There are many activities and organizations that will be deeply affected by this decision. For years, the Ames area 4-H club has relied on the farm for many of their teaching activities. Members of 4-H come out to the farm and select a heifer to show at the Story County Fair. This is a wonderful learning experience for them. It provides them with many skills that are the foundation of leadership, character and ethics.

The activities for the Iowa State Dairy Science Club will also change drastically. Every year we hold the “I Milked A Cow Contest” at the Iowa State Fair and Veishea with help from the farm and the use of its cows. This activity has been a great success, and the College has surely reaped the benefits from this and other important events that we coordinate.

Dairy Science curriculum at Iowa State will be forever changed, if not lost forever. Currently, classes are held at the farm to include a hands-on approach to learning. Now, a Dairy Science degree from Iowa State is depreciating as we speak. We have paid a substantial amount of money for this degree, and it will no longer have the integrity it once did.

This will hinder those of us who are preparing for a job within the dairy industry and is a huge blow to students in dairy science, especially to those students that work at the farm. Not only do the students lose in this unfortunate situation, the state of Iowa and its dairy industry will suffer in the years to come.

There has been a promise that Iowa State will build a new dairy farm in two years for teaching purposes. If they can’t keep the current farm running for two more years, what makes them think they can build and keep a new one?

Closing the farm is one step away from closing the dairy science program at Iowa State, and another step to closing the College of Agriculture.

At the dairy farm we pride ourselves on many things. Hard work is one of these. We also have one of the oldest operating parlors in the state. Another is the fact the Iowa State is the oldest land grant university in the nation founded with an emphasis in agriculture.

We have a lot of pride. But you can’t measure pride in dollar signs, and that’s all this university cares about.

Rachel Stammeyer

Senior

Dairy Science