But that does not mean The research station is closing down completely.
COOKS -- Dairy cows are being taken away from the M.S.U. experimental station in Chatham for one simple reason: money.
Ruth Borger, Director of Communication for M.S.U.'s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said, "The state of Michigan's financial crisis has impacted Michigan State University and we are looking at trying to maintain our quality programs with facilities up to a 20 percent cut in operations, and one of the things we're looking at is all of our farms and experiment sites and the result of some of our reduction is the situation with the herd at Chatham."
Budget cuts mean there aren't enough researchers to keep that part of the station running. But, that doesn't mean the station will be shutting down completely.
"We will still be providing information and consultation and outreach to producers and farmers in the Upper Peninsula," Borger said.
Jon Haindl is a beef farmer in Cooks and is also a member of the growing U.P. Agriculture Association.
"My feeling is when research that has to be specific to the U.P. is identified again, we will probably have a good chance of bringing back the herd, but in the meantime it's a numbers game," said Haindl.
Jon said the decision will not affect U.P. farmers in the short run, but they're still sad to see the dairy cows go nonetheless.
"When our feet's on the ground, statewide and university-wide, and we can identify projects that will be very useful to the U.P., we'll have those cattle back to service our clients," Haindl added.
In the meantime, Michigan State University continues to conduct research at several locations in the Upper Peninsula dealing with extensive bio-fuel research using switch grass.
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