Week 1 and 2
Taking on this internship at Stiles Farm is one of the best decisions I have made towards making connections and gaining experience in my field of study. The first week I was given a tour of the 2,716 acres owned by The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension where I became familiar with the land, the crops and livestock that roamed across each section. I was given hands on experience with tractor controls, GPS systems and learned how to service planter tractors along with how to take apart seed tubs and replace specific parts to hold different seed. Throughout the week I conducted many duties including checking on cattle, herding cattle, feeding chickens, replaced an air filter an in a 4-wheeler, repaired barbed wire fences, assisted in irrigation damage and helped guild tractor planters out to designated fields. I was introduced to Top Guard Fungicide where my boss mixed into water tanks to the tractor and applied to Phyto Gen Cotton Seed while Planting. The Fertilizers I was also introduced to for corn, wheat and milo fields consisted of 11-37-0, 11% Nitrate, 37% P205 and 0% K20. On my downtime I was able to do research on certain projects that would benefit me in my own field of study which is Horticulture/ Business and landscape Design. I was given the opportunity to design my own landscape in front of the main office building. I researched climate zones for thrall to come up with a list of plants that would do well in this specific environment and drew out sketches for the office landscape By the End of the first week I had come up with a budget, design and list of plants that I would implement into the landscape and proposed it to my Boss to gain approval.
When week two came around I knew it was time to get to work on my landscape project, I made finalized decisions as to what plants I was going to implement and where as well as exact measurements to determine the amount of trimming, topsoil, compost, plants and irrigation systems that I would be implementing. I started out by flagging out the area in which the landscape would cover. With the help of a few workers on Stiles farm I was able to learn about herbicides to kill weeds in the area the office landscape would be in which they mixed and sprayed for me. My next step was to purchase material that would be in the landscape bed including topsoil, compost, soaker hoses, Landscape Fabric and trimming. Luckily there was a large compost pile already on the farm. Once purchased I knew that the soil needed to be tilled and so luckily that was provided as well. Once tilled I added compost and then tilled over the soil again to mix up the nutrients. I then added on the Landscape fabric to prevent any weeds from seeking through. With the Help of another intern on the Farm (Cody) we made several trips to Landmark Nursery where we picked out the specific plants that I had planned to implement. We purchased plants as well as mulch for the finishing touch. All week we worked on this project to beautify the main office. We laid out the plants where we knew they would go, cut holes in the fabric and dug holes to insert the plants. After all the plants had been inserted into the ground, we applied the soaker hose looping around each plant to provide an even distribution of water and used landscape pins to keep them in place. We then Surrounded the flagged area with metal landscape trimming just outside of the fabric line. After all the soil, fabric, soaker hoses, metal pins and trimming were applied; it was time to add mulch for the finishing touch. Throughout the week there were also several other duties including checking up on the cattle, feeding chickens and picking up liquid molasses to feed to cattle as a primary source of protein. I was even given the opportunity to operate the Front loader Tractor to haul compost. Overall these past two weeks have been a blast and I cannot wait to learn more.
Parker Frampton Benavides Horticulture Intern