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.
Farm Intern- Taylor Burrell Week 4
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
Wild Life – Intern AnMarie Ulery
This week at the Stiles Farm, I continued to practice using a circular saw by making cover boards for our upcoming reptile/amphibian surveys. I continued baiting dove banding stations in preparation of our trapping season. I also continued the plant and vertebrate animal inventory of the property, where I enjoyed practicing my animal and plant identification skills. I checked and maintained our remote camera grid. At the end of the week, I assisted in working the farm’s main cattle herd and learned how to administer vaccines and put in ear tags.
AnMarie Ulery Wild Life Intern
Wild Life Blog post AnMarie Ulery
Weekly blog post:
This week at the Stiles Farm, I began setting up meso-mammal scent and camera stations around the property. I learned how to drive a t-post as well as set up a scent station and then traveled around the property looking for wildlife travel corridors and tracks to determine where to place my stations. This week we also began the process of fermenting corn for hog bait. For our corn container, we used an old barrel and had to make a lid out of plywood and lumber. During this process, I learned how to use a circular saw and power drill. This week I was also able to get more comfortable being in close proximity with cattle by assisting animal science intern Taylor Burrell and farm manager Ryan Collett with sorting cows in the working pens.
Let’s get a Mooove on it! Farm Intern – Taylor Burrell Week 3
Monday, we fixed a gap in the fence line where a wash out occurred. We patched the gap so that we could move the main herd into this pasture for grazing, without having to worry about cows getting on the neighbor’s property.
Monday afternoon we tried to move the main herd to a new pasture from the hay field by coaxing them with some cottonseed. While most of the main herd was disinterested, the cows and heifers in the northwest pasture were more than happy to follow the hay seed into the corral so we could sort them out on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, I moved the northwest pasture herd into the working pens to sort them. We moved the pregnant heifers to the headquarters pens to keep an eye on them and moved the others to new grazing.
Wednesday morning, we tried to move the main herd once again, and this time it was successful! Thanks to the help of Dr. John Tomecek, his horse, Shiner, and a little bit of cottonseed, we got most of the main herd to move towards the pasture we want them in.
By: Taylor Burrell
Wildlife Intern -AnMarie Ulery
Week 1:
During my first week as an intern at the Stiles Farm, I accompanied Dr. Tomecek and his graduate students to the San Antonio Viejo Ranch near Hebbronville, Texas. The goal of the trip was to conduct feral hog control and to see how the remains are used by wildlife, with an emphasis on coyote observation. Along with learning about feral hog management and coyote population dynamics, I also learned how to drive a Polaris, use an ax, build a fire, and how to mount a game camera using wire.
Upon returning to the farm, I spent the rest of the week exploring and getting to know the property as well as becoming familiar with driving a manual transmission. During my exploration of the farm, I observed a large diversity of wildlife including this common nighthawk and great horned owl. We also scouted a field of native, annual sunflower in order to determine future management needs in preparation of dove season 2018.
Farm Intern -Taylor Burrell Week 2
This week at the Stiles Farm, I learned how to drive one of the tractors to be able to feed the cows hay. On Wednesday, I helped put up a temporary gate, connected to the electric fence, to make sure the main herd would stay out of the hay field while grazing in the pasture we opened up for them. Thursday morning, I checked on the fence and made sure the cows were where they were supposed to be.
I was also able to learn how to load and unload the seeds from the planter, as well as change the plates for different seeds, from cotton to canola (same plate for both sesame and canola). And while planting the sesame, we had a small number of egrets following the planter to catch the bugs that would fly up.
We also started getting the farm ready for field day on the 19th of this month!
Writer: Taylor Burrell, Intern
Farm Intern -Taylor Burrell Week 1
Yesterday was my first day of the internship at the Stiles Farm. We were able to spend some time in the field with Dr. Tony Provin, soil scientist at Texas A&M, and we dug corn roots to evaluate compaction. The different tillage methods utilized on the farm affected the level of compaction in the soil. Therefore, where the field was deep chiseled, there was less compaction this year, as opposed to where it was no-tilled and had tractor traffic.
I also spent some time learning how to drive our spray rig and scouting cotton for fleahopper damage.
Writer: Taylor Burrell, Intern