"No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change" – President Obama
Sunday the 25th of August I could finally say I had completed my thesis and there was no going back. What a year it has been, returning to college, meeting great people and getting the chance to travel. There is too many people to mention in my acknowledgements but off the top of my head I would like to thank Professor Charles Spillane, Dr Peter McKeown, Dr Gina Pighetti and Collin McCorkel both from University of Tennessee.
Now I must find a job !!!
Warm season forages can provide favourable forage yields and have similar mineral/nutritional value as cool season forages. The inclusion of warm season forages into pasture can be beneficial as it can extend the grazing season without sacrificing pastures. From the data available it is fair to say while warm season forages didn’t greatly increase Ca, Mg, P and K levels, it did however remain within the same level as cool season forages. This maybe be due to the fact temperature was becoming milder and rainfall was increasing, warm season crops didn’t improve mineral content as one may have expected. Fluctuations in minerals were statistical significant difference mixture and mixture*month which could be due to environmental conditions, season, maturity or forage specie. The pastures tested had almost adequate levels of minerals for grazing ruminants.
Words and photos cannot describe how much of a culture shock but yet an unbelievable experience it was for me to attend the local Cotton Eyed Joe. Every Sunday locals from all ages would attend this line dancing event to get fit or have a good time.
Well as you can tell from the photos I was delighted to meet this ‘friendly’ and ‘harmful’ pet..
The weekend of July 27th to the 31st I got the chance to hop on a plane and travel to the big apple, New York. This was a welcome break for me as I was going to visit friends from home who are living in New York and also a few friends who travelled down from Canada. It was an experience I will never forget and a massive change from Knoxville. I got to experience the busy life in New York, also taking a day trip to Long Beach.
In the past number of days there has been changes made to my original thesis which was out of my control, however the goal is the same. Now I solely focus on the one farm in Tennessee. In the last number of days all the 2017 and 2018 data needed to be re-run through a cyclone mill to grind forages to the correct size. Once completed, samples were then tested for mineral composition using a FOSS NIRSDS2500. Currently I am in the process of completing 2019 data.
Since arriving in Knoxville the hurling club have really welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home. The weekend of July the 20th the team travelled to Nashville to compete in the Music City Invitational Championship. After playing a number of games in 85+ F temperatures, Knoxville won their first major title. This experience gave me great opportunities to meet people, travel and play the game I most enjoy.
