Monday, April 30, 2007

3rd Tuesday Happenings: ?????

HOLIDAY!!!!!
LABOR DAY!!!!
Posted by: Guanzon

3rd Monday Happenings: Not Again!!!!

1. First, Again, we counted...
We went to the fields led by our supervisor, sir acs. All of us in raw anticipation of what lay in store for us that day. In the fields, he gestured to some panicles wrapped in plastic, telling us to cut and collect them. that done, we headed back to the main building and there our fate was revealed...
apparently, sir, needed SOME spikelets counted... again separating the filled spikelets from the unfilled ones...T_T
2. Last, Counting...
This time, we randomly chose 5 panicles each...and counted the spikelets... I swear their running out of activities....^^
Posted by: Guanzon

Friday, April 27, 2007

2nd Thursday and Friday Happenings: 0__o ;^^

There were no thursday and friday happenings!!!
(free days)
Posted by: Dellomes

Plantin rice iz nevah fun..harvestin rice is!^^

These however, were most unfortunate...


The flash dryer... it's mobile!!! O_o o_O

forget gprs.... try gps!!!

The moisture meter!!! yaaaaay!!!!

Light Trap.... Death Trap.. 0_o...

Threshers!!!!!

The wagon!!!!

We're Counting!!!!!(spikelets)

We're Dancing!!!


We were foot threshing.... hehe... 0_o

The whole warehouse.....




Dancing??? course not... lecturing....


"Moet"....

The whole Lecture....

The whole class.....

Do the chicken dance!!!!


Do the chicken dance!!! Chicken!!! Chicken!!!

Lecture?! Not again!!


*Mr. X gives a free class to farmers..










*name changed to protect privacy



Michael????!


Black Michael Jackson with Blue Towel Hair... Limited Edition!!! Offer Valid while supplies(1) last...

Jam...


Jamming....0_o

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

2nd Wednesday Happenings: Nonstop Counting part II

1. First, The "Sir Harold" Visitation
Sir came to wait with us for the PhilRice service. At PhilRice, he talked a bit with "Sir Dario" about our welfare. This all happened while we were counting insects.
2. Counting Insects
We.... counted..... insects....
3. Last, AESA (Agroecosystem Analysis)
We went by partner and chose a 1 square meter quadrant... and analyzed it. 5 hills , different crop damage percents, varying number of insects, 1 quadrant. Which hill is the healthiest??
Posted by: Dellomes

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Info...

hill- group of panicles
panicle- holds the spikelets
spikelets- rice protected by a hull
hull- protection of the rice
grain moisture meter- used to measure grain moisture
thresh- to get the spikelets from the panicles
cropcut- harvesting off crop within 3 5 square meter quadrants in a diagonal form considering the border effect. The harvested crop spikelets are then used for data in research matters
border effect- the tendency for crops within 1 meter of the border of the paddy to be more cared for than those nearer to the center; therefore, any data derived fom these crops near the border is considered biased
GPS (Global Positioning System)- system consisting of 24 satellites, each set with a specific and highly precise orbit, receivers, and a central control station that is located in the U.S.. GPS gives location in terms of longitude and latitude, exact time, graphical imagery, and some other data concerning locations. Developed by the U.S. D.o.D.(Department of Defense), it was soon released to civilian use but with considerable errors in the data.
Posted by: PhilRice Boys!!

2nd Tuesday Happenings: Non-stop Counting

1. First, Not again!!! 1,000,000,000,ooo,oo1, 1,000,000,000,ooo,oo2....
The non-stop counting of spikelets. First, we harvested 5 panicles for each plot. Then we again threshed and counted it. Was it boring or was it not?
2. Last, The Setup of the Great Light Trap
First of all, a light trapis a trap that will trap insects. The insects trapped will be counted by their own kind and the countings will be the researchers data. Light traps are little house-like structures that has light in the center. The insects will then be led to a "balde" that has detergent powder, water and alcohol. Though it may catch as many insects, the data it may give is a bit non-significant because in every square meter, there are different kinds of insect that may go there. The setup was only to mix the ingredients of the liquid that will be put in the "balde". It was easy.
Posted by: Dellomes

2nd Monday Happenings: GPS, GIS... GPRS?!

1. First, Staff Meeting
We... sat there and looked efficient.
2. Encoding Last Friday's data
Again, not much except that we had an eventful time rediscovering Microsoft Excel's many functions.
3. Last, Learning The GPRS.. I mean, The GPS
We were treated to a Powerpoint Presentation with regards to GPS (Global Positioning System). We were taught about the many practicalities of GPS. We were also shown the GPS receiver, a cellular phone-like affair that serves as a receiver for GPS satellite radiowaves. We were introduced to a computer program where GPS data is uploaded.
Posted by: Dellomes

Friday, April 20, 2007

Friday Happenings: 500,001, 500,002, 500,003.....

