Agricultural schools go organic

Jersey cows, with their sandy-brown fur and molasses eyes, are among the bovines that have quietly produced organic milk for decades in New England without much interest from the academic world.

That's changing. The University of New Hampshire has 48 pregnant Jerseys at its Burley-Demerrit Farm in Lee, the nation's first organic dairy farm at a major land grant college.

The research comes as more dairy farms, especially in New England, switch to organic production - either for philosophical reasons or to benefit from the better prices organic milk can fetch. More farms are also meeting the growing market for organic fruits and vegetables.

A few researchers at the nation's premier agriculture schools now are taking notice, and a handful of colleges are adding courses in organic techniques. A few, including Washington State and the University of Florida, launched organic-farming majors this fall.

"They've gone from tilting at windmills to being a major component of agriculture," said Ned Porter, assistant commissioner of agriculture for Maine, 20 percent of whose dairies now are organic.

For decades, organic dairy farmers have shared information among themselves and learned by trial and error. At an open house this summer at the Burley-Demerrit Farm, these farmers were quick to make their opinions known.

But few of those opinions have been scientifically tested. In a short northern growing season, how can farmers best supplement pasture feeding by planting grasses, grains or corn for later use? How long should calves be allowed to nurse for optimum health? Are organic cows healthier, as their owners have long asserted, and by what measures? What therapies work best to treat infection and disease in an organic herd? Can milk production be affected by how people touch or handle their cows?

As farmers raised their questions, researchers from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont listened and took notes.

That's a change, according to many organic farmers. Until recently, agriculture professors, who receive much of their research money from chemical and biotechnology companies, ignored the organic market.

"This is not happening in all but a very few land grant (colleges) around the country," said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which pays for research to improve organic techniques.

"New Hampshire's project has the possibility of being the gold standard for what we'd like to see in other parts of the country," he said.

Charles Schwab, the UNH professor who spearheaded the organic dairy farm project, said he is interested in studying farming as "a biological system, trying to work with nature, not against it."

Schwab initially met with resistance from colleagues and agribusiness leaders, he said. But persistance, encouragement from organic farmers and milk producers, and a major contribution from Stonyfield Farm - which makes organic yogurt - moved the dairy forward.

The universities of New Hampshire and Maine also landed an $829,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for the farm's first major research project.

Over the next four years, researchers will be planting different rotations of grains, legumes and grasses on organically certified fields to feed the UNH herd and cows on several farms. Researchers will collect data on costs, on effects to the soil and on milk production. The goal is to help organic dairy farmers in New England reduce their reliance on expensive organic grains grown elsewhere.

Bob Parsons of the University of Vermont said his school also is looking at potential partnerships with UNH. About 10 percent of Vermont's dairies are organic, and another 10 percent are in transition, he said.

In the latest round of grants for 2006, the USDA awarded a record $4.5 million for organic research projects, from developing wheat varieties and raising organic shrimp to improving farm profitability by growing small fruits off-season. (next page »)