USDA, UW–Madison break ground on a new dairy research facility

The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of Wisconsin–Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on June 10, 2024 for the construction of a world-class dairy research facility in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, that will expand the two organizations’ long-standing partnership to deliver innovative solutions to issues impacting dairy farms across the country.

Upon its scheduled completion in 2027 on a 42-acre site in Prairie du Sac, WI, the new U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center facility and its associated buildings will house robotic milking systems, chambers for measuring greenhouse gas emissions, an advanced animal nutrition unit and state-of-the-art laboratories for agronomy and dairy science, as well as offices and a visitor center.