DURHAM, N.H. – The public is invited to tour two University of New Hampshire farms – the Woodman Horticultural Research Farm and the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center – on the 4^th annual Durham Farm Day Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Tours are free.

“The purpose of Durham Farm Day is to celebrate the important and impressive working landscape of farms, forests, backyard gardens, community gardens and agricultural research taking place in Durham,” said Theresa Walker, chair of the Durham Agricultural Commission. “Agricultural commission members are dedicated volunteers with a wide variety of backgrounds, working together to call attention to food security, nutrition, farmland conservation, and local farm retention. As we like to say, ‘If you eat, you're in.’” Durham Farm Day is presented by the Durham Agricultural Commission.

The Woodman Horticultural Research Farm is one of the two horticultural farms that are part of the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at UNH. Located at 70 Spinney Lane, the primary activities of this approximately 155-acre farm are research, teaching, and outreach on the production of horticultural and ornamental crops. Research projects include variety trials for a number of fruits and vegetables, including peppers, Brussel sprouts, table grapes, and strawberries; extending the growing season into winter for onions and spinach; tillage to tarp-optimizing cover crops use; a strawberry breeding program; a test plot for cross-breeding quinoa with lambs quarter; UNH bee hotel and pollinator habitat evaluation; and the most comprehensive study on growing and breeding cold-hardy kiwiberries.

Woodman Farm will conduct public tours at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.; preregistration is required. Please sign up for farm tours by Aug. 19 with Theresa Walker of the Durham Agricultural Commission at theresawalker@comcast.net or 603-659-7226. Directions: http://colsa.unh.edu/nhaes/woodman-directions.

The award-winning Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center is one of the N.H. Agricultural Experiment Station’s two dairy farms. It houses about 90 milking-age cows and approximately 70 growing, replacement animals. Included in that number is the 20-cow, student-managed Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management (CREAM) herd, with the remaining animals devoted primarily to dairy nutrition and reproductive biology research. Milk production averages about 26,000 to 27,000 pounds per cow per year, which is greater than the national average of about 22,000 pounds per cow per year.

Located at 36 O’Kane Road off Mast Road Extension, the Fairchild Dairy will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for self-guided walking tours. Directions: http://colsa.unh.edu/nhaes/directions/Fairchild/

For more information on the day’s events including other open farms, visit https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/boc_agricultural/save-date-4th-annual-durham-farm-day-august-20th-1000-am-400-pm.

Founded in 1887, the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture is UNH’s original research center and an elemental component of New Hampshire's land-grant university heritage and mission.