On Monday I helped with the next stage of the research project focused on runoff and infiltration resulting from different manure applications using a rainfall simulator. All the manure treatments we applied last week were dry, so we moved on to actually creating a rain event. We did three trials and in each trial we used a new set of manure treated soil pans but placed in a different order below the sprinkler while keeping the control in the same location.
During each trial we left the rain simulator on for about 10 minutes but some pans of soil were covered from the rain sooner or later depending on their location in relation to the sprinkler. After we turned off the sprinkler we weighed each of the jars that had collected water from runoff and infiltration for each manure treatment. It was interesting to see how the water collected for the treatments varied over the trials. Finally, we took water samples from each collection jar to determine the nitrogen concentrations.
Tuesday I spent the day at Musgrave Research Farm helping with corn variety trials. The research plot contains around 70 different varieties of corn that are being tested. For each variety there are three sections planted at a randomized location in the field. Most of the varieties we just counted their populations, but certain ones we also thinned in order to achieve a certain per acre population density.
One of the meetings I attended this week was the Owasco Lake Nine Element Plan Coordination Committee meeting. I learned more about all the people involved in this effort to reduce the phosphorous in Owasco Lake. I also headed to Auburn again for water sampling. This week one of the tile drainage sampling points did not have any flow, so it seems to be less wet at this point in the season.
Thursday all the interns working with the Pro-Dairy and nutrient management Spear programs joined for a field trip to three different dairy farms. We saw a farm with a robotic milking system that had its own processing facility. We saw a larger farm that sells milk through a coop, and an organic farm that grazes their cows. Through seeing a variety of operations we were able to compare and contrast the different systems in place and the challenges involved in running each farm.