Here at my first week at the stiles farm has been an instructive learning experience. During the past few days I’ve been getting to know the layout of the farm, and slowly learning the names and locations of the different pastures. On Wednesday Ryan began teaching me how to drive stick on the truck, and safety protocol for the herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers that we use here on the farm. Mostly Ryan and I have been working on the sprayer, spraying cotton and observing him, and seeing how to maintain and safely operate farm equipment.

This week I also learned how to attach a trailer to the farm pickup, and the extra precautions that have to be taken when using equipment. We had a cow get out on Thursday and we were able to get it back with it’s herd. All week we’ve been checking the cows body condition, making sure their water sources are supplying enough to the herds, and supplementing hay due to the drought. Lastly this week Ryan thought me how to use the ranger, checking for the proper fluids and maintenance of the radiator. This week has been a great, hard working week, but a positive start overall to my internship here at the Stiles Farm.

-Georgina Macias Fall 2018 Intern

Stiles blog 8-31-18

 

This week at the Stiles Farm, I continued to help farm intern Taylor Burrell spray mesquite. In addition to an aerial spray that will be conducted on the property, we are hand-spraying certain areas where the mesquite trees aren’t as dense. Removal of this invasive species will hopefully create the opportunity for more grass and forb growth and diversity in these areas. This week I also checked on a game camera that I’ve had running in an old hay barn on the south end of the property. It captured some great photos of one of the two barn owls that we suspect may be currently roosting in the barn.

 

This week at the Stiles Farm is my last week. I am so very thankful that I had gotten the opportunity to work here for the summer. I have learned many helpful skills, such as driving the stick shift or driving the tractor, that I will likely use in my future in agriculture.

We continued to spray mesquites, as we have a time frame for being able to complete this task before the mesquites starting dying because of a lack of water and heat. AnMarie and I worked on the back forty acres that are included in the wildlife area.  Then throughout the rest of the week I worked on Herzer and Sanchez while she continued in the back forty.

 

We also have two new calves this week, one at headquarters and one in the northwestern pasture!

 

Peanut #6 born 8/16/18

Peanut #5      8/12/18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of our older calves at headquarters. I had picked her up to move her out of the sun and into the shade, as we were worried that she was getting too hot.

Peanut #4 born week 8, July 16th                                    Taylor Burrell Summer Intern

Southwest Farm Press Stiles Farm Internship Article

Wilco Brush Forage Management Workshop

This week at the Stiles Farm, Jimmy and I continued to spray the mesquites in the pastures. We have finished both first pasture and the front part of the Herzer, and we are still working on Sanchez.

 

We started moving hay from all the hay fields to the Northwestern hay lot, the southside hay lot, and to headquarters. I am finally getting comfortable enough to be loading the hay onto the trailer without Jimmy sitting in the seat beside me.

Farm Intern – Taylor Burrell

Steven began his education through an internship at Boggy Creek Farm in 2008, the oldest urban organic farm
in the country. Training under Larry Butler and Carol Ann Sayle, Steven went on to become the Central Texas
Director for Texas Organic Farming and Gardening Association and to start Genesis Gardens, a farming and
gardening program at the Austin-based non-profit, Mobile Loaves & Fishes. During his six years running
Genesis Gardens, Steven led thousands of volunteers and a core team of homeless and formerly homeless
farmers to develop a 4-acre organic farm and animal husbandry program at the Community First! Village in
East Austin.
Steven sits on the steering committee for the Sustainable Agriculture program at the Elgin campus of the Austin
Community College. He was part of the successful effort lobbying on behalf of the Cottage Food Bill with
Judith McGeary of the Food and Ranch Freedom Alliance. He received his Permaculture Design Certificate
with Geoff Lawton in 2014 and has been a practitioner of permaculture principles in his approach ever since.
He is a teacher and farmer, passionate about the unique power of food to bring communities together.

Mesquite Spraying

This week on the stiles farm, we started to spray the mesquite brush that were small or not being used a shade trees for cows. AnMarie started in the back 40 acres of the farm that will be used as a wildlife area, while Jimmy and I started in Sanchez, first pasture, and the herzer, where a large part of the area has mesquite. We are spraying the mesquites because the native grasses and plants we want growing won’t have to compete with them for water and space.

Taylor Burrell-Farm Intern

Monday evening on the Stiles Farm, I helped AnMarie set out dove traps. We waited for about an hour before we went and checked them, but sadly, we didn’t have any luck trapping anything.

Tuesday afternoon, Ryan and I went to check on the bull that we separated from the herd. When we went to fill up his water tub, we noticed an opossum had fallen in and couldn’t get out. Ryan, who’s much braver than I, reached in and grabbed the opossum out of the water to ensure he didn’t drown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday morning, Ryan, Jimmy, and I moved some of the heifers from the headquarters’ herd into the northwestern pasture. We moved them because they needed to be introduced to a bull, while the one’s we left at headquarters either had a calf or they were close to parturition.    Taylor Burrell

This week at the Stiles Farm, I continued working on my vegetation surveys. The area that I am currently surveying was part of a prairie grass replanting effort over a decade ago and contains many native prairie grasses such as eastern gamagrass, indiangrass, and sideoats grama. The restoration of the native grassland habitat in this area likely contributed to the northern bobwhite sighting I had last week at one of my survey points. Due to a variety of factors including habitat loss, northern bobwhites have been absent from this area for years. This week I cleared an area adjacent to the survey point where I heard the bobwhite calling and set up a bait station with a game camera. From the data collected by the camera, we hope to get a better idea of the population density of northern bobwhites in this area.

AnMarie Ulery