CAFE Continues To Progress For University of Idaho

One of the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ largest capital projects continues to move a long at a healthy clip.  Michael Parrella, CALS dean, said construction continues outside of Rupert on the Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, better known as CAFE.

While CAFE will focus on a variety of agricultural aspects, one of the chief areas of focus will be on the dairy industry.  Parrella said they plan on having cows at CAFE late this year, or early in 2026.  He said they will start with about 400 cows, but eventually build up to 2,000 head.

“So, we're in the process of looking at realizing that I guess, and I say realizing it, because there are still some challenges certainly with a dairy of that size, also the dairy that far away as well. And so we're looking at sort of the budget implications, the management, the operations.” 

Parrella noted that milk sales from CAFE will help fund operations, with other sources of revenue a possibility into the future.  He added this project has helped the U of I enjoy a much tighter relationship with USDA.

“Primarily the ARS group at Kimberly, and there is a dairy sort of nutrient management focus there, there's an air quality focus as well, so we are partnering with them primarily around the development of a sophisticated sort of plug-and-play nutrient management system that would be located at CAFE and there's also federal support for that. And that primarily comes from Congressman [Mike] Simpson and we anticipate more support going forward.”

In addition to the dairy aspect of CAFE, work continues on the demonstration farm, which Parrella says will help with animal and crop science as well as soil and water health. 

Click Here to learn more about the CAFE project.

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