Taking advantage of UW-Platteville’s more than 100 years in agricultural innovation and education, plus the importance the university plays in the unique Driftless Region, the Dairy Innovation Hub was formed in 2018.
The hub provides $7.9 million annually to the UW System to increase research, teaching, and outreach offerings at UW-Platteville, UW-Madison, and UW-River Falls. More than $1.8 million of that will fund approximately four UW-Platteville faculty positions focusing on dairy, research opportunities, and equipment in the Russell Hall laboratories and at Pioneer Farm.
The bill was introduced by local representatives Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) and Rep. Travis Tranel (R-Cuba City).
“Wisconsin is already recognized as a dairy superpower, and this is a reinvestment to reprioritize dairy innovation,” said Dr. Wayne Weber, Dean of the College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture. “This will increase the capacity to help the farmers meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.”
UW-Platteville has approximately 700 agriculture students that make a statewide impact in majors such as animal science and dairy science. The Dairy Innovation Hub would help UW-Platteville faculty and student research and regional business and industry engagement opportunities by:
- expanding ruminant production research
- collecting and interpreting the large amounts of data generated on farms
- expanding capacity in research and education on dairy wastewater management, recycling, and reuse
- expanding edge-of-field and groundwater monitoring
- studying animal welfare in bedding systems, milking rotations, and nutrition
"There are huge amounts of opportunities here to positively impact the farms of Southwest Wisconsin and in turn have an impact statewide, nationally, and globally," Dean Weber said.
Visit our partner institutions sites for more information
