The Special Needs Barn is highlighted with a second camera. Here cows are conditioned for the milking string. Cows will also calve here in individual maternity pens. The Free Stall Barn is home to a third camera. This area is designed to measure cow performance on a scraped solid floor and a slatted floor system.
Mattresses line the free stalls for maximum comfort.
This is the first parlor in the United State to measure differences between the two systems in the same parlor. Automatic cow identification allows parlor operators to collect daily milk weights on each cow. This view shows the herringbone stalls. The parallel stalls sit across the alley to the right. The Dairy Center south of the campus of Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar opened in October, 2000.