On August 26th, Lakeland College, located in Vermilion, Alberta, opened its new Dairy Learning Centre. The Dairy Learning Centre replaces the college’s previous dairy facility which was built in the 1980’s and will provide Lakeland students the opportunity to learn in a state of the art facility.
The 47,000 ft2 facility will house 120 Holstein milk cows and their associated replacement heifers and young stock.
This extra-large space also provides additional area for educational uses and a public viewing mezzanine.
Some additional features include:
- Robotic and a conventional parallel milking parlour
- Automated feed system with robotic delivery
- Herd navigator technology
- Water and electricity metering for consumption will be comparison between milking systems
- Automatic calf feeders
- Manure separation system
- Manure scrapers programmed to run several times a day
- LED lighting with auto dimming to reflect actual daylight for the time of year
- Skylight to reduce lighting loads during daylight hours
- Ventilation efficiencies
- Plate exchanges to lower the temperature of milk from the udder and transfer that heat for other purposes.
The total cost of $9.5 million included funds from the federal Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund and Alberta’s Growing Forward program.
More information can be found on their website: http://www.lakelandcollege.ca/about-lakeland/capital-construction/dairy-learning-centre.aspx
