UNH among best college farms in the U.S.
“Farming in America provides nearly 10 percent of jobs in the United States. University farming and agricultural programs allow students to gain invaluable experience before leaving to start their careers,” said Monica Dennis of College Rank. “Hands on learning offers students the opportunity to learn how large functioning farms work, both in agriculture and animal management and care.”
In particular, UNH was noted for providing students a real-world setting to learn about dairy farming, horticulture, agronomy, and greenhouse production. UNH has two horticulture and agronomy farms, a typical New England Holstein dairy, a diversified organic dairy farm, and greenhouses complex. All facilities are centered on research, teaching, and outreach, and are part of the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, UNH’s first research center founded in 1887 and part of the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.
“The quality of our facilities, and the underlying dedication of our farm and greenhouse staff to our faculty, students, and stakeholders is tremendous. Our research farms and greenhouses provide experiential learning opportunities to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students every year. They also offer our faculty and students the necessary capacity to conduct research that has a positive impact on the bottom line for the agriculture, forest products, and related natural resources industries, and to relay that information to our stakeholders. I’m immensely proud of our farms and greenhouses, which are an integral part of UNH’s land-grant heritage and future. I’m similarly grateful for the ongoing support of our UNH administration,” said Jon Wraith, director of the NH Agricultural Experiment Station and dean of the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.
In 2015, UNH was recognized by Best College Reviews, which published a ranking of the 20 best university farms in America. In particular, UNH, which was ranked No. 20, was noted for having an academically centered farming operation: “Farming at the University of New Hampshire is more academically centered than at many of the institutions on our list, with funding provided for a large amount of research.”
Founded in 1887, the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture is UNH’s original research center and an elemental component of New Hampshire's land-grant university heritage and mission. We steward federal and state funding, including support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to provide unbiased and objective research concerning diverse aspects of sustainable agriculture and foods, aquaculture, forest management, and related wildlife, natural resources and rural community topics. We maintain the Woodman and Kingman agronomy and horticultural research farms, the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, and the Organic Dairy Research Farm. Additional properties also provide forage, forests and woodlands in direct support to research, teaching, and outreach.
The University of New Hampshire is a flagship research university that inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top ranked programs in business, engineering, law, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. UNH’s research portfolio includes partnerships with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, receiving more than $100 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.