Dairy Farm

About the Farm:

The ISU Dairy Farm is located on 27 acres at 52470 260th St. in Ames, three miles south of central campus. There are close to 400 dairy cows and another 400 heifers and around 35 students are employed to help operate the farm.

The dairy farm opened in the fall of 2007 and currently ship 29,000 lbs of milk each day to Prairie Farms. The milk can be found in your local Midwest grocery store. Sustainable farming is practiced at all of our farms. This starts at the dairy farm with the manure handling system. The manure handling system separates the solids which are used for animal bedding and compost used on campus, and the liquid portion is stored in a 2 million gallon tank that is emptied a couple times a year. The contents are used as fertilizer for ISU farms.

Notice on tours:

Following the announcement on 12/22/25 of HPAI diagnosed in birds on the ISU campus, and after careful consideration with the ISU Veterinary Field Services, the ISU Dairy has decided to limit the number of outside visitors to the ISU Dairy Farm.

Our goal is to limit possible exposure to our cattle and personnel as well as protecting the integrity of the ongoing and future research trials. The parlor viewing area is CLOSED, tours have been suspended until further notice, essential farm and research personnel are reminded to comply with all biosecurity requirements, and deliveries should be left outside the front door in the area indicated.

For questions or information on tours, please contact Mary Healey at mhhealey@iastate.edu or Rusty Burgett at rburgett@iastate.edu.