The Research Project Continues...

This summer started off busy and the work just seems to be piling up. I am now balancing my research project, summer classes, riding lessons, and work among other things life throws at me. Our research is going rather smoothly. We were able to weigh two month's worth of samples this past week thanks to our brand new super-awesome-grass-weighing-machine, or just calling it a scale works. I went out to the farm on Tuesday of this week to take my second round of pictures and I am currently finishing up with last month's batch. I guess it would help to show what I am actually doing. So here goes: 

See this picture? Yes...this is my project. My baby. We have a love hate relationship. What I am currently doing is identifying what the little red arrows touch. I'm making note of whether the forage is a grass, legume, weed, or woody species. I am also taking note of bare spots and manure. The point of this part of our research is to identify the most predominate forages in our pastures. With this information and the data we receive back on our samples, we can calculate how long our cows can graze on a certain pasture before moving them to the next. Exciting, huh? I'm a super nerd, so I enjoy it...but take 285 slides - 16 pasture identification slides x 25 arrows = 6,725 little boxes and a lot of Tylenol. MULTIPLIED by the number of times we will be performing this...which is about 5? I think? Lots and lots of data and lots and lots of information to present at the Undergraduate Research forum in the fall. 

Oh research project, I love you...but you are rather tedious.