make sure the timing is appropriate.”

Each cow in the university herd has a collar and the identification number of the cow is read when it enters the milking stall.

“We can track the pounds of milk production per cow per day, as well as the total milking time and milk flow rate,” Nolan said.

“We also have the capability of attaching milk meters to the milking units so we can collect milk samples,” he said. “That’s beneficial to a lot of the nutrition trials.”