$20 million facility to be ready for spring classes.
Under construction since 2021, a new $20 million state-of-the-art dairy processing facility at Oregon State University is nearing completion, with production expected to begin in the spring quarter of 2025, campus officials say.
The new dairy plant in Withycombe Hall – the site of the university’s original dairy built in 1952 — will provide researchers and students a facility to address some of the most pressing issues facing the dairy industry, according to the university.
After gutting the inside of the lecture building and putting in new drywall and utilities, crews expect to have most of the equipment for the new dairy in by November or December, said Lisbeth Goddik, head of OSU’s Department of Food Science and Technology.
The university will hire a dairy plant manager in January, test the equipment and hopes to have it running by March, Goddik told Farm Press.
“We’re modernizing our equipment and moving into a much larger space,” she said. “It is a renovation in that we took everything out and only the outer walls were left. It’s not the cheapest way of doing it, but it is a historic district so we couldn’t just erase the building.”
The project was paid for with $3 million in state funding and more from industry partners, including the Tillamook County Creamery Association, Northwest Farm Credit Services and the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council. Gifts were made through the Oregon State University Foundation.
The new center will give students access to state-of-the-art equipment, leaving them better positioned to pursue careers in many aspects of the dairy industry, Goddik said. The center, which will include instruction in animal and rangeland science, will support the largest dairy research program in the western U.S., she said.
“It’ll certainly help us do a much better job of teaching,” Goddik said. “We also have a program for students to make cheese and ice cream and sell it. Our animal science students will make beef jerky.”
Cheese and ice cream
The College of Agriculture already produces Beaver Classic cheeses, and the donation of a blast freezer from the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association will enable students and instructors to experiment with making ice cream.
The center will support an Oregon dairy industry has an estimated value of more than $2.6 billion statewide and is responsible for more than 12,000 jobs and $500 million in wages, according to OSU.
The project is part of a larger renewal of Withycombe Hall that is addressing seismic safety, energy efficiency and accessibility, and modernization of the 70-year-old research and academic building, the university explains. The footprint of the original dairy, called the Arbuthnot Dairy, is being converted into a wine research facility with new equipment funded by that industry.
All told, the cost of all the work will approach $70 million, Goddik said.
“It’s very exciting,” College of Agriculture Dean Staci Simonich told Farm Press. “It’s going to be a whole new, fresh perspective for both the dairy and wine industries. We’re very grateful to all the donors who contributed. It is state-of-the-art equipment that the students will gain experience with, and they’ll sell some of the products they make.”
The work is also exciting for project engineer Macrina Sevillano, who earned her bachelor’s degree in construction engineering management at OSU in 2020 and was glad “to give back,” she said. She has worked for contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis since 2021.
“A lot of local companies have come together” to support the dairy project, Sevillano said. “I’d never done anything dairy-related, so I’m learning a lot.”
Another OSU graduate, Oregon state veterinarian Ryan Scholz, said having a state-of-the-art research facility nearby will be a boon to the industry.
“It’s hard to learn in an antiquated facility and then go out into the real world,” he said. “I think it also increases the ability to showcase other careers aligned with agricultural production.”
According to OSU, other donors to the renovation included: Benjamin P. Forbes Company, Eberhard’s Dairy Products, EverFresh Fruit Products, First Interstate Bank, Hiland Dairy Foods Company, Ingredient Resource Incorporated, Lochmead Dairy, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, Oregon Dairy Industries, Pascal Affinage, Quality Chekd Dairies, Rogue Creamery, Springfield Creamery and Umpqua Dairy Products.
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