In 2000 a 529-acre farm near Walland was purchased to replace the 188-acre dairy farm operated on the Cherokee Farm in Knoxville. The new research dairy officially opened on September 30, 2011. An open house on October 2 drew a crowd in excess of one thousand. The research farm is designed to support a herd of two hundred to two hundred fifty milking cows. The new farm also included laboratories engineered for a variety of scientific studies involving animal and environmental interactions, including waste management and water quality studies, as well as land use and other environmental studies. The architectural firm for the $12 million new dairy facilities was Bullock Smith & Partners, and the contractors were Messer Construction and Sam Franklin.