For the final week of the internship, we had a couple nice events to wrap things up, including a field day in Aurora, NY and the poster presentation session. For the field day, the whole team went to the Musgrave Research Farm, where many people from departments including Animal Science and Soil and Crop Sciences gathered to present and learn about new work being done to improve agronomic productivity, resilience, and sustainability. It was great to see my previous professors there and learn about the current work they are doing.
A project I found really interesting was one looking into the viability of agrivoltaics, which could alleviate the competition for land between agriculture and solar production. This project involves people with backgrounds in weeds, soils, economics, social science, and more. This kind of collaboration is what makes a solution feasible and reliable. Multiple members of NMSP also presented on their work with nutrient cycling and soil health through manure applications. There were more presentations on topics like data collection and management, weed suppression, and cover cropping, and all of them made the future of agriculture seem more promising.
On Friday, we began the morning with some amazing presentations from a few representatives of NMSP sponsors, including the USDA NRCS, NY Agriculture and Markets, and NY Farm Viability. I really appreciated the perspectives they provided on making decisions in your career path. It surprised me how drastically one can change their career no matter their background. I also strongly agreed with one point made on the importance of working with other people to turn scientific findings into actionable business plans. That is the best to truly make an impact with science.
After the presentations, the other NMSP interns and I presented our summer work at an expo-style presentation session in Morrison Hall. I spoke to project sponsors and members of the Cornell community about the Cornell Cooperative Extension projects I worked on, including the Sorghum Forage Trials, the Value of Manure project, the compaction project, and the Net Zero Initiative. I received some good questions and feedback, and we got some great pictures as well, so it was an excellent session overall. Afterwards, we went to the Dairy Bar to get ice cream to celebrate. Later that evening, we had another gathering for everyone on the team where we cooked food, played music, chatted, and roasted marshmallows. It was certainly a good way to end the summer program.
All in all, I learned a lot about research and the dairy industry through this summer internship. Beyond this, I made some incredible connections and friends. I look forward to seeing everyone around when the semester starts, as well as carrying the knowledge and experience I gained from them wherever my academic and professional career takes me in the future.