During the first week of my internship, I performed various tasks around the farm and office. I spent time with Georgia, the Inventory and Data Collection Manager, labelling individual varieties of grass that the breeders wanted to keep. This can be seen in the picture to the left and bottom right.
After we labelled the desired plants, members of the crew moved them from these nurseries into "circles," which are comprised of the desired varieties that they want to let cross-pollinate to create new varieties. We then mapped and labelled these circles.
The picture on the left showcases a nursery field of varieties being trialed. In the middle of the picture, you can see plants that have been rogued, because they did not meet the standards of the breeders.
I also spent time doing some painting and cleaning of the various places on the farm to prepare for a client visit and Field Day.
On the left is a picture of one of the seed storage warehouses that I was given a tour of.
I spent several hours at the main office learning all about international shipping and logistics of the seed business, and spent some time filing pest & disease tests, which can be seen on the right.
On the left is a picture of one of the coolest things I learned this week. I was taught how to traffic a field. I used this traffic machine to simulate 3 hours of game play on the Perennial Ryegrass plots in the picture. This is a 3-year-old stand of turf and is simulating a Parks and Recreation level playing field. The traffic machine is run in a serpentine pattern and used to test how the turf stands up to use.
