Cutting the herd

MSU is among many colleges where dairy herds are being cut or combined with other school’s herds to save on cash:

Kentucky had hoped to move its herd to a new facility at Eastern Kentucky University about 30 minutes away but money isn’t available right now to build it, Cox said.

“We are losing money,” she said. While the universities aren’t into dairying to make money, many sell their milk to try to recoup some of their costs.
“Certainly the economy that’s affected dairy farming in general has affected us and it’s not sustainable,” Cox said.

On top of that, states have been reducing funding for land-grant universities for about 20 years or longer, said Paul Hassen, a spokesman for the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. That has only accelerated with the budget problems in many states.