University of Massachusetts Cold Spring Orchard Research & Education Center.

People typically think of scientists working away at their lab benches. But many scientists work in the field. For agricultural scientists, research farms are their laboratories, and they often double as classroom and outreach demonstration facilities. At the University of Massachusetts, we have several of these farm facilities.

The farms were described in a story by Judith Cameron in the Hampshire Gazette (Aug. 6, 2001).

 

• The 131-acre Hadley Farm houses the UMass equine, sheep, swine and goat programs. It is geared mostly toward providing hands-on experience to 400 undergraduates in animal sciences. Students in the equine program compete nationally and two were grooms for the Gold Medal-winning U.S. equitation team in the 2000 Olympics. The farm also has an outreach program to help owners improve the care of their animals. Three full-time workers run the farm, with part-time help hired as needed.
• The 215-acre UMass Cold Spring Orchard Research & Education Center is the primary location for tree- and small-fruit research at the University. It also is the hands-on laboratory for all courses related to tree and small fruit, and is the venue for regular extension education programs. Four faculty, two emeritus faculty, four extension educators, two technicians, a farm manager, three farm-crew members, and numerous summer employees work together to make this farm the premier pomology facility in New England.
• The 358-acre agronomy and vegetable farm in South Deerfield is home to George, Charlie and Albert, the first cloned and transgenic cattle. Researchers at the farm were the first to describe the immune system of cattle. The farm also trains farmers and students in artificial insemination of cattle. In the vegetable arena, several research projects target sweet corn, butternut squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. One project uses trickle irrigation as a way to irrigate but reduce water consumption. The farm employs two full-time workers.
• The 20-acre University of Masschusetts Turf Research Facility in South Deerfield focuses on golf courses and lawn turf with experiments ranging from testing varieties of turf grass, to water usage, nutrition, wear of sports on turf, biological control of insects and weeds and low temperature disease control. The farm is irrigated and has a full time manager.
• The 11-acre Cranberry Experiment Station in East Wareham does research on entomology, plant pathology, weed science, pest management, plant nutrition and horticulture and works with commercial cranberry growers. Some projects are biological control of weeds with a fungal disease, and flooding to control insects and weeds that damage the fruit. The farm is considered an international leader in integrated pest management for cranberry growers and has developed for distribution ecologically based pest management practices for them.