By: Amanda Damon
Just a two-minute drive from campus is the Alfred State College Farm. Home to cows, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, and chickens, the farm is where agriculture and veterinary technician students get hands-on experience.
Though the farm is largely for these specific majors, anyone is welcome to visit. The farm has been implementing new technology, such as an automatic feed pusher and an automatic milker.
The feed pusher is used to keep the hay for the cows along the edge of the free stall so it can be easily reached. This machine runs hourly and stops from 5pm-9pm. The automatic milker allows constant milking while workers can monitor from a computer. After cows have their calves, they are fitted with blue collars that are read by the gates of the milker. The system runs all the time, though individual cows are milked only once or twice a day.
The farm is a Dairy Farms of America (DFA) farm and the milk that is collected is sold in stores as Organic Valley milk.
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