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 th
e 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!