An Outdoor Research Lab in Pittstown Is All About Solving Problems for Local Farmers

Students enrolled in an honors seminar of Friday field trips visit Synder Farm to witness external experiments and sustainable agriculture

For the second Friday field trip in a row, Kyle Yoon didn't bring lunch.

Fortunately, Yoon and nine other Honors College students each got to pick a quart of "Scarlet Sunrise" grape tomatoes straight from the vine at Rutgers University's farm in Pittstown, N.J., just before noon on a warm, partly sunny Friday in mid-September.

Following Honors College students on a first-ever journey to all of the Rutgers research stations in New Jersey to discover how science shows up for the state and its people.

"This is my lunch," Yoon, 19, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, told a bemused Dave Bushek, a professor of marine and coastal sciences who served as chaperone for the students from Rutgers University-New Brunswick as they walked back from fields to the main office of the Clifford E. and Melda C. Snyder Research and Extension Farm.

Established in 1988, Snyder Farm is all about solving problems - for hungry undergraduates, scientifically curious doctoral students, researchers within and outside of the university, state taxpayers and, especially, local farmers in Hunterdon and surrounding counties in northwestern New Jersey.

The 390 acres serve as an outdoor research lab for scientists and growers to demonstrate and teach local farmers about the latest in agricultural technology to help make their efforts more sustainable. As a Rutgers extension facility operated by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES), Snyder Farm conducts localized scientific research - such as troubleshooting crop diseases plaguing local farms - and delivers hands-on educational outreach to local communities.

It was week three of an interdisciplinary honors seminar called "Beyond Campus: Research at Rutgers Off-Campus Stations," in which students are bussed from Rutgers-New Brunswick to different university field stations throughout New Jersey on Fridays.

After the students arrived, Peter Nitzsche, the director of Snyder Farm, provided some history, noting how Melda Synder, upon her death, bequeathed the land to Rutgers and NJAES.

Honors College student Kyle Yoon, who studies mechanical engineering, takes in Synder Farm while riding a wagon towed by a tractor.

Nitzsche, the extension department head for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County, described the Snyders as groundbreaking farmers.

"They conducted innovative practices, tried new technologies and then invited other farmers to view those technologies," he said. "They wanted to set up an experiment station here. They'd seen other Rutgers facilities ... and we've carried on their tradition.

"What we do is demonstrate, improve practices and test technologies. Does it help the farmer? Does it make them more money? Does it make them more economical? Does it preserve the environment? We test those things at the farm, and we invite farmers out to look at the plots on a regular basis. Hopefully, it helps improve their production practices."

A large wooden wagon towed by a massive orange tractor served as a mobile classroom for the first couple of hours that morning. Nitzsche, the tour guide, rode with Bushek and the students in the wagon, which creaked over bumps as the tractor slowly crawled about the farm.

During the wagon ride, Nitzsche shared agricultural concepts such as integrated pest management.

"That is using all the tools in your arsenal in order to keep pests at an economic or an acceptable level," he told the class. "So, you try to do everything you can, the most benign, easiest method, cheapest method. But if you can take advantage of a resistant variety, a variety that's been bred that doesn't get a disease, we plant that first. We encourage growers to plant that. If there are biologicals, if there's a predator that we can release into the plot to control the pest, we do that."

What we do is demonstrate, improve practices and test technologies. Does it help the farmer? Does it make them more money?

Peter Nitzsche

Director of Snyder Farm

As they passed test fields of peaches (all but destroyed by an April frost), apples, tomatoes, pumpkins and other specialty crops, Nitzsche asked the tractor driver to stop at one farm's more interdisciplinary science experiments: a field of hay grass interspersed with rows of solar panels sitting upon large posts - an agrivoltaics project using the same plot of land for both agricultural production and solar photovoltaic energy generation.

The solar panels move with the sun, thanks to motors timed to track the star for maximum power generation as well as to move shadows of the panels and expose the grass to sunlight.

"We're looking at yield," Nitzsche told the students. "We're growing the hay between the panels and then outside the panels. Does the hay grow the same amount? Faster? Slower? Lower yields?

"So far, we haven't seen big yield differences. So, that's a good thing."

A major goal at Snyder Farm is to support the work of Rutgers faculty - many of whom bring students to assist with their research - and staff, Nitzsche said. 

Peter Nitzsche, the director of Snyder Farm, describes an agrivoltaics project, which uses the same plot of land for both agricultural production and solar photovoltaic energy generation.

"Some of that work involves new technology such as drones, precision agricultural equipment and autonomous weeders," he noted. "The farm will continue to help support the work to test and demonstrate this new agricultural technology to see it helps local farms remain sustainable economically while also protecting the environment."

Back at the farm's main office after the tour, Yoon sat in the conference room with the other students. He ate his tomatoes, scrolled on his smartphone and remarked how this seminar is more than simply field trips on Fridays.

"This is kind of a different opportunity compared to being in a lecture hall or something, being able to go out to different places around Jersey," said Yoon, who was born in Los Angeles before moving to Closter, N.J. "And I think also just learning more about research and what it's like because I also wanted to get into the field of research."

Yoon also marveled that on Synder Farm one could find his field of focus - mechanical engineering - "basically anywhere."

This is kind of a different opportunity compared to being in a lecture hall or something, being able to go out to different places around Jersey - and just learning more about research and what it's like, because I also wanted to get into the field of research.

Kyle Yoon

Sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering

"I didn't know that there were so many projects ongoing here," said Jen Kim, 19, a sophomore from Forked River, N.J., who is majoring in landscape architecture. "It seems like if you're a researcher or an investigator who has a project that you want to investigate, you are able to have the space to do that, which I thought was really interesting. I just think it's neat to learn about the different resources that are available to us as students at Rutgers."

Veronica Girgis, 20, a junior majoring in food science, said she didn't realize how much technology was involved at the farm.

"I'm glad that I get to see where everything comes from," said Girgis, who grew up in Branchburg, N.J. "I have a greater appreciation for everything that we eat. It all comes from the land and from the research at these centers."

Bushek said it is crucial for students to visit Rutgers field stations "for the same reason that we operate these farms in our extension program."

He said growers "can come and read about the technology and the innovations that we develop, but until they actually see it, they don't have confidence that it's something that they can use. And in the same sort of way, students can read about and learn it, but they don't quite make the connections until they can get their hands on it and actually touch and feel and taste what's happening and understand those differences and what it actually means in a much more real sense."

"We're doing a lot of work to help local farmers stay in business and to help them produce healthy food that also is caring for the environment and protecting the environment," Nitzsche said. "The tax money is going for good and helping us support the local community."