Andrews University Shutting Down Dairy Operations

andrewsuniversitygoodforuse-12
andrewsuniversitygoodforuse-12

The focus of the operations of the Andrews University Farm is changing. The Board of Trustees voted this week to close down the farm’s dairy operations by the summer of 2019. Senior vice president for financial administration Lawrence Schalk tells us that due to low milk prices, the operation has been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

“Last year as an example, we were paid $13.18 per hundredweight. We need to get a price of $16 per hundredweight to break even,” Schalk says. Andrews started its farm in 1901 and the dairy has been operating since 1907. Schalk says the plan is to advertise and auction off the roughly 13-hundred head of cattle they have and not have to sell the animals to a slaughterhouse.

The decision to close down the dairy came after an extensive study of the operations and the current marketplace for dairy products. That year-long detailed analysis led to the conclusion that it was unlikely there would be any potential turns in the dairy market that would bring the operations close to breaking even.