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

   

The Williamson County AgriLife Extension Office will be hosting a Seed Cotton Program coming up next Friday, August the 3^rd  at the Taylor Public Library. The program will start at noon with registration before hand at 11:30 am. We are asking that everyone call the Extension Office to pre-register for meal purposes. Dr. Joe Outlaw, one of the best in the business, will be here speaking on the topic, as well as an update from Craig Engelmann the County FSA Director. Please view the program flyer for more information.

 

 

 

This week on the Stiles Farm, I kept a close eye on the newest calf born at headquarters. She was always alone when I would find her and I hadn’t seen her suckle on her mom. Thursday evening, I went out to check on her and she was up walking, playing with the other calves, and suckling!

The main herd in the southside was moved to Rainy so they would hopefully clean up the grasses. They have been working pretty heavily on the part of the field closest to the water source during the heat of the day, but in the late evenings and early mornings been moving closer to the main gates.

  Thursday morning, Ryan, Jimmy and I separated the cows in the northwestern herd and the four corners herd into who was staying and who was being sold. Ryan and I took them to Cameron to drop them off at the Milam County Livestock Auction for sale on Friday afternoon.

 Friday morning, with the help of Dr. Tomecek and Shiner, we tried to move one of the bulls from the southside herd into the working pens. While we didn’t get him where we wanted him, he was still moved out of the herd, which was part of our goal. We used the single cab farm truck to slowly, but surely, move the last bull off of our main hay field and back with the herd.

 

This week at the Stiles Farm, we began dove trapping and banding at the locations that we prepared last week. I started the week off by building dove traps using 1-by-2-inch welded wire and hog rings. Then, I spent some time going through the photos on the game cameras to see what time of day that the doves are most active at our feed stations. After concluding that the doves are most active at the feed stations during the early morning and evening, we set out to begin trapping.

 

On our second night of trapping, we caught this young mourning dove. We were able to determine this bird to be a young-of-the-year by the presence buffy-tipped covert feathers. We also recorded which primary feather had most recently molted to determine a more precise age since hatching. After recording all of this data, and equipping each dove we catch with a leg band, we will submit this data to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to use in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help in mourning dove management nationwide.

This week at the Stiles Farm started out with a much-needed rainy day. Moist conditions, like the ones we experienced earlier this week, are perfect for finding amphibians! Animal Science intern Taylor Burrell and I found this Gulf Coast toad and Western narrow-mouthed toad under a board in the horse pen.

Throughout the rest of the week I spent time monitoring dove stations via game camera and baiting them with milo in order to prepare for our upcoming dove trapping and banding efforts. In addition to seeing several doves on our dove station cameras, we also captured some black-tailed jackrabbits and eastern cottontails taking advantage of the germinating milo.

 

This week on the Stiles Farm, I helped AnMarie, the wildlife intern, put up a game camera in the southside hay barn. We put one in there so that she may get some footage of the barn owls that live in it. After putting the camera up, we explored the barn further and found owl pellets that contained various animal skulls, such as birds and rats. We also discovered a raccoon and an opossum skull among the pellets.

 

 

Tuesday, Ryan and I scouted the Bitner cotton and the East Bitner and Fletcher sesame fields. I learned that cotton has white blooms that turn pink when they are pollenated. Once they are pollenated, the flower falls off and the cotton boll forms from where the flower was. The sesame plant has a capsule that it keeps its seeds in, and in my opinion looks like a very small jalapeño.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, Jimmy and I moved six bales from the southside hay area to the headquarters, as we were out of hay for the heifers. I gained more confidence using the manual transmission long bed Dodge by using it to move hay. 

As a part of my duties, I checked the cows every morning, including Monday morning when it started to rain!

 

This week, Jimmy and I checked each herd every morning to look for new calves and to make sure they were where they were supposed to be. We had to move the southside herd into a new section because they had grazed down the forage that was available. While we moved the herd, I checked to make sure that their body conditions were improving. Along with the southside herd, we moved and refilled the molasses tank and mineral tubs to help supplement their forage diet. When checking on the headquarters herd, we found two new calves!!

Taylor Burrell-Intern

Last week, I got up early to check all the herds while it was cooler. I had to check the main herd’s molasses and mineral bins and how much pasture, and the northwest and headquarters herd for hay and their molasses-mineral tubs. While checking the northwest herd, I caught the neighbor’s bull using his vomeronasal organ (underneath the upper lip of most mammals) to sense the pheromones in our cows across the fence.

 

This week at the Stiles Farm, I learned how to set up vegetation transects and sample vegetation by using a Daubenmire frame. We conduct these surveys to determine the composition, quality, and diversity of plants on Stiles Farm, especially in areas where we are managing for native plants. After building the 1m² frame and choosing my survey points, I conducted my first vegetation survey. It took a while, but I learned several new plant species along the way! I also learned how to bait and deploy minnow traps in order to sample fish populations in our various ponds. We found largemouth bass, green sunfish, and even this white river crayfish! At the end of the week, we went spotlight searching for wildlife at dusk and came across various wildlife, including this young Virginia Opossum.

Last Friday, we worked the main herd with the help of cowboys and Dr. John Tomecek. We ear tagged and vaccinated the calves, and the cows got their booster vaccines.

 Monday, Jimmy and I bought molasses and bagged minerals for the main herd, and tubs of molasses-mineral mix for the other three pastures. As soon as we put the tub down here at headquarters, the heifers were all over it!

 Tuesday, I learned how to load and unload hay with the hay tractor and trailer. With the help of Jimmy, we moved six bales from the hay field right inside of Thrall to the headquarters hay barn

Every morning, as a part of my duties, I check each herd and fence line to make sure they are where they are meant to be. Last week, in the southside herd, we had a new calf, Peanut, the headquarters herd gained Milkshake, and the northwestern herd gained Domino!    Written by Intern Taylor Burrell