Justine Deming is a clinical associate professor in the fisheries, animal and veterinary sciences department at the University of Rhode Island.
She teaches animal management classes, most of which focus on large animals, such as dairy cows, a personal favorite of hers. She also works with extension and outreach.
She started her journey in animal sciences when she was young, and participated in her local 4-H program, which is America’s largest youth development organization. The 4 H’s are the four main values of the program; head, heart, hands and health.
“I kind of describe it [4-H] as a little bit like girl/scouts boy scouts for kids interested in animals,” Deming said.
While she did not grow up on a farm, but in Mystic, Connecticut, she found a love of animals through the 4-H program and a friend’s parents who worked at Pfizer.
While at the University of New Hampshire for undergrad, she took the course “large animal handling and behavior,” where she went to the school’s dairy farm. She got an unintentional minor in dairy management, and started getting involved in graduate students’ research projects on nutrition and related subjects.
She got her master’s in dairy cows’ behavior and welfare from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, specifically focusing on automated milking systems. A professor from UNH recommended she consider teaching, where she started at Morrisville State College.
She visited Edinburgh for a dairy judging competition, where she was then invited to judge a second competition in Ireland. This inspired her to get her PhD in Ireland, studying dairy farm labor efficiency and management. She came back to New England to teach at URI.
“It was kind of a crazy 15-year loop to go out to see the world and come back,” Deming said.
A favorite class of hers is the ruminant management course, animal and veterinary science 323. It is an upper level lecture class focusing on animals with three-chambered stomachs, such as cows. She also teaches and loves the pastures class, which is about grass and the feeding of animals who eat the grass.
Her favorite animal on the farm is Coco, a goat, who is the focus of the Coco Committee, a subset of the animal veterinary sciences club that trains goats to visit elderly homes. She started the Coco Committee as a way to try and build up the club after COVID-19 caused the club to have declining numbers.
She especially loves to combine her love of agriculture with her love of traveling, such as when she visited the Azores, which produces the majority of cheeses and dairy products for mainland Portugal. She visited some dairy farms while there, and is hoping to have some similar travels this summer.
“There are animals everywhere, which is kind of fun,” Demings said. “So that means there is agriculture almost everywhere.”
In her free time, she enjoys a variety of hobbies. She enjoys rowing, kayaking, sailing, traveling and knitting. She carries her love of animals from the farm to home, with her pet cat Peanut, who joined us for the interview.