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Article published Dec 2, 2008 UT dairy operations still planned for Walland
By Joel Davis of The Daily Times Staff
The University of Tennessee is still months away from opening bids for the construction of a $12 million dairy research facility in Blount County.
Plans call for the university to begin dairy operations at its Little River Unit, located off Ellejoy Road, in Walland, after closing down its Cherokee Farm dairy operations in Knoxville earlier this year. UT AgResearch administration had previously estimated the facility could be in operation by late 2008.
There have been unavoidable delays in the development process, said Acting Assistant Dean John Wilkerson of UT AgResearch. "Hopefully, it will be ready to be bid out some time shortly after the first of the (2009)," he said. "The design phase is continuing. We're in the middle of it. We're probably a couple months away from bidding that project out."
With the state facing a potential revenue shortfall of $800 million this year alone, cuts in higher education funding is expected. Whether this would affect plans for the new dairy operations at the Little River Unit is unknown.
"There have been no decisions made related to budget cuts or anything at this point," Wilkerson said. "(The dairy project) is moving forward at the present time. It's just slow. The original bid came in over budget. There were some modifications made to it. It's been going back and forth between the engineers and architects. ... The waste handling system has been totally redesigned. It's just taking a while."
Once a contract is awarded it will take about 18 months for the facility to be constructed. The dairy is expected to accommodate up to 200 milking cows. Much of the rich bottomland at the farm will be planted in feed crops. The facility will employ about 12 to 15 workers.
The Cherokee Farm property is planned as the site of the university's proposed Cherokee Campus, which will be built along the west and east side of Alcoa Highway and west of the main Knoxville Campus.
In recent weeks, Knoxville businessman Sam Mayo, owner of Mayo Seeds, has been lobbying the University of Tennessee administration to change course and reopen the Cherokee Farm operations. He has spoken out against a golf practice facility being build on the site.
"They were producing at today's prices about half a million dollars each year selling the milk at wholesale prices," Mayo said. "... It's just an unwise move. I'd like to see them plow the golf course and put back the cattle and then they can focus on the other 99 percent of the budget shortfall."
Wilkerson said that UT still has a functioning dairy operations.
"We have not been without a functioning dairy," he said. "(The cattle) were moved to Middle Tennessee to a dairy there, integrated into that herd. The plan was that some of those animals and the genetics of the original herd would be transferred back here to Knoxville."
The facility will be one of several research units operated by the UT East Tennessee Research and Education Center, which is part of the overall Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station system. The university bought the 500-acre Walland site in 1999. The Tennessee General Assembly approved the $12 million to build the dairy complex in 2005.