Iowa All Over: Counting cows in Calmar

CALMAR - Calmar, in northeast Iowa's Winneshiek County, is home to Iowa's Dairy Center, an operational dairy farm that gives visitors the chance to get up close and personal with cows.

Operated by the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation, the center is located on a hill just a few minutes outside downtown Calmar, population 978 as of the 2010 census.

The facility includes meeting rooms, a dairy history museum, a milking parlor, robotic milking system, a barn for cows and a calf barn. The center attracts more than 5,000 visitors annually.

Families can walk through the calf barn and see small black-and-white spotted cows in their stalls. In the large freestyle barn, a robot sweeps its way through the aisle, pushing feed closer to cows as they reach forward to eat.

From a viewing platform, visitors can watch cows being milked.

Signs provide 'fast facts” on the industry, including that most milk in the state of Iowa is made into cheese. In addition, 98 percent of all U.S. dairy farms are family owned and operated, most often by multiple generations.

Iowa's Dairy Center was started in 2000 by dairy producers and industry members interested in keeping youth in northeast Iowa, said Megan Kregel, Dairy Center coordinator. The goal was to educate the next generation of dairy producers.

'The beauty of the dairy industry is that there's a lot of different ways to milk cows,” Kregel said. 'Not everybody has to do it the exact same way, but at the same time, in order to attract students, in order to have the next generation involved …

a certain level of technology is required.”

Today, the center has a partnership with Northeast Iowa Community College, which provides hands-on education for students enrolled in the college's two-year agriculture programs. Degree options are available in dairy science and beef science technology, for example.

The center also offers continuing education courses and seminars for dairy producers.

The center milks 280 cows on site - 160 through its milking parlor and 120 with its robotic system.

The economic impact of a single dairy cow is $23,445 annually, Kregel said, citing a 2012 Iowa State University economic review on Iowa's Dairy Industry. Iowa's 209,000 cows contribute $5 billion to the state's economy.

Winneshiek County alone boasts some 15,000 cows, Kregel said.

'It's a huge dollar impact being generated just by our dairy facility,” she said.

Without the strong agricultural presence, many of the other businesses in Calmar may not be present, Kregel said.

The Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation will host its sixth-annual Breakfast on the Farm from 8:30 a.m. to noon on June 20 at the Dairy Center. Breakfast will include dairy products produced and processed in northeast Iowa.

There also will be guided tram tours of the center and activities.

If you go

What: Iowa's Dairy Center

Where: 1527 Highway 150 S, Calmar

Hours: By appointment

Admission: $5 adults, $3 children.

Call (563)534-9957 or go to www.iowadairycenter.com