Displaying items by tag: ut ag research

A man paddles down the main stem of the Wolf River in West Tennessee. The state is working to purchase 5,477 acres of forest land near Grand Junction from the Hobart Ames Foundation. The land is part of the Wolf River watershed.  Wolf River Conservancy

The roughly 5,500-acre property features wetland forest used for research by the University of Tennessee

This article was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

GRAND JUNCTION — About 60 miles east of Memphis near the Mississippi line, verdant hardwood trees and ecologically exceptional streams weave through thousands of acres of rolling hills.

The land is home to a diverse array of aquatic and terrestrial life, decades-old archaeological sites and a watershed that feeds into the aquifer where hundreds of thousands of Memphians source their drinking water.

If all goes to plan, 5,477 acres of this land will soon become Tennessee’s newest state forest, securing its preservation for posterity.

The land is a portion of the 18,400-acre historic Ames Plantation, a privately owned tract in Fayette and Hardeman Counties amassed by Massachusetts industrialist Hobart Ames in the early 1900s. 

Caretaker Kody Hash leads a tour and points out cattle with tags at the UT AgResearch and Education Center’s Little River Animal and Environmental Unit.  Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press
Computer-based milking methods offer the best cream of the crop

WALLAND — The University of Tennessee is using a new automated system to milk cows in the hope it’s easier on the animals than previous mechanized techniques.

It’s the newest feature of the UT AgResearch and Education Center’s Little River Animal and Environmental Unit at 3229 Ellejoy Road in Blount County.

As part of the unveiling of the equipment on May 2, visitors watched a cow on video walk through a ribbon to reach the new machines.

The milking machines, developed by Netherlands-based Lely Corporation, allow for cattle to walk up to the machines voluntarily to get special food in what a UT news release called a more “stress-free environment.”