AgSci Interns

Greetings from Virginia everyone! This blog post follows my first week at my internship at Whipple Creek Farm, which is primarily a hops farm. Our farm has about ¾ of an acre of cascade hops. A little over half the plants were planted this year, and the other half are three years old. We grow cascade because they are very resistant to certain diseases and perform the best in this environment. On the farm we also have vegetables, chickens and piglets! I arrived here Sunday, May 26^th and it’s already been a crazy time.

On Memorial Day I worked at our hop field stringing hops.  To string the hops you first need to put up the string using a ladder or tall device, then stick it into the ground on each side of the irrigation using hop clips. Then you pick 3-4 plants and twist them up the string clockwise. Our goal was to get the all the first year hops strung by the end of the week.

After a busy morning, I then went to Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company in Lexington Virginia to tour the facility and help my roommate (who is a brewer there) and her co-worker do a Belgium stout homebrew. Devil’s Backbone’s Lexington location is called the Outpost and has a 30 barrel brew system (1 barrel is 31 gallons). This was such a wonderful experience because I saw and helped with certain tasks required for larger beer production and do things like drain yeast. I also got to help make what will hopefully be a delicious homebrew.

Over the next couple of days we continued stringing hops. Then on Thursday I went to two other hop yards, Blue Mountain and The Barrel House. Blue Mountain Brewery has four and one year cascade plants, and intercrops them with soybeans as a weed control and to increase soil health. I spent the majority of the day helping string hops at The Barrel House. We used a cart that was pulled by a lawn mower type machine to first tie up the strings to the wires. I went up on the cart, learned the knot they use and finished a couple of rows. Later in the day The Barrel House had a stringing hops event that they posted on their facebook page and local newspapers that asked for volunteers to come from 3-7 pm to help string hops and eat free food. This was an excellent marketing strategy and we were able to have enough volunteers to get a couple rows finished. We drank good beer, ate delicious food and had great conversations while getting a lot of work done.

On Friday there was more stringing in the morning at Whipple Creek. We were so close to finishing, only one row left, but we had to stop early to go to West Virginia to pick up the piglets! We bought three Gloucester Old Spot piglets, two female and one male all about 2 months old. Before we picked them up we set up a small paddock on the property so they could graze on the tall fescue and orchard grass there. We used electric movable fencing and plan on rotating them weekly. The pigs will be bred and used for meat.

On Saturday I accompanied April (my roommate) and Devil’s Backbone to Strings and Spirits, a bluegrass and beer and wine festival in Roanoke Virginia. It was a super hot sunny day but I got to listen to good music, meet new people and try some local beer, cider and wine. It was a great festival that helped showcase local musicians, artists and brewers. We then went and got a tour of Buried City Brewery, whose main products include Dam Lager and Red Clay IPA, before we made our way back home.

On Sunday we finally finished stringing all the hops! Next step, weeding and mulching.

I made a new best friend. Everyone, meet Muchen.

Overall, it was a pretty great start to what I hope will be a wonderful summer.

Hola!

Estoy aprendiendo mucho español y espero que estoy mejorando. La gente habla muy MUY rápida, y claro ellos nunca hablan más lento cuando habla conmigo lol.

Este semana aprendí como a hacer analíticas de vino.  Es un serie de 5 pruebas : pH, acides volítales,  acides total, sulfuroso, y alcohol.  Me siento como estoy en clase de química otra vez pero esto vez es un montón más interesante porque la pruebas son con vino!  Hoy hizo cuatro vinos diferentes, dos tintos, un blanco y un rosado.

-pH: Es importante a un vino porque lo indica si el vino es más seco o dulce.  Normalmente blancos tienen pHs más bajo y tintos tienen pHs más alto.   El blanco que hice, tuvo 3.6 y los tintos 3.8.

-Acides: Los acides afecta el pH del vino y son importante para el sabor del vino, como te siente en la boca, y también a mantener estabilidad del vino.  A mayoría de bacterias no pueden vivir en acide y por eso un vino puedo vivir por años y años.

