This week was very busy with a presentation and a few trips.
To begin this week, myself and another intern, Joe, had our presentation on the Evaluation of Field-Level Nitrogen Balances in Corn Silage Production Across New York. Our presentation was well received and encouraged several questions/ideas for further work.
Later in the week we had our last filming session on-farm for the Chobani sponsored dairy sustainability project. Also, during this tour we got to see the upgrades the farm is making to their digestor. This was great as we had the director of farms and sustainability, Roberta Osborne, from Chobani with us. As Roberta is normally not in NY, this was my first time meeting with her in person and we were able to discuss the project and future plans.
For the end of the week, we had our big trip to Northern NY to visit with several people. We began our trip to Canton, NY to visit with Kitty O’Neil who is a Field Crop Specialist with the Canton CCE office. While visiting with Kitty, we were able to hear about projects she is working on and get a tour of their CCE establishment.
After stopping in Canton, we made our way to Peru, NY to visit and have dinner with Mike and Eric of Champlain Valley Agronomics. This was a great time to understand the work that they do as well as give them an update on the work that we’ve been doing. Interactions with consultant groups as a new experience for the summer as we have mainly been visiting with farmers. Mike and Eric were also willing to discuss further work they are thinking of pursuing that may align with the work that is being done with the NMSP team. It is very beneficial to have relationships like this to make progress on work being done.
After dinner, the team was lodged at the Miner Institute for the night and then given a tour of the campus the next morning. I have always wanted to visit Miner but never have had the chance, I was glad to have the opportunity this summer. After our tour we visited some field work that is in progress and then listened to a presentation that is both relevant to NMSP and Miner on biologicals and the potential they have. After this, we started our journey back to Cornell!
I am glad the team took the time to make this trip, it is both beneficial and educational to us interns and the entire team!