Committee Member Profile—Philip Trowbridge

Animal husbandry is in Philip Trowbridge's blood. A third-generation farmer, Trowbridge, the newest member of the Zweig committee, always knew he'd get a job in animal science. The eighth of nine children, he grew up on the family farm with cattle, horses, and vegetables, then majored in animal science at the State University of New York College of Technology at Alfred (Alfred State College). The day after he graduated in 1976,Trowbridge went to work for Gallagher's Stud, Inc., a 600-acre farm in Ghent, N.Y., about 30 miles south of Albany. He's worked there ever since.

Trowbridge started as a herdsman for the farm's Angus operation. A year later he married his college sweetheart. A year after that the farm's owners, Mr. And Mrs. Jerome Brody, purchased their first Thoroughbred horses. Soon after, the farm's Thoroughbred horse breeding operations became successful and Trowbridge was named manager. Today, the farm has horses racing throughout the nation and all over the world.

"In fact, we bred the two highest-priced New York-bred Thoroughbreds," Trowbridge says.

In addition to managing the breeding and marketing operation for the 55 horses the farm owns and the dozen or so horses it sells each year, Trowbridge oversees herds of his own. With his wife, Anne, and their two teenage children, Trowbridge manages two Belgium draft horses, which the family drives around the farm, 75 Angus cattle (with sales of about 40 offspring a year), 30 sheep (with sales of about 30 sheep a year, mostly to 4-H youth), 20chickens for the family's egg supply, and two Border collies. The Trowbridges have been breeding Border collies for about 20 years. The farm and its animals are Trowbridge's passion.

"I don't do anything else," says the 43-year-old agriculturist.

"I don't have any other hobbies or interests. For me, I really really truly love what I am doing and don't want to do anything but this."

Trowbridge came to the Zweig Committee in August of last year as a representative from the Board of Directors of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund.

"I'm very interested in Zweig because Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine does so much for the Thoroughbred industry, and I want to understand it a bit better and add whatever I can to its efforts to help the industry," Trowbridge explains.

A long-time advocate of youth development in agriculture, Trowbridge started an intern program at Gallagher's Stud almost 20 years ago and continues to offer it every semester.

"We like to give college and high school students the opportunity to complement what they've learned in classes with working on the practical end of the business regarding daily care of horses," Trowbridge explains. "We take two students a semester and it has become very competitive."

Formerly on the board of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Trowbridge now focuses his time on the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund, as well as serving on the boards of the Columbia County Agriculture Society, Columbia County Cooperative Extension, the All American Angus Futurity, and the Columbia County 4-H.