Heats the wine and collects the volatiles in the tube.

-Sulfuroso:  Todos vinos tienen sulfuroso natural pero a veces añadimos sulfuroso a ayudar el preservación del vino.  No quieres mucho sulfuroso porque lo afecta el sabor y color.

-Alcohol:  La ultima prueba es alcohol. Un vino normal tiene un alcohol entre 12 y 15%.  Muchos vinos dulces tienen más y a veces blancos tienen menos.

Measures boiling point of wine which is used to calculate % alcohol.

Este noche me voy con Sebastein y Pascual, el otro intern, a una fería de todos el vinos en el región de Alicante.  Estoy emocionada a saber los vinos diferentes en el región.  Estará divertido!

Debo decirte un poco sobre las otras cosas que he hecho!  Si estás en España necesitas ir a Valencia.  Es una ciudad muy bonita con mucha historia pero muchas cosas nuevas también.  Fui el fin de semana pasado y dormí en mi primero hostal! Estaba sorprendida a ver como limpia y moderna lo fue y conocí estudiantes de todo el mundo .  El mercado central era mi lugar favorito.  Tiene toda la fruta, verduras, carne, queso, y pescado fresco te gustarían! Era mi cielo.

Mercado Central, Valencia

También fui en tours de la ciudad de arte y ciencia con otros estudiantes de mi hostal.  Es en el parque grande que va por el centro de la ciudad en una línea.  Es en una línea porque es donde el rio era antes de la ciudad movieron la dirección del rio 30 años pasado.  El parque es 9 kilometres largo.  Hay campos de futbol, jardines, y estos nuevos edificios que se llama la ciudad de arte y ciencia.

My favorite building. Designed to look like an eye and the center is a theater!

Me gusta Valencia mucho. Comí el mejor paella he comido (con conejo!), vi muchos edificios espectaculares, y conocí buena gente.

Bueno, hasta pronto!

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Hello!

I am learning a lot of Spanish and I hope I am improving.  The people speak very very fast and of course never slow down when they talk to me!

This week I learned how to do analytics of wine.  It is a series of 5 tests: pH, volatile acids, total acids, sulfites, and alcohol.  I feel like I am in chemistry class again but it is much more interesting this time because all the experiments are with wine.  Today I tested 4 different wines, 2 reds, one White, and one rosé.

pH: It is important to a wine because it indicates if the wine is more dry or sweet.  Normally White wines have lower pH and reds have higher pHs.  The White wine I tested was 3.6 and the reds were 3.8.

Acids: The acids affect the pH of the wine, the flavor, mouthfeel, and also maintain the stability of the wine. Most bacteria can’t live in acidic environments and because of this a wine can last for years and years.

Sulfites:  All wines have natural sulfites but sometimes we add them to help the preservation of the wine.  You don’t want too much because it can affect the taste.

Alcohol:  The last test is alcohol.  Most wines have an alcohol between 12 and 16%.  Sometimes dessert wines have more and White wines have less.

            Tonight I am going to an Alicante wine fair with Sebastian and Pascual, the other intern.  It will have all of the wines or the región, including Casa Sicilia.  I am very excited to see what it is like! It should be fun.

            I should also tell you a few of the other things I have been up to!  If you are ever in Spain you have to go to Valencia!  I went last weekend and stayed in my first youth hostel!  I was surpised at how modern and clean it was, and I met a lot of students from all over the world.  The central Market of Valencia was definintely my favorite place.  It has every fruit, vegetable, cheese, meat, and fresh fish you could ever want.  So pretty!

I also went on a tour of the city of arts and sciences with other people from my hostel.  It is a section of Valencia that is in a really long park that weaves through the center of the city.  It is shaped like this because it is where the river used to flow before they redirected it about 30 years ago.  There are a lot of different sections with soccer fields, gardens and really modern buildings, which is called the city of arts and sciences.

