For years Cornell University had a similar requirement. Even today prospective veterinary students applying to Cornell come back to us for hands-on milking training before Cornell accepts them. Yet in our own Delaware curriculum we have never required that level of practical experience. Some of our students come to the university farm to practice at the dairy during and between semesters. But where does this leave our students if urban expansion succeeds in pushing the dairy herd off their few remaining pastures.
Suburban sprawl is no longer the encroacher.
Today, university building programs and sports complexes eat up more of the university farm than housing developments. The dairy cows that graze the pastures around the college symbolize the very meaning of an agricultural institution. They serve as a reassuring reminder to the suburban population of their rural roots. Our dairy cows, visible from the main highway, represent a pastoral past, a way of life that many of us cherish in memory and even long to return to. They also remind us of where our most precious food comes from, real food, natural food, our most safe, sanitary and wholesome dairy food, and the best source of critical calcium.