Oops & Cringes #6 - Field Work

Oops and Cringes are some the silly things I've done over the last twenty years, which I attribute to my city upbringing making me unprepared for country life - but it could be just that I'm a klutz!

Field Work

I'd been at Wagga Wagga for almost a year, and working mostly in the laboratory, but they let me out occasionally to help with field work. So we went out this day to resurrect an old field trial. This is a measured out area in a paddock where an experiment was conducted. The area contained many same-sized plots, where different things had been done to each plot, to see if it changed the resultant plant growth.

Out experiments could be carried out in a lab, the glasshouse or in the field. Results weren't 'believable' to farmers unless they'd been proven to happen under the same conditions they had to work in (ie the field).

This field trial was an old one, but we hoped to get some new results from it, to look at effects over time, and maybe even lay a new experiment on top of the old one.

We knew the dimensions of the trial, which paddock it was in, and roughly where it was. What we needed to do was try to find the buried corner markers. The trial had been looking at rates of lime, which changes the soil pH. So by doing some quick in-field pH tests, we thought we could fairly quickly find the site.

The paddock belonged to a farmer about fifteen minutes’ drive from work. It was under pasture with a small mob of cattle grazing. So we went out in the morning and spent a few hours without a lot of success, so we decided to go back to work for lunch (because we were going to be so quick we hadn't brought it) and more supplies.

When we were getting ready to leave, I packed up all my jars, the pH meter and solution, and was loading it into the vehicle. I said to G, "Aren't you packing up your stuff?" He had posts, a mallet, and a couple of long tape measures. The tapes were out across the ground where we thought the site was. The rest was in a pile.

G looks at me with smug disdain and a laugh. "What are you expecting, a bloody stampede? Bloody city slicker." Properly chastised, I got in the vehicle, feeling like a dill that I'd packed up all my stuff.

We came back ninety minutes later with new supplies. The cattle were right where we were working. I didn't say a word, just got out, gathered my goodies and set to work again. G went out to do his measuring and all hell broke loose. There was swearing, hand waving, cattle scampering everywhere. And there's G walking along picking up about thirty pieces of tape measure! No stampede, but the cattle sure had gotten a taste for plastic tape measure!

I was right so rarely that I didn't gloat - much!