I loved Valencia, I had the best paella I have ever eated (with rabbit!), saw some pretty cool buildings, and met nice people.

 Well, That’s all for now!  Until next time.

Three weeks ago, I started my internship working for the  Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP) in Cornell’s Animal Science Department, run by Dr. Quirine Ketterings. The main goal of the program  is to aid farms (focusing on dairy farms) to become more sustainable. The team does this by conducting a variety of research—both on farm and at experiment farms, lab work, and through Cooperative Extension outreach. The research evaluates numerous soil management practices and their effect on the farm’s sustainability by looking at the amount of farm  inputs  vs. the products exported from it. Some of the management methods under review  include: crop rotations, manure application, fertilizer application, yield monitor accuracy, and tillage.

My first week was largely assisting with a project examining the effect of different nitrogen fertilizer application rates on triticale and wheat fields. This project will be looking at the differences in yield as well as the nutrient content of forages. Pictured left are different levels of application on each plot and the distinction from the rest of the field. Once samples are harvested by hand, we take them back to the lab to be weighed when they are wet and then dry after three days in the oven. Once this is done, the samples are put through a grinder and prepared for nutrient analysis.

In week two I  assisted with a project evaluating the accuracy of yield monitors on choppers. This project evaluates the monitor accuracy of crop moisture content and the necessary frequency of monitor calibration. To do this, the chopper operator is given a sheet to record what the yield monitor reads for moisture content for each load of alfalfa. Samples are then taken from each load and dumped at the bunk (pictured left). They are then weighed to determine actual crop moisture content.

In week three, I received my summer research project. I will continue work with an on-going study comparing varying depths of zone tillage looking at differences in yield and soil quality. I will start with a farm visit that has been aiding in this research, and will include the details in my next post!

Golf cart- One of the more thrilling parts of vineyard work.

Over the past week and a half, I’ve been working at Hosmer Vineyard and Winery on the west coast of Cayuga Lake. This grape farm was bought by Cameron Hosmer’s father and the vines were  planted in late 1970s by Cameron and Maren “the real boss” Hosmer. While expanding acre by acre over the decades, this family maintains excellent vineyard practices. The concept “a wine is only as good as the grapes” is truly embraced at this winery by Cameron Hosmer and the whole crew there.

At the end of last week, I showed up and was warmly welcomed. I’ve been introduced around vineyards helping to replace first year vines and maintain second year vines with Cameron, Matt, and Wilson, some of the vineyard workers. The tasks in the vineyard were easily learned, as the object of young vines was to add and remove grow tubes, suckers, and to train the vines onto strings. The work is not very challenging, but it has been excellent working outside, and the tasks vary on a day-by-day basis. Out in the vineyards, we (Emily VanFossen, a fellow Cornellian intern) get to zip around the vineyards in the golf carts (a bit of an adrenaline rush when we really get moving, I guiltily admit).

Emily joined me near the beginning of last week and we’ve been able to get each other motivated as we have been adjusting to our early summer sleeping schedule. The majority of the work so far during the good weather has been in the vineyard, but this past Thursday, I got to experience the bottling of the Estate Red wine, an excellent blend of Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Seyval.

Bottling Hosmer’s flagship “Estate Red”

Used French Oak Barrels

A little bit of cleaning

The bottling and labeling machine is an interesting piece of equipment, about $20-30,000 in value (not very expensive if you consider the millions that harvesters, laser precision planter, and tractors can cost). We spent Thursday morning and some of the afternoon bottling and boxing about 500 cases of the Estate Red. It was, once again, simple work, but it was a great opportunity.

Aaron Roisen, affectionately nicknamed “wine guy,” is the resident vintner who is responsible for producing Hosmer’s recent, award-winning vintages. Being able to work and hang out with him has been great so far, not only discussing how to make the wine, but about the lifestyle associated with it. While not being certain where I would like to go after graduating, a career in wine-making might be a great opportunity to travel and obtain a job that might have a high degree of creative freedom (depending on where I would be working).

