Northeast Iowa Community College

Founded as a technical college in 1966, Northeast Iowa Community College is a two-campus comprehensive college system with six service locations. The Peosta campus serves the Dubuque, Iowa, tri-state region. The Calmar campus is the primary site of its agriculture programs, Iowa’s Dairy Center and on-site dairy and beef herds for student training.

Northeast Iowa Community College partners with Iowa State University Extension, the Midwest Dairy Association, and the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation to educate agriculture students, current dairy producers and dairy consumers at Iowa’s Dairy Center. The center houses the latest in dairy science technology for training the next generation of dairy professionals. The facility includes a robotic milking system, as well as the traditional parallel and herringbone parlors.

Iowa’s Dairy Center has modern calf, heifer and dry cow facilities, and offers the latest in agronomic/soil conservation practices producing high quality forages for the dairy operation. Continuous corn rotation in a no-till cover crop system is used to produce forage for the dairy. Additionally, the Calmar campus is the site of a 100-head capacity Beef Education Facility, and the Agricultural Technologies Building which houses the John Deere TECH degree program —- one of 21 John Deere supported sites across the U.S. that train service technicians for Deere implement dealerships.

The Peosta campus is the site of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS). In partnership with the National Safety Council, NECAS is dedicated to preventing illnesses, injuries and deaths among farmers, ranchers, agricultural and horticultural workers, their families and their employees. The Peosta campus also features the Outdoor Learning Lab (OLL) which studies conservation research and practices.