Features

Graymist has a different look than dairy farms of previous generations. Gone is the massive barn, replaced by low, open-sided structures which provide increased ventilation for healthier animals and farmers. The shining metal silo stands erect next to more easily accessible three-sided trench silos. The cows are fed four different nutritionally balanced mixes of grain depending on where they are in the reproductive cycle, and their bedding is a mixture containing cut up newspaper which the Grays later sell as compost. Like LeClair, the Grays are always trying new methods to be more productive. They are among the few farmers in the area to grow soybeans, which provide both an inexpensive source of protein for the cows and nitrogen residue in the soil to benefit next year's corn crop.

Gordon moves slowly around the milking parlor sporting the traditional garb of the dairy farmer—green coveralls and steel-toed boots. His deep, resonant voice carries the classic New Hampshire accent: "there" becomes the two syllable they-uh. Little in his demeanor reveals his impressive credentials: a pre-veterinary degree from UNH, and a master's in reproductive physiology in dairy cattle from the University of Vermont. This year he is taking a course in cow nutrition over the Internet.

"Farming is a big challenge," says Gordon. "If it isn't animals being sick or something, it's crops fighting Mother Nature. You've got to be a mechanic, a veterinarian, a nutritionist, a soils person, an agronomist, you've got to be able to repair things—never a dull moment. That's what I like—the variety. I had an office job once and it drove me crazy. I couldn't sit still."

Both Gordon and Nancy, who was also a pre-veterinary major at UNH, like the family-farm environment for raising their five children. "We're with them all the time," says Gordon. "I guess that makes up for not taking vacations."

Kelly, the oldest of the Gray's children, graduated from the Thompson School in 1997 with a degree in horticulture and moved back to the farm to start her own business growing and selling fruits and vegetables from a newly-built stand about 100 yards from the farmhouse. Like most New Hampshire farmers, the Grays know the value of diversification. "Some farmers do work in the winter, like logging. We sell compost and vegetables," says Gordon. "It goes with the times. When milk prices are good you don't see much outside work, when prices go down people do stuff to get by."

An employee checks on the progress of "liners" at Pleasantview Gardens in Pembroke, N.H.

One of the largest greenhouses in New England, Pleasantview Gardens in Loudon, N.H., is run by the Thompson School alumni triumvirate of father Jonathan '50 and sons Jeff '76 and Henry '80 Huntington. When Jonathan bought the greenhouse in 1976, after farming and selling fruits, vegetables and bedding plants in Connecticut to patrons like Paul Newman and Martha Stewart, it had 12,000 square feet of production space worked by 12 employees.

Today, the Huntingtons are on the leading edge of the state's $1.5 billion ornamental horticulture industry, the largest grossing agricultural market. They have increased their greenhouse space over 20-fold, employ 160 employees, support an extensive intern program, and have doubled the volume of air-shipped plants in the past year to become the largest commercial shipper using Manchester airport's scheduled flights.

Liners, young plants sold to other growers, make up 65 percent of the Huntingtons' business. The remaining 35 percent consists of more mature plants that are sold to small garden centers and larger chain stores. "The way plants are marketed through mass markets like Home Depot and Wal-Mart," explains Henry, "has prompted growth in our state and throughout the country that has revolutionized our industry." This along with what Taylor calls the "Europeanization" of American taste—adding greenery to living space—has brought horticulture to the forefront of the state's agriculture scene.

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