Department of Animal Sciences

Research - Dairy

OSU Dairy

Role of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in periparturient and ketotic dairy cows. 1998. J.S. Duncan, D.J. Carroll, and C.Y. Hu

Are High Potassium Forage Increasing the Occurrence of Metabolic Diseases in Dairy Cows?1998. R.L. Crill, D.J. Carroll, M. Gangwer, and J. Hart

Ruminal undegradable intake protein fraction of four protein sources: canola meal, dried barley distillers grains, corn distillers, and blood meal. 1997. D.J. Carroll, M.R. Keller, D. Matthiesen, and T. Koch

Incorporation of grass straw nuggets into dairy heifer diets. 1996. D.J. Carroll, M. Gamroth, M. Keller, and K.E. Nickell

Making silage with shrimp or crab waste and straw. 1996. Dale J. Evers and Diane J. Carroll

OSU Dairy

Phone: 541/737-3275

Unit Supervisor: Ben Krahn

Unit Management Team Chair: Jill Davidson

Full-time employees: Bill Mason; Rick Verbeck

The Dairy Center is located 1.5 miles west of campus and is available for research and teaching purposes. The facilities include the following: Main barn (houses up to 180 mature cows and 60 heifer calves) with head locks throughout and 18 calan gates; Dry cow barn with 9 individual maturity pens, 28 free stalls, head locks, and 8 calan gates; Breeding heifer barn with 33 free stalls, head locks and an open paddock area; Treatment and surgery area with squeeze chute, scales and crowd pen; Loading pen and chute; Classroom and lab; the Wyatt barn which houses 35, 8-13 month old heifers and 30 springers; and a Double-7 Herringbone milking parlor and milk house. The milking herd consists of 40 registered Jersey cows and 130 registered Holstein cows. 20-140 heifers of various ages are housed throughout the year.

The Dairy Center is surrounded by 180 acres of land utilized for grass silage and hay production as well as grazing. The Jersey cows are kept in a separate group and are grazed 8 months of the year. The Holstein cows are divided into milking strings by age and lactation stage. Around half of the Holstein cows are grazed 2-3 months out of the year. All other animals including the dry cows, calves, young heifers and springers are grazed 6-8 months a year. All animals are fed a total mixed ration (TMR) consisting of some combination of grass silage, alfalfa hay, corn silage, cotton seed, oat hay, grass hay and grain. Artificial insemination is utilized for all breeding purposes.

The Dairy manager, two classified employees, and 8-14 students work as a team to meet the day to day operational needs of the Dairy Unit. The Dairy Unit has the capacity to store 80 tons of baled hay, 2000 tons of silage in a concrete pit, storage areas for 7, 100-ton silage bags, and a commodity barn with 5 compartments for dry storage.