Photo by Kevin Hinchey,
UNH Human Resources

Milking a cow. If your mind pictures a farmer in overalls, sitting on a stool with both hands alternately moving up and down and a slow, steady stream of milk falling into an aluminum bucket - you've been watching too many old movies. Spend a portion of a workday with Jon Whitehouse and his team in the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center and you'll witness a much different picture.

"If someone were to try to milk a cow that way today, they'd get pretty sore arms and nowhere near the amount of milk we get," said Whitehouse. To the uninitiated, that amount can be quite staggering. "We milk each cow three times a day," Whitehouse states. "They give about 30 pounds of milk per milking." With the 130 cows currently in the barns that amounts to about 11,700 pounds of milk daily. And each cow typically gives birth to one calf per year. The adult cows weigh about 1500 lbs. each, and they each eat about 100-150 lbs. of food a day. YIKES!

Jon began his UNH Career in 1984 as a Lead Farm Worker at Ritzman Nutrition Barn and became manager of the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center in 1995. In that position, he is responsible for ordering all supplies and setting up purchase orders, dealing with sales people, managing 3 full-time employees and 20 students, scheduling tours (15-20 annually) and open houses, advising CREAM (Cooperative for Real Education and Agricultural Management) students, and working as a research liaison. He started working as a student and "enjoyed the aspects of a University Dairy Farm." Jon states "the CREAM Program is more hands-on. We educate the students to how the cows, eat, produce milk, and live. There is a 26 cow, student-run herd. They do all of the milking, feeding and decision making for the year. It makes both the students and the public more aware of where their milk comes from."

When asked who at the University has had a positive impact on him, Jon responds "Working with 2 of my staff who are older than me and Dr. Tom Fairchild. I have gained a wealth of knowledge from them in the area of cattle handling, genetics, etc."

A Rollinsford resident, Jon's personal interests include training pets at home (a horse, 2 cats, a rabbit, a dog, and some fish), working on home projects (in the past, building a porch and presently building a shed for the horse), and spending time with his wife Nancy (who works in the Ritzman Lab at UNH) and their 2 daughters.