LANSING, Mich. – Fire destroyed roughly 800 tons of feed, but the loss could have been tragic had an animal sciences major at Michigan State University not been in the right place at the right time.

Anne Tunison hopped on a four-wheeler to find where the smoke she smelled was coming from then spotted flames coming out the door of a feed barn at the MSU Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center in Lansing.

The animal sciences major called 911 and firefighters made sure the flames engulfing the building did not spread to nearby barns housing 400 cows and calves.

“It was a devastating loss, but it could have been much worse.  No animals were lost.  Nobody was hurt,” she said.

Fortunately, the winds that evening were blowing the flames away from the barns containing the cattle, said Jim Good, Dairy Farm Manager at the center.

“Had it been blowing in a different direction it could have really wiped out the entire facility,” he said. 

The roughly 30,000 square foot barn destroyed by the May 15 blaze is situated between 12 silos.

Good said only two silos were full while the rest were mostly empty because of space created to store this year’s harvest of feed. 

Feed inside one of the silos was still smoldering nine days after the blaze, which was still under investigation, he said.

Another 3,000 tons of feed was kept in bags and bunkers elsewhere on the grounds.

Good said one of the possibilities investigators are looking into was an electrical problem toward the back of the feed barn, he said.

No decision has been made but the 60-foot-tall silos could be dismantled as a safety precaution because of heat potentially weakening the structures, he said. 

Despite the loss and clean-up that followed, Good said it was pretty much business as usual with research and other work still occurring where it normally does elsewhere on the property.

Research in areas like nutrition and animal health is primarily conducted at the site where more than a dozen students are also employed doing chores like milking cows, feeding calves, and giving animals their shots.

Classroom sessions are also held at the site.  

Good said the milk from the cows is sold to a coop and to the dairy store on campus.

The six-month supply of feed normally kept in reserve in case of drought is expected to be tapped but there should be at least a three-month supply left before new feed starts coming in from this year’s harvest, he said. 

Many of the students after receiving their animal sciences degree go to veterinary school.

That’s what Tunison plans to do after receiving her bachelor’s degree in the fall.

Her parents were not food producers while she was growing up in Hadley, a small community about 30 miles east of Flint, but she recalled going to her grandfather’s farm to help out.

“I’ve always wanted to be a vet because I’ve always been interested in animals,” she said.