As Emily and I work throughout the summer, we both are interested in getting an opportunity to work in the tasting room and pick the brains of Katy, Aaron’s fiance about her position as marketing director at Hosmer.

Well, that’s it for now! It’s dinner time, and then bed before another couple of weeks at the winery… Until next time! Ciao!

I don’t know where this week has gone! I have been in Spain for a week and a half and if feels like just yesterday that I arrived. I have learned so much, met a million people, and am learning to adapt to the crazy Spanish schedule. 

Welcome to Casa Sicilia!  This is where I will be working for the next 3 months of summer.  It is a gorgeous winery in the small town of Novleda, Spain.  The farm was started in 1707 and currently has 80 hectares of  a mix of wine and table grapes.  They grow a mixture of  Spanish varieties including Macabeo, Muscatel, Tempranillo, and Monastrel as well as more traditional varieties, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, and Syrah.   Sebastian is the wine maker and winery director, and is originally from France.  I am very grateful to have him as a boss, he has a great passion for what he does and has an incredible knowledge of viticulture and wine making.  He and his family are the best hosts I could ever ask for. The only downside is that it is pretty difficult to learn Spanish from people who speak with a French accent!

Casa Sicilia  is named after the house that was built in 1707 in the center of the farm.  Since then it has been renovated. On the first floor is a restaurant, tasting room, and wine shop.  Attached is a large ballroom for hosting weddings and other events.  I live on the second floor of the house.  I won’t lie, it was pretty scary that first night but (knock on wood) I haven’t seen any ghosts yet.

Casa Sicilia ~ Built in 1707

Guest Entrance

I work mainly in the bodega (winery), but also in the campo (vineyards) and a little in the tienda (store).  Earlier this week I worked with Pascual, the Spanish enology intern, recording the floration  stages of all of the vineyard parcels. Right now most have very few flowers left and the berries are developing.  In the winery we have been busy mixing depositos (tanks) to create the coupage for the red wine.  Here in Spain almost all of the wines are a blend of different varieties to make vino tintos and vino blanco.  Yesterday we did a tasting of 13 different barrels the check their maturation and flavor.  I learned that the barrel has a huge effect on the taste of the wine.  There are barrels with the same wine but with different toasts and from various parts of France and they each tasted different.  Some of my other jobs have been labeling bottles and moving wires in the vineyard.  (Thank you mom and dad; who would have guessed that all of those days moving wires would have come in handy, I can keep up with any Española trabajadoro.)  I have been very busy, but also had  some time for sight seeing with Sebastian and his family. I learned a lot in the winery and will post more throughout the summer about all of the happenings in Casa Sicilia and España!

Making the “coupage”

This summer, I took on an individual project helping Professor Miller with a trial between plugs and bareroots. The main goal was simple – to see which ones would grow more successfully. The different cultivars were planted and set in two different locations, one in a poly house and the other in full sun. That way, it would be possible to tell if any of the differences were attributable to the different set locations, not the treatments. Each week, I would water the plants and take pictures of their progress throughout the summer.

At the end of the trial, I went through to collect data on each cultivar and plant type (plug or bareroot) to assess their performance. As for the results, the plugs typically grew better than the bareroots, however, it was not always that case. We decided that further research should be done before determining a set conclusion on this project. More trials should be conducted with additional cultivars to gather more information. Establishing a database with many different perennials (that are cultivar specific) could be a good way to communicate different data that has been collected. It will be very interesting to see what the results are in the future, and I look forward to keeping tabs on the project!

After working for Crop Production Services this summer and seeing the type of work they do I would be pleased to find a position with this company after I graduate. I would like to dedicate a blog to describing what it is exactly I do for my internship with this company and what role I would hope to play if I was hired upon graduation.

