Swapping Classrooms for Cow Barns

It’s a Tuesday evening on the University of New
Hampshire campus in Durham, and a group of 25
students who are part of the university’s Cooperative for
Real Education in Agricultural Management (CREAM)
program have gathered in the conference room at the
Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center.
In the student-led, two-semester CREAM course,
students gain hands-on experience caring for dairy
cows and managing and participating in everything
from herd health to dairy production to in-class
education. Each week, CREAM students work six-plus
hours at the Fairchild farm, milking, feeding, cleaning
and changing the bedding of the 25 black-and-white
Holsteins in their care. The weekly shifts are paired
with four hours of classroom time, during which the
students serve on committees and subcommittees
charged with overseeing every aspect of the dairy
business. Every six weeks, members switch to new
committees, serving in new roles and working with
different class members.
Tonight, the Production Management Committee
members are talking about the health of each cow
— who recently calved, who’s been showing signs
of stress, who’s producing plenty of milk and who’s
producing a less than average amount. The Finance
Committee is discussing when the hoof trimmer
will arrive next and the cost of her services. Farm
Facilities and Maintenance members are meeting
with Jon Whitehouse, manager of the Fairchild
farm, to talk about new projects, and the Education

and Planning Committee is brainstorming topics
and guest speakers for the weekly Thursday night
meetings.
“This program is as much about learning how
to communicate and lead teams and come to a
democratic consensus as it is about how to care
for dairy cows and manage a dairy operation,” says
Drew Conroy, coordinator of the Applied Animal
Science program and a professor in the department
of agriculture, nutrition and food systems at UNH.
“They’re learning many of the skills employers want:
how to lead, how to delegate, how to show initiative
and how to work together.”
For the 25-year-history of CREAM, Conroy has been
involved in running the program and working with the
students. He helped get it going when it was launched
by the late Thomas Fairchild ’59 (for whom UNH’s
conventional dairy farm is named), and when Fairchild
retired, Conroy started overseeing the program.
Most students in CREAM aren’t preparing to work
on dairy farms, Conroy says. Many are pre-veterinary
majors gaining large-animal experience; others
have farming backgrounds and want to learn the
management and business side. Regardless of why
they’re there, though, CREAM students are gaining
invaluable interpersonal skills and training.
“Overwhelmingly, alumni have said that the
active learning in CREAM was an effective teaching
strategy and that the course had a direct impact on
their career trajectories,” Conroy says.

Dr. Liz Brock ’01, a veterinarian and a clinical
assistant professor with the department of agriculture,
nutrition and food systems, took part in the second
year of CREAM (1998-1999). A pre-veterinary major
at the time, she enrolled in CREAM after hearing
a presentation in one of her freshman-year math
courses. It was her first time working with cows
and one of the most impactful hands-on learning
experiences of her undergraduate education.
“The obvious thing that CREAM teaches is how
a dairy farm functions,” says Brock. “Beyond that,
it teaches so many life skills about communication
between colleagues, about conflict resolution, about
responsibility — realizing that nobody is going to be
there to milk the cows unless you get up at 4:30 in the
morning. You gain a real respect for animals and the
role that they play in our lives.”

Back in the classroom on Tuesday, Conroy talks
about one of his favorite words, especially when
describing CREAM: “Initiative.” The word is printed
on a hat he wears and carved into a wood cutout that
he keeps in his office. He says it’s the number one
thing that he wants CREAM students to show — both
to him and to their fellow classmates.
“I want them to personally take risk and
responsibility and step up when things need to be
done or fixed — and they do,” he says. “That is why,
over the years, CREAM has gotten this reputation as
a program that really sets graduates apart.”
This article appeared in THRIVE Spring 2023,
a publication of the University of New Hampshire’s
College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.