Proving Ground

On 275 acres of pasture, woodlands and forage fields, UNH operates a farm like no other. The Organic Dairy Research Farm — one of seven research and teaching facilities supported by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at COLSA — holds a particular distinction: In 2006 it became the first organic dairy on a university campus in the U.S.

The purpose of the farm is not simply to milk cows — although the roughly 100 Jersey cows, heifers and calves housed in barns and paddocks are all part of an operation that yields a daily average of 70 pounds of milk, which follows a short route southwest to the Stonyfield Organic plant in Londonderry. The real product is knowledge, gathered to lessen risk for farmers.

The farm’s work centers on the challenges and opportunities of organic and small-scale grazing dairies: precision dairy management, nutrition, forage production, agroforestry and pasture stewardship. Scientists and students test new technologies before they reach the broader marketplace, coaxing from the land and herd what is possible without exhausting either.

Jason Scruton ’00 (pictured far left) manages the farm with a small team — Leslie Brough ’23, Isagani Kimball ’10 and Luke Pacchioli — who know every inch of the land and each animal. Their daily work — tending animals, rotating pastures, adjusting feed, collecting samples — is the architecture upon which research rests. And thanks to their efforts, farmers across New Hampshire and beyond gain knowledge that helps them adapt, endure and thrive.