Most of my time is spent looking at my traps that I have hung in trees and counting how many of each key species are present. I do this to mark when the newest of generation are hatching to inform the farmers when they should apply their next tank of spray for these internal worms. A second use of my traps counts are to find commonalities among farms that are close to see high pressure areas that may need a more frequent sprays than other areas where the pressure is not so high.  When I am not checking traps I am helping to deliver chemicals to farmers so they can get their orders on same day or next day delivery. I also attend grower tours, which are led by Cornell or CPS. I find these tours extremely useful because they are demonstrations of in the field experiments comparing the leading products and how they affect the crop. The top two demonstrations I have seen have been done with Apple Scab products and weed spray chemicals. Both of these trials had 8 reps and showed how farmers can expect their product to work in varying conditions. These tours are very informative and help others and I gather first hand experience.  Those are my duties as an intern for the summer, traps, deliveries and to learn as much as possible.

If I were fortunate enough to get a job with CPS, my roles would be more intense. The position I would apply for would be a crop consultant. A crop consultant’s foremost job is to scout farms and look for all different  pests of the crops. Upon conclusion of scouting I would meet with the farmer and show him what the pest looks like and where it is located on his farm. Then we would discuss his spray options and what would be best for him. Things to consider before making a recommendation for the farmer to spray include, what kind of rig is present, how bad the pest is, cost of the pesticide, and what chemicals the farmer already has in his barn.  Whatever material (chemical) is chosen then is written down and the order is called into the warehouse so it can be delivered the next day. Very often the consultants also have to help hook up some spray rigs and calibrate them for the farmer if they do not know how. As one can see, consultants and farmers are in close contact and in most cases become good friends. I personally love this kind of service, working hand in hand with the farmers. In the winter after the growing season is complete the job becomes more “business like”. Meetings every winter are held in Virginia, and Greenly Colorado to recap the season and how the company preformed. This is also the time when consultants will fly to meet with chemical company representatives to learn about new products for the up coming year and to discuss pricing. I love both aspects of this job and hope to have made a lasting impression with this internship to improve my odds of becoming a consultant for CPS in the future.

A few weeks ago I blogged about a trip I took to Peru, NY with the branch manager to visit with some of the apple growers of the region.  I mentioned that I would go back at a later date to conduct tissue and soil samples for any growers that wished to have them done.  This week I went back to Peru to take samples for three orchards: Hart Orchards, Forrence Orchards, and Northern Orchard.  The purpose of taking the samples is to identify and correct any nutritional or soil problems for the next growing season.

Collecting soil samples

On the first day, we took samples from both Hart and Northern Orchards.  Hart Orchards had tissue samples taken from four different blocks.  Two blocks were Macintosh apples, one was honey crisp, and another block was one that the growers said that they were getting a less than desirable crop from.  They were hoping to maybe find something through a tissue analysis.  For tissue samples, leaves are taken from spurs from the current growing season.  They are taken anywhere from late July to early August because the nutrient balance in the plant is the most stable.

The second stop of the day was Northern Orchards.  Here we took both tissue and soil samples.  Soil samples are taken by starting in one corner of a block and working in a line diagonally across the block.  This helps to get a broader picture of the orchard soil than working in one row.  Most of the tissue samples that we collected were from older trees with Macs, but we did collect samples on a block that had a new high density planting.

The second say of the trip was entirely devoted to taking samples for Forrence Orchards.  Forrences’ operate over a thousand

Deer repellent? If it works it works…

acres of orchards all over the town of Peru.  The first block that we took soil samples in was an old block that was going to get ripped up and replanted at the end of the growing season.  The soil samples were taken to see what kinds of things might need to be done to make the soil conditions better for the new trees, such as adding fertilizers to increase the abundance of nutrients that may be at low levels.

The rest of the day was spent taking tissue and soil samples from blocks all over the orchard.  At each block, broad tissue samples were taken.  This meant that we had to take leaves from many different trees across the to try to get a sample that represented the entire block.  At some of the smaller blocks, soil samples were taken in the same fashion.  However, at some larger blocks we divided them into smaller sections and took samples for each section.  This provides a better picture as to the soil makeup of the orchard and allows the grower to change his spray and fertilizer programs for specific rows in a block.  This saves money, as chemicals are only being applied where they are needed.

