Farming frontier
The scenery changes south of campus.High-rise dormitories and herds of people give way to rolling green rows of crops and massive mooing cows.The senses are relieved from car exhaust fumes and pervaded with scents of fresh grass and cow manure.The tiny one-way turns of campus and traffic circles straighten out and turn into long stretches of rural roads that wind through MSU’s 5,000 acres of farmland.But the roads find their way back to central campus.The research conducted at the expansive farms south of central campus ekes its way back into classrooms, into computers, into the minds and departments of the people at MSU.Mark Collins manages one of the many farms at MSU - the Hancock Turfgrass Research Center, which grows, cultivates and researches thousands of types of grass.“We work to find the ones that fit Michigan best,” Collins said.“We work with grass to give athletes safer playing conditions - and make healthy grass for homeowners that’s more aesthetically pleasing.”The new grass in Spartan Stadium that now graces the footsteps of quarterback Jeff Smoker cost more than $2.5 million and took 18 months of work, Collins said.Workers plant the grass during the fall, since it thrives in cooler temperatures, but researchers work year-round.The turf management farm, with small greens and neatly mowed fields that require daily upkeep, doesn’t look like most of MSU’s farms.The dairy and sheep farms south of campus seem more like the farms students might be used to seeing.
