Andrea Campos

 🖤Andrea’s Adventures🖤

Start Date: June 10-14th 2024

This week we were able to continue to collaborate with Dr. Amanda Gr

ev at the WMREC (Western Maryland Research and Education Center) with my fellow interns Solomon and Raven! We helped out in weighing calves and weighing sheep. We all had to work together to herd the sheep's and cows to the middle station where we did the weight checks. Some of the sheep gave us a hard time- especially one in particular, her name is MJ and she can jump very high and can jump past the turnstiles. My mentor Mark is usually tasked with getting her back into the shoot to be weighed. We were told the animals that have a name were usually given one because they give the staff a hard time or are just special and unique haha! Sadly the cows do not have names- but I wish we could name them. 

I also was able to learn how to use a Green Seeker machine in a corn crop setting. I met up with one of the extension workers at a farm in Damascus, MD to do some crop scouting and analysis using the Green Seeker. I learned how to use this technology and how it's used in the field and I linked below how I was able to carry it on my back and analyze the nitrogen levels of the different rows of corn. I will admit the machine is pretty heavy, but it was really cool to see how this piece of technology can help reduce the amount of time checking each individual plant. It can help backing up the data that is collected by satellite to make sure the level of nitrogen is adequate for the rate in which the plant is growing. I also got to learn about how the GIS program helps map out farmers' land and input the data collected by the satellite and the Green Seeker. 

In this internship I have been able to learn a lot more about sectors of agriculture that I was not too familiar with. I have grown to love Agronomy and have gained an appreciation for Weed plant Identification and soil sciences. I still have been able to incorporate my passion for IPM and entomology, as I began to cultivate an Insect pinning workshop at the Montgomery county office. So as I start preparing for this event, I have to make sure that I effectively communicate with the 4-H coordinators. I cannot wait for the event to come to fruition! 

Some of the cows from the WMREC Facility! Weighing calves is always fun, but definitely a group effort with my two fellow Interns Solomon and Raven!

Here is a photo of me in the field with the green machine detecting nitrogen levels!

Here's the sheep we had to weigh, sometimes the sheep listened to us- while other times they tried to run in the opposite direction