This state-of-the-art unit contains multiple brand new facilities that will be used in the working of the dairy. Some notable facilities include: a double 8 herring bone rapid exit milking parlor, a working area capable of recording daily body weights and animal activity measurements, a building with conference and class rooms and 3 offices, laboratory facilities, a solid manure separation building, neo-natal calf raising area housing and feeding 50 baby calves, a feed mixing building for housing and mixing feeds, 6 above ground bunker silos, 2 hay storage sheds, and a maintenance shop for equipment storage.
Aside from Holstein production and milking, the ETREC – Little River Unit is also home to a few crop research projects including 200 acres of production cropland, and 50 acres of pasture. The unit also produces it’s own hay and corn silage.
Current projects underway at the unit include monitoring sub surface and surface water quality inside farm and on farm boundaries and numerous pasture weed control trials. Once the dairy is up and running there will be soil bacteria monitoring research as well as a cow foot health project, which tests the difference in concrete and rubber mat differences on foot health, mastitis research, heat stress research, and embryo transfer projects.
The ETREC-Little River Unit has new specialized equipment including a solid nutrient spreader, with capability of weighing and GPS tracking of applications, a system that will monitor internal core temp of the cows and record it every five minutes, as well as the solid manure separator. The dairy has a capacity for 200-250 lactating cows, housing 75 dry cows, 50 young calves that will all be raised 6 months as weaned aged heifers.
Contact the Little River Unit:
East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center – Little River Unit
3229 Ellejoy Road
Walland, TN 37886
Tate Walker
Phone: 865-567-1985
Email: bwalke28@tennessee.edu
