The Cow Whisperer
Cows are smart. They can be trained. They can do tricks. They know their names. Dr. Drew Conroy knows cows are smart, and so do his students. As an associate professor of applied applied animal science at the Thompson School, Conroy spends as much time in barns and fields with the University herd as he does in the classroom.
In his Barton Hall office, Conroy is surrounded by cows. There are framed photos of cows on the wall, cow trophies, a cow telephone. One entire wall is taken up by a mural—yes, of cows—painted last year by a part-time art student looking for an interesting project. He’s the “cow man” of the Thompson School. Raised on a farm, he’s also works his own spread in nearby Berwick, Maine.
One of his research specialties is diseases of cows’ feet, a problem that plagues the dairy industry. If you don’t think that’s very important, think of this—some cows are worth tens of thousands of dollars, an investment that anyone would want to protect.
So, with thousands of dollars on the hoof in your barn, and how do you keep these feet healthy? Especially when your cow spends twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, standing in—uh, you-know-what?
Conroy brings up this subject in his dairy diseases class. To convey the extent of the problem, he likes to show a color slide of his own bare feet, covered with you-know-what. He tells them, “Cows live like this 365 days a year.” They get the point.
That Conroy is devoted to teaching is obvious to his students—Teaching Excellence Award winners at the Thompson School are nominated by the students they teach. “It means a lot to me that I was chosen by the students,” says Conroy. Recalling his own days as a student, he remarks, “I paid for my own college education, so I know how much it can cost. There was nothing worse than a professor who walked into the classroom and said, ‘I’d rather be doing my research.’”
Following his graduation from UNH and master’s degree work at Northwest Missouri State University, he worked as a farm manager and teacher at Sterling College in Vermont. He later left the classroom to work as a farm manager at Mitchell Ledge Farm in Freeport, Maine, but he found that he missed teaching.
Today, Conroy spends a lot of time at Barton Hall and at the dairy barns making sure his students are getting their money’s worth. For his dairy cattle disease course, he brings in local veterinarians to share their “war stories.” Students in his CREAM class spend endless hours managing the University herd, and touring farms across New England with Conroy on a number of weekends.
He does have a hobby—his oxen. Conroy’s an expert. He’s written two books and more than 75 articles on the subject, and produced a number of training videos. When he’s not teaching at UNH, he’s on the road, teaching farmers all over the world about oxen and how to better handle them. He did his Ph.D. work in Africa, studying how the world’s greatest cattle keepers, the Maasai, use oxen.
Conroy’s “hobby” has landed him on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine, local and national television and radio shows, the PBS television special “In Search of the Oregon Trail”, and even on the movie set of “The Crucible.” (He frequently consults for the movie industry on the subject of oxen.)
Oxen—castrated male cattle—are as obedient as dogs, he explains. In fact, most cattle, whether cows, bulls, or oxen, recognize their names, as long as they’re simple, short, and one syllable. And they notice things.
“See that business card on the floor?” he asks, motioning to a white card lying in a corner of his office. “If I were leading the cows to the milking parlor, and one day there was a business card lying in their path, they’d all stop. And if I came into the barn one day wearing a cowboy hat, they’d all notice.”
What Conroy hopes, of course, is that his students notice the effort he puts in, whether it’s a lecture or a milking demonstration or an explanation of how to judge a cattle contest. As he says, it’s a lot more satisfying interacting with students than cows…no matter how smart they are.
—Adapted from an article by Carmelle Druchniak, UNH News Bureau
