Field Notes

Bouldin Alfalfa: 2021-01-17 15:45:00 (DOY 17)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Mike

Summary: Regular data collection/cleaning, unseasonably warm day, sheep back around our tower, PL Arables not level, camera tilted up--fixed, adjusted phenocam clock +2 min, removed NFD chambers

2021-01-17
Bouldin Alfalfa

Mike and I arrived at 15:45 PST. It was a sunny and unseasonably warm day with clear skies, hazy horizons, and almost no breeze. Itâ€™s been mostly dry these past 2 weeks, and weâ€™re expecting a wind event over the next 2 days. The electric fence was up at the usual place we drive down into our field. We were about to park our car on the road and walk to the tower when the shepherd came by and instructed us to drive to the tower because he was afraid the guard dog would bite us. He slid the 3 wires of the fencing down and weighed it down with a wooden plank to let us drive through the fence.

The sheep are back around the tower and there is an overgrazed donut around the fencing protecting the tower. The tower and instruments seemed fine. The two PL Arables posts were not level at all. I tried to level the Arables themselves by adjusting the PVC elbow but I couldnâ€™t reach the bottom of the orange post to level the whole post. One Arable antenna was missing its plastic casing. They need more attention next time to be properly leveled.

Looking at our phenocam photos, we can see the closer PL Arable post. From the photos, the sheep found the PL Arables post right away when they were let back in the field on 1/12. It took them about a day to knock it down. The shepherd put the post back on 1/17 and surrounded it with a roll of fencing.
https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/browse/bouldinalfalfa/2021/01/

The reservoir was mostly full; I topped it off. I downloaded and cleared the FD chamber. I cleaned the flux and rad sensors. I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. The met data didnâ€™t have any obvious gaps like last time, so disconnecting and reconnecting the mux blocks was probably helpful. The camera was tilted upâ€”fixed. I checked the phenocam clock; when it was 15:52, I set it to 15:54. The eddy clock looked ok.

I removed the NFD chambers to send back to eosense at their request (FM20200000, FM20200001, FM20200002, and FM20200003). FM20200001 and FM20200002 were laying on their side when I got there.

LI-7500 readings:
CO2 445ppm
H2O 491ppm
T 22.5C
P 101.6kPa
SS 98--> 99 after cleaning
LI7700 readings:
CH4 2.7 ppm
RSSI 45-->72 after cleaning

We left at 16:30 PST and slid the electric fencing cables back up to their regular positions.

Next Mowing: 2021-01-22

3 photos found

bouldinalfalfa_2021_01_18_141505.jpg ( 2021-01-18 14:16:46 ) Full size: 1296x960
Sheep on the field

bouldinalfalfa_2021_01_17_094505.jpg ( 2021-01-17 09:47:32 ) Full size: 1296x960
Sheep grazing greener part of the field while the guard dog's white coat stands out against brown, grazed area

bouldinalfalfa_2021_01_17_091505.jpg ( 2021-01-17 09:17:32 ) Full size: 1296x960
Sheep on field, stark color contrast between grazed and ungrazed areas