I began the week with Janice going on two different farm visits. We visited a vegetable farm in their second year of production that wanted advice on fertilizer application, soil pH, and slug management. We walked around the farm and looked at potential nutrient deficiencies in the plants and then explained the different fertilizer options that can be added and how lime is used to increase the soil pH. After this visit we drove to another farm that had some issues with soybean germination and damage. We walked the fields and posed possible explanations from planting issues to pest problems.
Throughout the week Janice and I spent any available time at a test plot focused on the impacts of seedcorn maggot on corn and soybeans. For the corn there were six two row beds planted that each have six different treatments. The treatments were fungicide, spinosad, neonic, diamide, and two controls one with bone marrow and one without. In the soybean beds there were only five treatments, since fungicide was not included. For each corn row we counted the number of plants that germinated and then dug up the unhealthy looking plants to check the seeds for seedcorn maggot damage. We also dug up the areas where no plants had sprouted to check for damaged seeds and we looked for maggot pupae throughout the soil. In the soybean rows we also counted all the plants that had germinated and then we counted the number of plants with maggot damage on the leaves.
On Tuesday I spent the day on campus with Kirsten working on the National Manure Expo which is happening in New York in Mid July. I attended two different planning meetings in the morning and learned about all the moving parts that go into planning this event. The rest of the day I spent time creating volunteer schedules and making sheets for all the different events during the expo that specify the number of credits attendees from Pennsylvania can receive in specific categories.
Wednesday and Thursday Janice and I gave presentation at an education event for fifth graders on a dairy farm. On Tuesday I observed and helped someone from the Soil and Water Conservation Commission give presentations on the farm’s manure pit and listened to some of the other presentations. On Wednesday I presented about the manure pit and manure management on the farm to 9 different groups of around 20 fifth graders. The kids got to pet the calves at the station before, so manure was a hard following act but after learning a little about it they had a lot of questions.
I also attended a pasture walk with Janice Wednesday evening at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Incubator Farm in Candor, NY. I created a grass identification sheet and listened to Janice’s presentation on all the considerations for pasture management. After the presentation we went outside and learned about how to estimate the amount of dry mass in your pasture and relate that to your rational grazing plan based on the feed needs of your animals and the amount of land you have. It was a beautiful evening and I gained more knowledge on types of grasses and how they all differ.
On Friday I went to Auburn again and worked with Frank. We first went to the vegetable plot we planted last week to check on it and water. We drove to the south part of the county to check multiple different moth traps which indicate if farmers should be worried about cutworm. We then went to the three different tile drainage sampling locations and took another round of samples.