Rose Vs. Single Combs

Nankins are one of a small number of breeds that have two varieties that can be kept and bred together, but shown in seperate classes. Leghorns and Rhode Island Red bantams are the most common of this group. This can lead to some confusion in judging in poultry shows because the after the best of

Agronomic Effects on Weed Seed Bank in Organic Farming Systems

For this post, I chose to read and analyze the paper Cover Crops and Compost Prevent Weed Seed Bank Buildup in Herbicide-Free Wheat-Potato Rotations Under Conservation Tillage by Jan H. Schmidt, Stephan Junge, and Maria R. Finckh published in Ecology and Evolution. This study was conducted to observe changes to the weed seed bank over

Wheat Basics

I suppose to start, we should go back to the beginning, over 10,000 years ago in the Near/Middle East/Fertile Crescent region. There was once three closely related species of grass growing on a hillside. Each of these grasses were diploid (2 copies of each chromosome) and had seven chromosomes. By random chance pollen from one

About Me

Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to stop by and listen to my ramblings. I started this blog after listening to a speaker last week. One of the things he encouraged us as graduate students to do is start a blog, where once a week we read a scientific journal article and then write

Boulia, Australia

One of the classes I took when I was studying in Australia was called “Plant Survival in a World of Flood, Fire, and Drought.” Being a class with that title in northern Australia, I thought the weeklong fieldtrip was to the rainforest and was a large reason I chose to take the class. Imagine my

Fall 2019 Nankin Photos & How I Got Started Showing Chickens

While my family has always had a small backyard flock for fresh eggs, I started showing exhibition poultry when I was in the sixth grade. I got started showing through 4-H. One year when I was filling out the entry form, I saw poultry under the livestock category. I checked the box, figuring I could