The University of Minnesota has weathered tough budget times by cutting hundreds of staffers, new students and class sections.
Next up: 230 cows, heifers and calves.
The U is about to auction off one of its three dairy herds in an effort to reduce its annual budget by $300,000. Other research universities around the country are doing the same.
The herds play a key role in research and teaching, but keeping and feeding them takes money and people. There's less of both lately.
"We've been figuring out how to best serve agriculture with finite resources," said Greg Cuomo, associate dean for extension in the U's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.
No one likes to say goodbye to the cows -- or the seven people who
tonework with them -- "but we've gotten past the point, I think, where there are easy cuts to be made," he said.
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