ARLINGTON — Several hundred guests gathered at the UW-Madison Arlington Agricultural Research Station to get their first peek at the newly opened dairy barn and milking facility.
The $5.1 million dairy complex includes two freestall dairy barns, a Double 16 WestfaliaSurge milking parlor, a sand bedding recycling system and 350 dairy cows that are milked twice a day. Soon 450 cows will make their home there.
But the dedication ceremony Wednesday was about more than the technology and details incorporated into the modern dairy facility — there are many other barns similar to this one across the state. It was also about the unusual road taken to get the much-needed facility built.