After witnessing all the steps taken to create one of Utah’s favorite ice cream brands, Cache Valley resident Savanna Mccay learned an important lesson.

“Cows,” Mccay said, “are the best things on earth.”

Earlier this month, Utah State University held its annual “Cow to Cone” event, where community members had the chance to peek into the entire process behind the delectable taste of Aggie Ice Cream, deemed by many (aside from the devotees of BYU Creamery) as Utah’s most mouth-watering campus confection.

The first step in creating the treat takes place at Utah State University’s various research farms in Cache Valley, where students grow alfalfa. This feed is then used to nourish the university’s dairy cows at the Caine Dairy Teaching and Research Center.

The Caine Dairy is home to 60 Jersey cows and 60 Holstein cows that each contribute milk that will eventually be made into Aggie Ice Cream. Each of the Jersey cows can produce seven to nine gallons of milk a day — all with high butterfat content, making it great for ice cream and cheese. The dairy’s Holstein cows, meanwhile, can produce nine to 20 gallons a day.

How robots contribute to sweet treats

About six years ago, the dairy started using robotic milking machines. These robots offer numerous benefits, according to USU Extension dairy specialist Bruce Richards.

For one, they operate around the clock, improving udder health and increasing milk production by allowing cows to be milked up to five times a day. But the biggest benefit of the machines, Richards said, is labor.

“Generally, they don’t need a day off, they don’t get sick, they don’t get into a fight with their girlfriend, they don’t get mad at the cows,” Richards said. “They’re really pretty dependable.”

The farm used to not have two different breeds of cows, according to Abby Benninghoff, head of the university’s Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences Department, but having both is beneficial for research purposes and for comparing the two breeds.

The Jerseys provide better teaching opportunities for students, she said, because they are smaller, friendlier and easier to interact with.

Benninghoff said the dairy will soon be looking into how different components of the feed they give the cows contribute to higher milk yields.

“In the dairy world, milk yield, milk quality is very important,” she said. “So, if you can have more effective use of the feed, you’ll end up with a more economically sustained dairy operation.”

It’s all in the milk

Rachel Lindstrom, a USU graduate student studying cheddar cheese, said having the dairy near the university is beneficial to her, even when she is not the one interacting with the cows.

“The cow — what it’s fed, how it’s treated — all those things trickle down into the milk and the flavor of the milk,” Lindstrom said. “The quality of the cow will equal the quality of the final product.”

The quality of the Caine Dairy’s cows, she said, shows in Aggie Ice Cream. The cows at the Caine Dairy Teaching and Research Center were ranked the top college dairy herd in the nation by the Holstein Association USA in six of the past seven years.

One of Lindstrom’s professors, Prateek Sharma, said this is what makes Aggie Ice Cream unique.

“Having that superior-quality milk will help us to make superior-quality dairy products,” he said. “So it’s important for us to have a dairy farm close by.”

After the milk is taken from the famous cows, some of it is transported to the Gary H. Richardson Dairy Products Laboratory next to the Aggie Creamery. There, the milk is tested for quality and safety, pasteurized, homogenized and mixed with other ingredients to create more than 27 flavors.

The milk is also used to make cheeses in food science courses for students and short courses for industry professionals.

But what really makes Aggie Ice Cream — depending on the Utahn — the best? Microbiologist and assistant professor Taylor Oberg said the trick is in the ice cream’s air and fat content. He said his students whip less air into their ice cream than usual and put about 12% fat into the mix, making it denser and creamier.

“It’s better than BYU,” Oberg said. “I’ll just say that.”

A small aircraft crashed into the front yard of a home in Utah‘s Roy on Wednesday afternoon, approximately 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that two individuals were aboard the twin-engine Piper PA-34 when it went down shortly before 4 pm.
Both occupants sustained minor injuries, and their identities have not been disclosed.
The crash was captured on home security footage, which showed the plane crashing into the front yard. Several concerned neighbours can be seen rushing to the scene to offer assistance. The incident caused damage to one home and nearby trees, but fortunately, no one on the ground was injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the crash. The NTSB said that a preliminary report will be available in approximately one month.
Anthony Baugh, a resident of the home where the plane crashed, was informed by his wife about the incident while she and their children were inside. Upon viewing the security camera footage on his phone, Baugh said, “I had seen the video footage of the plane kind of sliding towards my house.”
He immediately rushed home, concerned for his family’s safety.
According to Baugh, his wife offered water to the two victims, described as a “gentleman” and a “young lady,” but they declined, likely due to shock.
He mentioned that the man had a cut on or above his eye. Baugh expressed gratitude that his family was unharmed, especially considering that they had lost family members in a plane crash a few years prior.
“My eldest one, he was a little shook up a little bit, we had some family members that passed away in a plane crash a few years ago, so it was a little nerve wracking,” he said. “I don’t know how many people out there are religious, but a lot of people here were blessed,” Baugh added.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah officials denied clemency Friday to a man who is set to be executed for the stabbing death of his girlfriend’s mother in 1998.

The decision regarding the fate of Taberon Dave Honie, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Aug. 8, was announced in a one-paragraph notice from Scott Stephenson, chair of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

“After carefully reviewing all submitted information and considering all arguments from the parties, the Board does not find sufficient cause to commute Mr. Honie’s death sentence,” Stephenson wrote.

During a two-day commutation hearing this week, Honie asked the parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison, saying he would never have killed 49-year-old Claudia Benn after a day of heavy drinking and drug use had he been in his “right mind.”

Honie said he wanted to continue to live to be a support for his mother and his daughter. His attorneys did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment on the clemency denial.

Benn’s family urged the parole board to allow him to be executed, saying they have been devastated by their loss.

They described Benn as a pillar in their family and southwestern Utah community — a tribal council member, substance abuse counselor and caregiver for her children and grandchildren.

Honie, who had a volatile relationship with Benn’s daughter, broke into the victim’s house in Cedar City, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, on July 9, 1998.

He repeatedly slashed her throat and then stabbed her. Benn’s grandchildren, including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter, were in the house at the time.

“The way he killed her, that’s just sick. … An eye for an eye, as God says it,” Sarah China Azule, Benn’s niece, said during testimony.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder. The judge who sentenced him to death found that Honie had sexually abused one of the children, one of the aggravating factors used to reach that decision.

During the hearing, Honie’s attorneys presented testimony describing his traumatic childhood growing up on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona.

His parents, like many Native Americans, had been put into into government boarding schools that were often abusive, and the defense argued that they did not learn parenting skills, were heavy drinkers and neglected Honie, who began drinking and using drugs including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine by the time he was a teenager.

But the state told the board that Honie created more trauma by killing Benn.

“Imagine the intergenerational traumas from Honie’s horrific acts trickling down through time,” Assistant Solicitor General Daniel Boyer said.

Utah has not had an execution since Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death by firing squad in 2010.

Honie is one of six people awaiting execution in the state. The death sentence for a seventh person, Douglas Lovell, who killed a woman to keep her from testifying against him in a rape case, was overturned Thursday by the Utah Supreme Court. He will be resentenced.

After decades of failed appeals, Honie’s execution warrant was signed in June despite defense objections to the planned combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. When Honie’s attorneys sued, corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital but the case is still pending.

One of his lawyers said previously that the defense was reviewing information regarding the change and working to protect his constitutional rights.

“Serious uncertainty still remains about the state’s last-minute execution plan,” attorney Eric Zuckerman said.

Prison officials have agreed to let one of Honie’s lawyers have access to a phone while witnessing the execution in case an emergency motion needs filing, according to a Wednesday court order.

___

Slevin reported from Denver, and Brown from Billings, Montana.

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