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| Post emergence trial plots at the turf farm. |
This week was a little more all over the place for me. During our weekly discussion, we talked about regenerative agriculture and the importance of environmental conditions in agriculture. Some environmental factors are out of our control (weather), but there are many techniques to help heal and protect soil, the birthplace of all agriculture. Our guest speaker this week was Steve Darcy, from the PG soil conservation district. His presentation about the importance of soil health helped reinforce some of the things Mark told me about. Mark is a big advocate for soil health, and it was great to hear about efforts being taken to protect soils in PG County and across the country.
After the weekly discussion, I headed down to the turf farm to help rate plots. Kelly, James (Kelly’s other intern), and I didn’t find changes in the preemergence herbicide plot, so we decided to check it on Friday to confirm the end of the experiment. We also rated the post-emergence application trials for clover coverage, clover injury, dandelion injury, and plantain injury. Lastly, James and I adjusted a sprayer for our walking speeds in the event we would help spray the plots. After working at the turf farm, Kelly and I returned to the office and I worked on my final presentation and did a little more work on the literature review Mark asked me to do.
Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit more laid back. Most of the time was spent in the office doing work on the literature review and final presentation. Some interesting things did happen though. On Tuesday, I visited a farmer who wanted to run a plant sample to confirm the safe usability of the Sorghum Sudan grass pasture. Mark and I also went to return the results from the pumpkin test we did previously, but turned back due to road maintenance. On Wednesday, Mark and I went to a meeting hosted by Lithos, a relatively new company pitching the use of basalt as a liming agent. The company itself planned to pay farmers by the acre to test the applicability of their basalt product and sell collected carbon credits to Microsoft. The research they had done in the midwest indicated that the basalt was capable of sequestering carbon while sustaining good soil health. This tied in nicely with our weekly discussion about the importance of regenerative practices.
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| Microscopic nematodes at the commodity classic |
Thursday was spent at the Maryland Commodity Classic with the other interns. It was nice to catch up with the others and chat while we watched the poster about our internship. It was also a good opportunity to pick up some goodies and learn a bit more about some of the organizations in Maryland. One particular table that stood out to me was from a Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware about using parasitic nematodes to control slugs. It amazed me to look beyond the limit of the human eye to see the microscopic nematodes in action. It truly spoke to the beauty of life and its process which have been honed over centuries and millennia of evolution. The commodity classic ended with a crab feast dinner, which served as my first experience picking a crab. The meat is good, but it's not worth the effort in my opinion.
Friday was a shorter day at the turf farm where Kelly, James, and I helped spray some post-emergence treatments and rate the post-emergence plots. We also did a brief scan of the pre-emergence plots and found almost no change, indicating the end of that experiment.
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