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Research Project

Principles of Grassland Management
HCS 612
 

A. Project Description

Each person will work on a project of their choice. Project options include:

a) research and review a method used in grassland measurement (e.g. NIR, rising plate meter, tiller measurement, photosynthesis chamber, forage quality, spatial analysis, precision agriculture)

b) research and review the function and operation of any item of forage software (e.g. DAFOSYM, GRASSIM, OSU fertilizer recommendations, Kansas Grazer, Graze-4, PA silage tool etc). This might involve a summary of the software operations and features, or using the software to test a selections of scenarios.

c) develop a plan that incorporates forages into a farming system that you are familiar with. This should include the selection of forage species, forage management, livestock and their management, and financial consideration of the contribution of forages to farm profitability.



B. Project Objectives

The objectives of the project are:

a) to ensure the course covers a topic of specific interest to yourself.

b) to learn research skills

c) to have opportunity to assess and critique two other projects.

d) to present information on a detailed topic to the class.

e) to practice report/writing skills.

 

C. Project Procedures

Select your project during the first 1-2 weeks of class. Please discuss your project with the instructor to ensure it is neither too large or too small in scope
Prepare a 5 minute presentation on the general theme and scope of your project, to be given during the 3rd week.
You will be assigned 2 presentations to critique. Each critique will comprise one typed page and copies should be submitted to the appropriate student, and course instructor, 1 week after the presentations. Critiques will be graded 5% each (10% in total). Each critique will have:
a) approx one half page summary of the topic,
b) 2-4 sentences identifying the strongest aspect of the research project
c) 2 suggestions for improvement of the research project
At the end of the quarter each student will give a 15 minute presentation of their research project. The aim will be to be as informative as possible - giving the objective of the project, methods used, results and conclusions. Presentations will be worth 15% of the final grade.
Written reports will be due 5:00 pm on 3 December. The report should be approximately 3,000 words. As for presentations, reports should give the objective of the project, methods used, results, conclusions and any literature cited. Reports will be worth 25% of the final grade.

D. Grassland and Forage Software (ideas and sources)

  1. DAFOSYM
  2. A list of various sources of forage software (Oregon)

    3. 3a. ten animal-forage related programs
  3. NRC nutrient requirements of dairy cattle (CD with book)
  4. USDA online data-bases

    5. 5a. crop germplasm (including forages)
    5b. Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model
    5c. U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center Software
  5. List of Agronomic software for purchase
  6. Ohio software (includes Ohio Soil Test program and Sheep Management Calendar Program)
  7. NRCS pasture growth tool <Graze4.xls>
  8. Kansas Grazer
  9. Grasim
  10. GRAZE (Univ. of Florida)
  11. Understanding and Trouble Shooting Silage Preservation (Penn State)

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