unveils renovated dairy plant

By Noe Goldhaber STAFF WRITER

Through a combination of public funding sources and approximately $18 million from private donors connected to Wisconsin’s dairy industry, the University of WisconsinMadison recently completed a $72.9 million renovation of the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant.

Babcock Hall houses the university’s Center for Dairy Research (CDR), the Department of Food Science, the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant and the Babcock Hall Dairy Store.

The renovations included a threestory addition to the center, modern cheesemaking and dairy processing machinery, and additional facilities in the building, according to the CDR. Along with the facilities, an updated tasting kitchen and a new lecture space on the first floor of Babcock Hall were installed.

Wisconsin’s dairy industry helped fund the renovations, and will directly benefit from future research and development at Babcock Hall, according to Lucuy.

“Our old facility was very outdated,” said Babcock Hall Plant Manager Casey Whytel. “Now, we can make the same products more e ciently.” and the other would be located across the street on North Bassett between West Dayton and West Johnson, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The proposal would demolish 11 student apartments located between 437-445 W Johnson St., 430-444 W Dayton St. and 215-221 N Bassett St. for the two buildings.

The upgraded facilities allow opportunities for both innovation and traditional cheesemaking. For example, a new copper vat on one of the CDR’s research floors will allow for production of traditional alpine cheeses — previously impossible to make and study at Babcock Hall, according to Lucuy.

These proposed developments for new luxury student apartments would provide over 600 housing units to the downtown area, a supply which District 4 Alder Michael Verveer told The Daily Cardinal is much needed.

“I’ve been a representative in City Hall of students and other downtown residents for a very long time now, and I have never seen this level of hysteria and very valid concern by parents and students for housing,” Verveer said.

Because the proposed developments are still in the process of being approved, Verveer said he has and say the rent is too high and not approve it,” Bennett said. “It’s concerning and frustrating. We have limited tools to limit this behavior.”

Gorham Street, compromised with the city of Madison and campus advocates to include an a ordability component in exchange for additional height, which will allow qualifying students a reduced rent at a 40% discount of the market rate. According to Verveer, 10% of beds have been set aside for at least the next 30 years for students approved by the UW O ce of Student Financial Aid for this initiative.

However, he said Core Spaces has been less accommodating with the new project proposals.

“They are not interested, unfortunately, in providing any a ordable housing in the project between Dayton and Johnson,” said Verveer.

The other project on Johnson and Broom was approved by the Urban Design Commission (UDC), according to District 2 alder-elect and UDC member Juliana Bennett, who voiced her concern for the demolition of a ordable housing units to develop luxury skyrises.

The need for a ordable housing has taken center stage in the debate over the approval of the new Core Spaces developments. President of the Campus Area Neighborhood Association (CANA) Elias Tsarovsky said he enthusiastically approaches the discussion and looks to amplify student voices at UW-Madison.

“If everything is luxury development, you are pricing people out of housing,” Tsarovsky said.

CANA is holding a virtual meeting on Thursday, April 13 with the Core Spaces development team at 6 p.m. to learn about the new project at Johnson and Bassett.

“We want to bring people into conversation with the development team directly, it’s powerful,” Tsarovsky said. “We can really build the neighborhood together.”

“You can name a dairy product — anything, anywhere in the world — and we can now make it here and do research on it,” said John Lucuy, director of the CDR and professor in the university’s food science department. “We are the largest and the best dairy research unit in the U.S. and one of the best in the world.”

According to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Wisconsin cheesemakers’ products made up a quarter of the nation’s cheese in 2021. Further, dairy processing and farming brings in $45.6 billion yearly in revenue, according to a study from the UW-Madison Division of Extension.

Along with the copper vat, there are 10 specific bringing rooms for cheese ripening as well as special machinery that processes milk into powder, according to Lucuy. Another new tool is a milk separator that can produce milk products with a specific fat percentage.

“This allows us to create fat-added products — we can produce anything from fat-free milk all the way up to heavy whipping cream,” Whyte said.

An area of future research and innovation is shelf stable milk and dairy products, according to Lucuy.

“Many companies have interest in studying and researching how to bring shelf stable milk to the market,” Lucey said. “Shelf stable milk will not require refrigeration, so [it] will last longer.”

The public opening for the building is from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, April 14.