All around the world, Internet users can view the milking of dairy cattle at the Web site www.DairyCam.com.The cameras are at the milking parlor at the new $4.1 million Dairy Center in Calmar which has been operating since the fall of 2000, said Dave Lawstuen, instructor of dairy technology and chairman of Dairy Foundation Operations at Northeast Iowa Community College.”The cameras are on 24 hours a day, and the herd is milked two times a day, once at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.,” Lawstuen said. “It is mainly an education tool so the general public can see students milk cows and see how milk is produced.”Leo Timms, associate professor of animal science and dairy extension specialist, said the project is a three-way partnership between Northeast Iowa Community College, Iowa State and the Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation. Timms said the dairy foundation is a grassroots organization that was developed to spearhead the project. “It is a unique education opportunity, especially since only 2 percent of the population is involved in agriculture, and so much of the public is two or three generations removed from the farm,” Lawstuen said. “The parlor was built to compare the efficiency in systems between the herringbone stalls and parallel stalls. It is a neat site. Things are going great.”There are four objectives to the dairy foundation, Timms said. The first is to maintain and service the dairy industry in northeast Iowa. The second is to maintain environmental stewardship and the land for good farm practices. The third objective is to have a facility serving the people, students and the area, he said. “The fourth objective is to have a seamless education for kids who wanted to go to college that had a dairy curriculum,” Timms said. “The schools also have joint programming and dual enrollment for the students. Currently, the groups are trying to look for means to merge the two farms and have one facility.”