On Friday, February 20, the college hosted 40 alumni of Future Farmers of America (FFA) as part of the Wisconsin FFA Alumni and Supporters annual convention held in Madison. The group toured some of the college’s facilities and research units including the Dairy Cattle Center, the Babcock Dairy Plant and Dairy Store, the Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery Building (MSABD) and the Center for Dairy Research (CDR).

At Babcock Dairy, participants visited the Observation Deck to get a glimpse inside the plant and learn how they make products such as ice cream and cheese. They also got to check out the Babcock Dairy Store and try samples of Babcock ice cream.

At the Dairy Cattle Center, they were able to meet some of the college’s dairy herd, see the milking parlor and learn about research projects happening at UW–Madison.

At MSABD, the group got an inside look at the USDA meat plant and saw the spaces for harvesting, processing and packaging meat products.

The tour concluded at the CDR, where they learned about the CDR’s role in dairy product innovation and got to sample dairy beverages, cheese and butter products.