(Whoops, this accidentally got saved as a draft instead of posted, so apologies for the super-late post!).
Welcome back to my internship adventures!
My fourth week with Saratoga CCE was the week of June 28th – July 2nd. I’m going to be honest, it was a relatively calm and boring week in the office. I continued working on the Horse Farm Improvement Program (HFIP). I came up with a mostly completed rough draft of the pre-farm questionnaire for my supervisor to look over. I was asked to write a formal press release rough draft for the program. To do this, I was provided with some of Saratoga county’s previous press releases.
I had a desk-cleaning palooza with my office-mate the one day. I did some rearranging, and now there’s practically no clutter on the desk! I also brought in one of my African Violet plants from home to make the space feel a little more alive.
Part of my office-mate’s job is to answer horse and livestock-related agriculture questions that the office receives. Being in the same room means I get to listen-in to some of them, which has been unexpectedly informational. I learned all about hay temperatures and how hay can spontaneously combust due to heat production from microbes should the hay not have proper ventilation to keep moisture content down. It’s beneficial to hear about the potential problems farms in the county have such as that, as some of them can be integrated into my project if they’re something that it’s worthwhile for HFIP to assess on farms.
There will be a lot of internship adventures next week, as there are plans to accompany my office-mate to a meeting she’s having to answer questions for a lady who’s planning on opening a new equine boarding and training facility in the county, as well as plans for me to shadow a farrier so that I can get out there and see some backyard horse farms to get a more complete perspective of the different types of horse farms out there. Stay tuned…