HICKORY CORNERS, Mich. — Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station dairy herd set itself apart last summer when it moved to a new pasture-based facility featuring robotic milking and an energy-efficient design.
The facility is again being recognized as a pioneer facility, this time for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification. It is the only agricultural operation to earn such certification in the United States.
“This new facility allows us to demonstrate to all dairy farmers how to incorporate features in a new barn that save energy, features that are both good for the environment and save them money,” said KBS director Katherine Gross. “Having the LEED certification for the KBS dairy facility demonstrates another aspect of our ‘commitment to sustainability.’ Many features of this barn that earned the LEED certification can be adopted by dairy farmers with different management and herd sizes.”
The U.S. Green Building Certification, which administers the LEED program, requires any LEED-certified newly constructed facility to be at least 15 percent more energy efficient than current building codes dictate. The KBS dairy facility is 38 percent more energy efficient.
Among other energy efficiency and resource conservation features, it uses an automatic sidewall curtain system that raises or lowers to regulate temperature, and the design maximizes sunlight to reduce the need for electric lighting.
The pasture-based facility opened in July 2009. Pasture-based is defined as deriving all or a majority of an animal’s diet from pasture – forages, grass, legumes, depending on the area of the world in which the animal is being raised.
State-of-the-art milking robotics aside, economic and environmental sustainability are driving forces. Located in Hickory Corners northeast of Kalamazoo, the KBS dairy includes two pastures for 120 lactating Holstein cows, plus “dry cows” and heifers.
Major support for the project came through a $3.5 million 2007 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Food Systems and Rural Development program. MSU Extension, the Michigan Agricultural Experimental Station and MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources also contributed support. Kellogg Biological Station is one of 15 field stations in the MAES network.
Verified by the Green Building Certification Institute, LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance on green buildings.
LEED certification is obtained via application process that begins when the design work for the facility is started and ending with a commissioning walk through 10 months after move in. Points are earned for specific capacities and features. A base-level LEED certification requires 26-32 points; Silver rating requires 33-38 points; and Gold 39-51 points. KBS submitted an application with 39 points and USGBC accepted 37, designating it a Silver LEED certified operation.
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