The facility is again being recognized as a pioneer facility, this time for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver Certification. It is the only agricultural operation to earn such certification in the United States.

“This new facility allows us to demonstrate to all dairy farmers how to incorporate features in a new barn that save energy, features that are both good for the environment and save them money,” said KBS director Katherine Gross. “Having the LEED certification for the KBS dairy facility demonstrates another aspect of our ‘commitment to sustainability.’ Many features of this barn that earned the LEED certification can be adopted by dairy farmers with different management and herd sizes.”

The U.S. Green Building Certification, which administers the LEED program, requires any LEED-certified newly constructed facility to be at least 15 percent more energy efficient than current building codes dictate. The KBS dairy facility is 38 percent more energy efficient.

Among other energy efficiency and resource conservation features, it uses an automatic sidewall curtain system that raises or lowers to regulate temperature, and the design maximizes sunlight to reduce the need for electric lighting.

The pasture-based facility opened in July 2009. Pasture-based is defined as deriving all or a majority of an animal’s diet from pasture – forages, grass, legumes, depending on the area of the world in which the animal is being raised.

This article originated at the MSU News Service.