Week 4 blog
Finished picking up Several limbs and brush that I had trimmed from the previous week and dumped all the trimmings into a huge pile close to a pond which is where we plan on burning it when the pond dries out. Looked into a few designs and started to budget for the Landscape around the Sign at the Entrance. With a lower budget to stay under I had to be careful what I bought and spend the least amount as possible. I decided on Limestone Retaining wall to go around the entrance sign, I thought the limestone contrasted very well with the sign. I flagged out measured out the border of the area I would be implementing the retaining wall to get an exact amount of Limestone blocks I would need. The Blocks are 12 in x 4 in and would be double layered. I then Purchased the Limestone retaining wall blocks from Lowes, 76 blocks and 4 bags of 40 pound topsoil which were about leaving me a good amount to purchase plants, soaker hose, attachment hose, mulch, and solar powered lights that I would incorporate into the landscape sed a tiller to mix up compost within a 6 in layer surrounding the sign, leveled out the area with excess topsoil that was purchased. Used a Landscape rake to remove larger rocks and leveled out the area to begin placing the Retaining wall. Made another trip to Lowes to pick up a 25-foot soaker hose, 25-foot attachment hose, and 4 solar lights. Also made a trip out to Landmark Nursery to scout out some plants that I had in mind, all in which will not grow tall enough to cover up any of the letters to the Entrance sign. Returned to Headquarters, used excess Landscape fabric and pins from the previous landscape to lay over the leveled soil around the entrance sign. Placed the plants in the positions I wanted them to go and cut holes in the Fabric in place of the pots. I then used a hand tiller to dig holes for each of the plants that would be implemented. Once every plant was in the soil, I attached the 25-foot hose to a nearby waterspout and attached the soaker hose to it. I cut the soaker hose in half and used a T- fitting to allow the stream to run along both sides of the Sign landscape winding around each of the plants and put end caps on each side of the soaker hose and pinned it down with landscape stakes. After installing the irrigation system, it was time for the mulch and solar lights and the landscape would be complete. I ended up way under my budget. Throughout the week I worked alongside my boss to help fill in holes where the new fence is going to be put in close to the entrance of the Farm. Packed the soil in while adding peat gravel to ensure stability of the Posts. Also Learned how to service the Massive Tractor Shredder and attach it to the Front-End Loader. This consisted of greasing several pivot points and scraping off clunks of grass stuck to the sides of the blades. Attaching the Shredder was a lot simpler than I thought, there was a hitch that needed to be lined up and attached, the PTO shaft and 2 large wires for controlling the mechanics to the shredder. Was Trained on the Zero Turn Mower where I got to mow around the intern house and several spots around the main headquarters. It took me about 10 minutes to get the hang of it but once I felt comfortable using the controls it was quite simple. There is a nob for lifting and lowering the blades. The forward and backwards petal are connected and there are two sets of brakes on the mower along with a throttle to accelerate and turn the PTO shaft to spin the blades.
Week 5 Blog
Worked alongside Cody to clean up the main headquarters (weeded, mow and put up tools) to get ready for field day. Cleaned out water jugs and tables that would be set up for the following day. Field Day takes place on June 18 every year on Stiles Farm and takes up pretty much the whole day with several sponsors, show tractors for viewing, vendors and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agents giving presentations on the latest farm technologies, soil health, and strategies on improving long-term soil structure, crop production and much more. This event brings in people from all over the state upwards of 200 people within the Agricultural field. Conducted other duties such as checking on the field plots to see how far along the corn, milo sesame and cotton were along with checking to see how the cattle were doing and if their conditions were still good. Helped set up several tables, tints, chairs and water jugs at stations around the Farm that the Bus would be touring for field day. Throughout field day I was able to ride along a tour bus around the farm while listening to several extension specialist from A &M who had various degrees in soil & crop, Agronomy, weed control and land management. I was able to gain knowledge from these specialist about new farm technologies that had to do with increase yield, plot work, integrated pest management developments, fertilizer placement, strip tilling, cover crops as well as pH and compaction issues that take place in the “Blacklands”. Each of these topics I found very interesting and knowledgeable to improving the production of several row crops and increasing profitability within the farming industry. There were also vendors that gave demonstrations on their products being released to the market. For example, “Stay-Tuff” was a company that gave a demonstration by building a wire Fence along the Farm Headquarters. The Fence that was demonstrated was a Fixed Knot designed for livestock control. Not only was this type of fence easier to install than barbed wire but it was also stronger containing a heavy-duty galvanization with up to 40 % less post when compared to barbed wire. I was able to see the process of attaching the wire to post and tightening the fence after each post was attached. Later in the day there was a catered lunch provided by the sponsors of the farm as well as door prizes and scholarship awards offered to recently graduated students in the Agricultural field. After that was the tear down of the event which took a few hours. Field day was a tremendous experience and I was excited to be a part of setting up the event. I also received several complements on the landscapes that I had implemented around the farm with people asking me if I did landscape work outside of the internship. Later in the week, Cody and I got to accompany my boss in what is known as the “Big Commodity Planning Meeting” in Waco, Tx. Within the meeting we convened into separate Commodity Groups that included Beef, cotton, Horticulture, Forage, Family Nutrition, Rural Land Management, Wildlife and Grain. Each group was to come up with sponsors to reach out to that had to do with their specific field and a list of topics to bring in large crowds of people to be informed on specific topics. I joined in with the Horticulture group that consisted of an Extension Agent and three master Gardeners. I listened to the ideas of future events and sponsors that they planned on reaching out to for presentations on new Landscape technologies, turf management, and a few other ideas that had to do with Horticulture. Together they came up time slots that each speaker would present, the topic they would discuss if they should include any demonstrations of some sort. At the end of the meeting each group was called on to collaborate ideas amongst everyone and give a report of the discussions. At the end of the meeting there was a provided lunch courtesy of “BIG” and closing comments and ideas were presented. The Lead chair was very glad to see that there were young people such as Cody and I that were interested in the Agricultural field. I was able to gain hands on experience with driving the planter tractor, getting used to the controls and attaching different planters that were in the way of equipment that needed to be returned. Also Gained hands on experience with a Forklift, moved around a few trailers that were hard to get to with the tractors repositioned them so that they were no longer in the way. Accompanied one of the Farm Employees (Bobby) as we manually filled up the fertilizer tank at Nutrien Soluions, the process was very similar to using a gas pump although the hose was very powerful and needed to be held down when operating.
Parker Benavides Summer Farm Intern
