Solomon C. Hutchins

Montgomery office picture taken by me / Solomon Hutchins 

Last week 6/11/2024 I visited the Montgomery office. My drive there was new and interesting and I was able to see a few crops and animals as well as wild turkey. One of my mentors, Mark Townsend, talked about how seeing turkeys in areas is a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem. 
I actually also found information from the Nobel Research Institute on how (Josh Gaskamp) a researcher said how all ground nesting birds for example turkeys, quail, pheasants and others symbolizes healthy grasslands.

After arriving I was introduced to Kelly Nichols who showed me around the office and the crop field as well as the animals and how the research building and farm is also used to introduce kids to animals and farm equipment, small garden and the corn field.

I learned how to identify certain pests and animal chewing on corn fields and the differences in chewing such as deer and how the chewing was more jagged and uneven and how slugs can be known to scrape or chew the plant creating irregular holes.

These leaves were chewed by a slug having large chewings in a line across the leaf.

Leaves chewed by deer note the sharper 

edges.

I was able to learn to infinity the damage done and by what so i can help a farmer make the correct percussions and decision in protecting their crop and farm. This could allow me or others to set up slug traps for certain areas for root causes, or find predominantly grazed areas by deer potentially determining ways to solve the problem.