Ohio State University’s herd of Jersey dairy cows will soon have a permanent new home. The cows, currently in temporary housing at OSU’s Wooster campus, should be back in Columbus in a new $6.2 million facility by the end of the year.
The dairy’s prime location just off of Lane Avenue, near the main entrance to the Columbus campus, reinforces the importance of agriculture to the university and the state, says Maurice Eastridge, senior associate chair of animal sciences and dairy extension specialist at Ohio State, and the new dairy was designed with education of students as the top priority. “Public education and research needs are its second and third missions,” Eastridge says.