Since 1991, Dr. Drew Conroy has taken Thompson School and Animal Science undergraduates to the intercollegiate Animal Science competition referred to as NESA, which stands for Northeast Student Affiliate of the American Society of Animal Science and American Dairy Science Association.  The event offers students the opportunity to compare their hands-on judging and academic training, including presentations in a fun and competitive intercollegiate environment.

Each February, hundreds of college students from Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware gather to one of the campuses to judge livestock, participate in quiz bowls, and present original research and review papers in competition. The event is sponsored by the Undergraduate students at the hosting University, but supported by the faculty who are members of the National Animal Science and Dairy Science societies.  In 2002 and 2011 the UNH Dairy Club hosted this event.

The 2013 event was held at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Teams of 4 or 5 students compete in the event. This year from UNH there were 21 students competing. From the Thompson School we had  Integrated Agriculture students Josiah Robertson and Jake Harris, Applied Animal Science - Dairy Management students Elise McAllister, Leah Caverly, Brittany Moon and Jenna Brown with Horticulture Technology student Ben Marshall also competing.

Noteworthy 2013 accomplishments include the following:

• Leah Caverly was our highest individual in judging Dairy Cattle, Beef Cattle, Horses, Swine, Sheep and a surprise class of Hazel Nuts. She placed 8^th overall in the entire competition.
• UNH Team A placed 4th in the Quiz Bowl, out of 40 teams, members were Si Robertson, Ben Marshall,  Samantha Rzasa, and Amelia Aznive. Our next best quiz bowl team was Team C at 14^th, with members Leah Caverly, Brittany Moon, Jenna Brown and Meredith Archer.
• Jackie Buckley was our highest placed paper presenter. She was 9^th place in Review Paper Presentations. Jackie’s paper presentation was entitled "Specific Pathogen Free Sheep" and Jenna Brown from the Thompson School had an excellent presentation on the “Drought of 2012 and its effect on dairy farmers”.