UMO House of Raeford Farms School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences

06/05/2026

We are very excited that we have been chosen to receive one of 15 drones from Agri Spray Drones. This drone will be a tremendous asset to our Precision Agriculture program. If you have an interest in Precision Agriculture, please reach out to us here at the University of Mount Olive. For a link to the article, please check out the link on our main webpage at umo.edu.

06/03/2026

Alumni Spotlight

Congratulations to Riley Morrison, a 2025 UMO graduate in Veterinary Bioscience with a minor in Chemistry. Riley has been accepted to The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she will begin classes this fall. To read about Riley's journey, please check out the link on the House of Raeford Farms School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences page or the link on the main University of Mount Olive website at umo.edu. Good luck this fall in Columbus!

06/01/2026

Traveling Troy hitched a ride with one of our students, Amy Bumgarner, on an official UMO student cruise to The Bahamas. The UMO Group and Traveling Troy set sail aboard the Carnival Sunshine! Traveling Troy arrived in Bimini for the first time and had an unforgettable experience swimming with reef sharks in their natural habitat. Traveling Troy witnessed marine ecology in action as reef sharks play an important role in maintaining balance within coral reef ecosystems. Even though Traveling Troy is safely wearing his life jacket, this moment also highlights the importance of proper preparation and equipment when observing wildlife up close, especially in sensitive ocean environments. Traveling Troy had a great trip, and he will share the second half of his trip in the near future.

05/30/2026

It’s been a great three days as we explored North Carolina agriculture and learned the ins and outs of agricultural marketing with an upstanding group of veterans! We are so grateful for our partnership with the Veterans Employment Base Camp and Organic Garden to help make the Boots on the Ground training possible!

05/29/2026

Sharon Jackson and Sara Lahman recently represented the House of Raeford Farms School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences at Meadow Lane Elementary School’s annual STEM Fair and Showcase. Professor Jackson and Dr. Lahman provided hands-on activities, such as organ identification, and a place where students could listen to their own heartbeat. The STEM Fair and Showcase allowed elementary students to showcase their engineering projects, creations, and robotics team. We were happy to participate and help these elementary students learn about STEM studies and careers right here in the local community.

05/27/2026

Traveling Troy finished up his visit to the Netherlands, visiting a couple of great locations. One, he got to see artwork from one of the Netherlands’ greatest artists, Vincent van Gogh. In the painting ‘Wheatfield with Reaper,’ Traveling Troy was as inspired as Van Gogh by fields and nature, and was ready to go to harvest. Dutch artists were among the first in the world to highlight the beauty of everyday life. Van Gogh often spoke about nature’s influence on his artwork. In a second picture, Traveling Troy went to the oldest museum in the country, the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, a museum dedicated to science that opened in 1784. Here, Traveling Troy reached the summit of Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in the Alps. This piece of the mountain was secured on an expedition to the summit in 1787 by Horace Bénédict de Saussure. Traveling Troy appreciates the irony of the tip of the tallest mountain in the Alps is now found in Europe’s lowest-elevation country. Finally, Traveling Troy was excited to see some tulips before he left Holland, finally. The Netherlands is known worldwide for its tulip production. These dying tulips were found in a city park, but Troy was very glad to go tractoring if not tiptoeing through these plants.

Be on the lookout for more adventures from Traveling Troy, as he recently made another international visit and learned some very valuable messages from his trip.

05/26/2026

We are very proud of Mikaela and look forward to her continuing her success in veterinary school at Texas A&M!

A December UMO graduate and standout goalkeeper, Mikaela Lawler is headed to Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine this fall. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with a 3.94 GPA and earning the prestigious Elite 23 award , she is ready to pursue her passion for small animal specialty care and veterinary research.

Read the full story: linktr.ee/officialumo

05/20/2026

We want to welcome our two newest transfer students into the House of Raeford Farms School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. Maggie Munden, from Morehead City, is majoring in Veterinary Bioscience. Myra Beasley, from Four Oaks, is majoring in Plant Science. We look forward to Maggie and Myra’s success as they enter their respective courses of study here at UMO. If you or someone that you know is interested in coming to UMO, please reach out to our admissions team as we would love to have you join the Trojan family!

05/17/2026

“Say Alkmaar, Say Cheese!” Traveling Troy witnessed the historic cheese market in Alkmaar, a major city in the North Holland province of the Netherlands 🇳🇱. When the Dutch reclaimed land from the sea, they found that the best crop to raise on the new land was pasture grass, and the best animal to graze the lands were dairy cattle. The dairy cattle here are primarily Holstein-Friesian and the main use of their milk is the production of cheese. The Dutch became the first worldwide exporters of this new ‘Yellow Gold’ and Dutch cheeses are still considered some of the best in the world. In the Alkmaar market, the primary cheese is Gouda, easily distinguishable by their flat, round rolls. Gouda makes up over 50% of all of the cheese currently produced in the Netherlands. As for the scenes in the background, the cheese market today is mostly for show, but it has been run this way since the 16th century, with the four guilds; red, yellow, green, and blue, handling the weighing and moving of cheese as they have for centuries. A ‘cheese father’ in orange with a cane oversees the entire operation. About 32,000 kilos of cheese are moved on market days over a period of a couple of hours.

05/15/2026

Students in the University of Mount Olive’s AGE 115 Issues in Agriculture course recently welcomed Rachel Grantham as a guest speaker. Ms. Grantham discussed many topics related to risk and crop managment. Ms. Granthams also explained crop insurance and how it helps protect farmers from financial loss due to weather, pests, and other risks. Ms. Grantham's is the founder and owner of Grantham Agronomic Services, LLC., a company that provides agronomy services, farm management services, and food safety services for her clients. This guest speaking experience is important because it helps students understand the business and risk management side of agriculture. All of our graduates need to understand this facet of the industry as it is essential for their future careers in the industry. We are very appreciative of Ms. Grantham spending time with us for this event.

This post was authored by Paulina Wall, an Agribusiness major at the University of Mount Olive.