Kellogg Dairy Center

The Kellogg Dairy Center was built in 1991, funded by a bequest from by Frances Osborne Kellogg, a woman industrialist and dairy farmer from Derby, CT. The KDC houses the Department of Animal Science's milking cows in its nationally recognized dairy herd. UConn Creamery staff use milk from the herd to to make the famous UConn Dairy Bar ice cream and cheese.

In addition to providing milk for UConn Creamery ice cream and cheese, the Holstein (black and white or red and white) and Jersey (fawn colored) cows housed here are used for teaching and research by Animal Science faculty, staff and students in the areas of anatomy, physiology, genetics, environmental health, livestock management and food science.

In addition to barn itself, the KDC has classroom and research labs. The barn is freestall, meaning the cows are not confined to their stalls and are free to move about the barn. A robot pushes feed back toward the cows as they push it away when eating. Mounted on the wall of the barn are big cylindrical brushes that cows use to scratch their backs.

When a cow is ready to be milked, she enters the voluntary, or robotic, milking system. The robot recognizes her from the RFID tag on her ear, and she  receives a specially measured portion of grain as the milking system attaches the cups to her teats. The RFID tags allow the recording of information for each cow that includes milk production, feed consumption, activity level, temperature and estrous cycle stage. Visitors are invited to watch through the window as cows are milked.

To minimize their exposure to disease, calves are raised in calf houses outside the KDC. As with a dog house, the calf's body heat warms the calf house to the right temperature.

Read more about the Department of Animal Science's dairy science programs.