COLSA and T-School kick off seminar series on agriculture

Organic livestock farming was the topic of concern at the Thompson School auditorium on Wednesday, Feb. 13, as a new weekly seminar series entitled “Farming for the Future” began.

The series of seminars, which are sponsored by the Organic Dairy Academic Research Subcommittee, discuss not only the future of farming but also how organic farming is connected to environmental sustainability.

“The goal is to really help students understand the academic as well as some of the research initiatives that are possible so that we can actually have that information help out students so that research projects can be conducted … at the organic dairy (research farm),” said College of Life Sciences and Agriculture associate professor Paul Tsang.

“The fact that we have a conventional dairy (farm) … is an ideal opportunity for students to learn.”

The first seminar featured keynote speaker Kathleen Merrigan in a lecture titled “Organic Standards for Animal Health and Welfare? Act Now Before It’s Too Late.”

Merrigan is the director of the agricultural food and environment program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science at Tufts University. She spoke about the main issues confronting organic dairy and livestock production in the present-day food trade.
Organic livestock at the campus level is a growing reality. UNH is the first land grant university to have an organic dairy farm in conjunction with the conventional dairy farm program on campus.

The first talk of bringing organic dairy farming to UNH began in early 2004 and, in late 2005, the facility featured the first herd of Jersey Cows on campus. The school’s first certified organic milk was shipped to Organic Valley in 2007.

“I think that the future of sustainable agriculture really will provide lots of opportunities for education, research and for value-added products that, in states like New Hampshire, can provide a great medium for future generations of farmers,” said COLSA dean Thomas Brady.

The next seminar, entitled “Think Like a Cow—Understanding Grazing Behavior,” will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The seminars are held on Wednesdays from 4 to 6 p.m. in Cole Hall, Room 219, at the Thompson School of Applied Sciences at UNH in Durham. For more information, visit www.organicdairy.unh.edu or call 603-862-3757. The series is free and open to the public.

unusual February weather causes trouble for UNH

Students slipped, splashed and leapt around puddles on a wet Wednesday at the University of New Hampshire last week. The puzzling February weather has created piles of snow and layers of ice that combined with the two inches of rain the campus received on Wednesday, Feb. 13, making transit difficult for students.

“The reason for the puddles is poor drainage because the ground is frozen and the grassy areas are covered in snow,” said Robert Talbot, an earth sciences professor from UNH. “There simply is no place for the water to run and drain.”
The university implemented a delayed opening in response to the bad weather, starting classes at 10 a.m.—two hours later than usual.

The Facility Operations, Grounds and Event Support staff worked hard to remove the snow and water that covered campus. They provided 24-hour coverage to mitigate problems associated with the storm.

“Some buildings sustained some flooding, notably in the PCAC (Paul Creative Arts Center) and New Hampshire Hall,” said special events supervisor Duane Kimball. “There was also some (flooding) found in the Field House and other miscellaneous buildings around campus.”

To alleviate these flooding problems, the maintenance personnel had to bring large water pumps inside the buildings and manually remove excess water wherever necessary.

Talbot acknowledges that there has been more snow this winter than in recent years, but cites the variation in temperature as the most unusual element of the recent conditions.

“The (variability) is likely caused by large-scale changes in circulation in the Northern Hemisphere,” Talbot said. “We seem to be getting more flow from the south to north. In the past, it was primarily from west to east. This is causing rain then snow, and warm then cold periods.”

UNH mathematician finds equation for Grammy success

Kevin Short, a UNH mathematics professor, won a Grammy award on Sunday, Feb. 10, for his work on the restoration of a Woody Guthrie wire recording from a live concert in 1949.

Short worked with multiple people to produce “The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949.” He collaborated with Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie’s daughter; Jamie Howarth, a specialist in music restoration; Jorge Arevalo Mateus, creator of the Woody Guthrie Archives; and Steve Rosenthal and Warren Russell-Smith, members of a recording studio in New York called The Magic Shop.

The recording beat four other nominees in the historical category. Short and his team received a Grammy in the pre-telecast portion of the ceremony. Short said the experience was surreal.

“Thank God the lights were so bright that they were blinding,” said Short. “I do not know if I could have handled seeing the crowd that we stood in front of. It was an incredible experience.”

Short said that he did not realize he had won a Grammy award until he saw the other members of the team get out of their seats and head toward the stage.

“It was want of those ‘Pinch me, am I really here?’ moments,” said Short. “When they announced it, the first thing that ran through my head was, ‘Did I hear that right?’”

Short is the only UNH professor ever to win a Grammy award.