New dairy research facility opens at U of S

CTV Saskatoon: New dairy research facility It is hoped that the new facility will enhance the public's understanding of dairy production.

The Rayner Dairy Research and Teaching Facilty on the University of Saskatchewan campus has officially opened its doors.

The new research centre has been in the works for the past ten years. According to Dr. Andrew Van Kessel, the new facility is state of the art.

“It has all the modern amenities in terms of robot milking system, a parlor milking system, and a metabolism wing that allows us to do a very refined experiments to understand the physiology of dairy cows,” explained Van Kessel.

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart is excited of the possibilities this new research centre.

“We expect great research to come out of this,” Stewart said. “Both in terms of feed and the handling of cattle and so on. The sky’s the limit as to what can come of this.”

At any given time, there will be 110 milking cows in the facility. This new lab will replace an outdated barn built in 1972, which no longer met national research standards

It is hoped the new facility will enhance the public’s understanding of dairy production.