BLACKSBURG—Virginia Tech has a nationally ranked dairy science program and a top-notch dairy research herd.

But until recently, students couldn’t drink the milk from those cows on campus. Thanks to a collaborative effort between the dairy science department and the school’s dining halls, now they can.

“We do have a few grab-and-go cartons that we purchase from other purveyors, but everything up here in the D2 dining facility is from Virginia Tech,” said Gabe Petry, Dietrick Dining Hall operations manager.

“I think it was one of those natural connection things. We’ve got agriculture on campus, we’ve got dairy sciences on campus—what’s going on with that milk? Where’s it going? Why don’t we use it here?”

The milk from Virginia Tech’s research herd has always been processed and sold to state agencies. The new partnership simply brings some of the milk back to campus, where students can appreciate that it’s locally produced.

Sara Seeba, a sophomore dairy science major, is one of 10 to 15 students who work in the milking parlor each year. She said the hardest part of her job is training a cow that has never been milked before to come into the parlor. Otherwise it’s just like any other dairy farm.

“I think that it is so cool that I get to work here and harvest the milk and get to drink it back on campus,” Seeba said. “And I think it’s a great way to teach people about agriculture.”

June is observed as Dairy Month by dairy industry professionals nationwide.

Feeding more than 17,000 college students every day means the Virginia Tech dining halls have to use other suppliers that can provide hundreds of gallons of milk. What the research herd provides is, literally, a drop in the bucket.

“Five-gallon crates (of milk) are big, but they don’t last that long when you’ve got this many people here drinking from them,” Petry said.

The university has similar arrangements to use products from its Meat Science Center and vegetables from its Kentland Farm in the dining halls.

Contact Lori Greiner, Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, at 540-231-5863, or Norm Hyde, VFBF communications, at 804-290-1146.