Beetles making short work of a leaf.

I can’t say that I learned a lot about apple production from the trip, but it definitely reinforced a lot of things I had learned in class.  It is one thing to read about something in a book and another to actually experience it in the field.  The best example I can think of was when I was looking for recent growth on the trees to collect samples from.  In HORT 1101, we spent a lab with Prof. Merwin in the orchard discussing pruning and how it results in a flush of new growth.  I found myself looking at the branches of trees that I would take tissues from and noticed they looked as if they had been recently pruned.  Rather than searching through branches to find ones with new growth, I was able to speed up the process a little by looking for spots that had been pruned.  More than likely, those spots were near new growth.

On Monday July 23, my team of interns and I had a big preparation day  for the ninth annual Cornell Floriculture Field Day on Tuesday, July 24. The conference began with presentations followed by lunch and tours of Blue Grass Lane. Horticulture professor Bill Miller is pictured left leading a tour at Blue Grass Lane in his festive Hawaiian t-shirt.

Over 130 horticulture professionals attended the event, which included a container competition. The competition is a main event that benefits IBD research in honor of Kathy Pufahl, who has inspired the horticultural business. Categories included Open Division, 16 inch pots, 12 inch hanging baskets, and Home Gardener Division. There were many exciting entries that I could see took time and care to create. Attendees were also asked to put 3 flags next to their favorite perennial flowers as well as 3 flags next to their favorite annual flowers. When we tallied up the votes, it came as a surprise that a variety of Caladiums were voted most favorite annual flower, since up until Field Day, they were not growing too well. We believe this is because they are a shade plant that was grown in full sun (which also may have been why they were chosen to win!).

Overall, the day was successful with learning, voting, and eating. At the end, the winners of the container competition were announced while participants enjoyed local ice cream. The hours of hard work spent setting up (as well as planting and maintaining our flowers) paid off.

Photo Credit: Chris Kitchen

Soybean Nodules

What do you do on a beautiful summer day? Well, spend it in a soybean field of course!  I headed up to Delaware County this morning to complete some more fieldwork on the soybean and lime experiment. Since the soybeans were planted late, they are only just reaching the R1/R2 stage. This is the stage where tissue samples and nodule counts are taken.

The tissue samples were the easiest part of the day. The procedure was to cut off the highest, fully-open trifoliate leaf from 20 plants in each rep. This resulted in 60 individual leaves, once the petioles were removed. The samples will then be dried, ground, and sent off to the lab for analysis.

The harder part of the day was the nodule counts on the roots. Soybeans have the ability to fix their own nitrogen with the help of bacteria.  Prior to planting, soybean seeds are inoculated with a bacterium called Rhizobium japonicum.  This symbiotic relationship between the bacterium and the soybean seed allow atmospheric nitrogen to be converted into a usable form for the plant.  The nitrogen fixation begins with the formation of a nodule on the root of a legume.  For the first few weeks, the nodules are inactive. But 2-3 weeks after planting, the nodules become active.  A healthy nodule will be a pinkish-red inside, caused by leghemoglobin.  These nodules will supply most of the needed soybean plant’s nitrogen for the rest of the growth period.

To count nodules, the soybean plants have to be dug up, being careful not to disturb the root system.  Two plants from five different rows in each plot were sampled for the nodule count.  Once the plants were dug up, the dirt was shaken from the roots, dipped in water and then counted.  The nodule counts ranged from zero all the way up to 30+ nodules.

At harvest time, soil samples will be taken as well as yield monitoring. This is done by counting the number of pods per plant and beans per plot.  The beans will also be weighed to determine the dry matter content.  Until that time, the soybean fieldwork will be quiet.  In the meantime, I have a lot of grinding samples and a few soil tests to run. It should be enough to keep me busy!