1. First, The 500's
What I mean is, we were still counting on that day, but know, it was not by sacks, it was smaller but there was 20. We would count 500 filled and 100 unfilled approximately.
2. The typer
We were told by our supervisor to type our report in his computer to make it more neat. We typed it for about 30 minutes.
3. Last, The Games
After the typing our supervisor told us that we can already go home because we had nothing to do more. But we didn't go home because we can't. The only vehicles that's going out from PHILRICE is the service and the ones thats going in. There were no public vehicles passing there and besides it was already 3:30 pm. All we had to do is to play sports. "Noynoy" and "Casten" played badminton while "Doi", "Marc", and the supervisor played table tennis. Until it was 5:00 pm, we all went home and had a good night rest for a week of ssip.
Posted by: Manuel

Thursday Happenings: The 500,000

1. First, 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5 ,6.......
The art of counting. Do you know how to do that? No? Me too. Remember last tuesday that we had a crop-cut. The harvested hills were put in 1 sack per plot. We threshed the hills in every sack and put the spikelets into three other sacks. The best part is, we were made to count how many are the filled spikelets and the unfilled spikelets for every sack. For every sack, we counted approximately 150,000 filled and 10,000 unfilled. It was so tiring. We were made to do it the whole day.
2. Last, The Moisture Meter
This one is the most easy one. We should get about 3 samples of 1/4 a teaspoon filled spikelets for every sack. All we need to do is crush the spikelets in the turning thing and measure its moisture content.
Posted by: Manuel

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Wednesday Happening: Brgy. Ma-ao, Bago City? Where is that?

1. First, The Trip
The trip. Yes, It was a long trip driving from city to city. From Murcia, to Bacolod, to Bago, and back to Murcia. It was fun going from Murcia to Bacolod and from Bago to Murcia. But, it was a very boring trip from Bacolod to Bago. To let you know what boringness you may get, we slept the whole trip to Bago because it was very tiring having fun in Bacolod.
2. The Seminar
Yes, the seminar were we almost didn't listen to. It was also boring for some of us listening to a person that is talking about a thing you don't like the most. They talked all about agriculture and discussed how palay would be greater. Also, they talked about what deficiencies are and what sickness can it cause their rice. This seminar was also included in the PalayCheck Project.
3. Leaf Color Chart Reading??
It was an activity for the farmers which would indicate how deficient their palay plants are in Nitrogen. We were made to join but when we arrived at the farm where it should be done, it was already 12:00 pm and the palay plants are on their flowering stage. The reading couldn't be done because it should be done 8-10 am and before the flowering stage of the plant.
4. Last, The Typewritten Report
As you know, last Tuesday, we were made to make comments, suggestions, observations during the field day. Our supervisor told us to use his computer and type our report about the field day. We typed it and we finished at exactly 5:00 pm.
Posted by: Manuel

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Tuesday Happenings: Cropcut? Whats that?

1. First, The Field Day
When we arrived at PHILRICE we were told that we will go to Brgy. Salvacion, Murcia City, Negros Occidental and attend the PalayCheck Project. This is a project that would teach people what managements they should do in planting rice. An example is Pest Management. The project held a field day at the said place. Their were about 20 farmers that attended and about 15 professionals that had backgrounds in agriculture. It was funt their because all the speakers had jokes.
2. The Interview
After the meeting we were told to interview 1 farmer, of course attended the field day, for each of the 4 of us. They were kind and polite farmers though.
3. Cropcutting!!
This field work was done in one of the model farms in Brgy. Salvacion. Because this was a surprise work, we didn't bring our gears thinking that we will direct home after the interview. But we were wrong, we were so wrong. We left our boots in the office so we had nothing to wear. We were just bare foot in that activity. What we will do is harvest 3 2mx2.5m plots in the model farm, and count the the total number of hills and the total number of missing hills. It was hard but it was fun. Having an experience like that would be very unforgettable. Walking in mud that would drown was so challenging.
4. The Processing
After that tiring field work we were made to process the data at PHILRICE. The only thing to do is to divide the total number of missing yields over the total number of yields for each plot. It was the most refreshing work we had.
5. Last, Bahay-Kubo??
The place I mean bahay-kubo is the Palayamanan house which was one of the projects of "Mr. Sam". The project was to teach farmers to how to plant other plants other than rice. This project would also help some farmers to know how they would get a good harvest. The house was also inspired by the song "Bahay-Kubo" because it almost had all the plants from the song.

Posted by: Manuel

Monday: PHILRICE-Negros.... More than just a building

Monday Happenings (In order):
1. First, The Expectations Activity
This activity was so funny because the thing to do is to write on a wyteboard what we expect with the employees and our supervisor would also write his expectations with us. The thing is, we didn't take it seriously. We just wrote what comes into our mind when we looked to our supervisor.
2. The Rocky Road Tour
This more funnier than the first activity. We were toured in the whole of PHILRICE-Negros and it wasn't just buildings, it was a more or less than 8-hectare farm. The funny side is the road. The road was very,very, rocky that we thought it would cause the car's door to break. We did a round trip from corner to corner of the whole farm. It was great but a bit boring. Casten was too sleepy but he tried not to follow his temptations. But still, his head was still wobbling.
3. Last, The Pana-ad Field Trip
The Pana-ad trip was not fun but boring. We went to booths of cities and towns and asked them one by one what their major products are. We also tried to comment on their booth so when we went in the Silay Booth, we were so refreshed because it was airconditionized because that time was so hot.
Posted by: Manuel

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Motto:

"SAVE RICE,
SAVE LIVES!!!"