It's About Time for School Again

Summer is about over and school will be starting again, but summer has been productive and fun so no complaints here. I'll be finishing up my internship this week so I'll have a week off before heading back to West Lafayette.

This week we're still spraying a few small plots that were late plantings or delayed for some other reason, but the majority of the intensive work is done. We finished digging, cleaning and rating corn roots about two weeks ago, and that always makes for a dirty job, so I was glad to see that done! Throughout the summer I've also harvested some wheat for yield trials looking at different fertilizer formulations and also got to go to Nebraska for four days and look at irrigated corn fields. That project was looking at linking moisture sensors, center-pivot control panels, drought tolerant corn varieties and incorporating the chemical applications through the irrigation pivots. It has quite a few variables and made for an interesting learning experience. These and many other projects made for a good variety of experiences.

This summer was a good one and I'm looking forward to another year at Purdue!

Joey Heneghan
Agronomy Ambassador
Junior, Crop & Soil Science

A Summer Filled with Test Plots!

Hello everybody! Like Daniel this is my first blog post too and I'll be giving a few details about my internship.

This summer I am working at a small contract research company called ABG Ag Services in Sheridan, IN. The majority of their work is facilitating research projects for large ag research companies like Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, Monsanto, BASF, Mosaic etc. They are hired to administer a project and collect data on a specific area of interest. What it basically boils down to for me is experiencing a huge variety of projects that I will lend a hand in this summer.

So far the major emphasis has been obviously in getting all the trials planted but there has also been a fair amount of spraying pre-plant and pre-emergent herbicides. We have almost all of the trials in that require a "normal" planting time, and we have even planted some sorghum and cotton here in Indiana to do some work with them! My responsibilities so far have included working ground before planting, planting with the cone planter, spraying by hand boom and with a tractor mounted sprayer, spreading fertilizer and these past few dry days I have started in on plot maintenance (keeping the alleys between trials clean of weeds etc.).

It has definitely been busy and there have been a few days where we went by the old saying "make hay while the sun shines," so needless to say there have been some long days. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer when I get to see some of the results and data from these projects and I hope to learn quite a bit.

Joey Heneghan
Agronomy Ambassador
Junior, Crop & Soil Science

A Summer of Work, Work and Some Fun

I have to admit that this is officially the first time I have ever blogged for anything but I thought I would share a few thoughts with how the first few weeks of my internship have gone for this summer.

I am interning this summer for AgReliant Genetics at their research station in Lebanon, Indiana. I am working specifically with the trait conversion group which focuses on breeding desired traits into the hybrids developed by other groups. So far I have had an opportunity to learn about the planting process for yield trials and breeding nurseries and I have actually had a chance to assist in the planting process. Thankfully we have finally planted the large majority of the various plots but there is still a little to go.

One thing that I have quickly learned is that if you are going into the research field, you need to have patience and be ok with repeating one task over and over again. In order to accurately prepare seed to be planted, everything has to be counted by hand and we are talking about thousands of different seed types.

But even though I have been working hard and counting tons of seed, I have still had a blast getting to know the different staff and other interns, including one intern from France, who struggles with English. It's been fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer working in Lebanon.

Daniel Bechman

Sophomore-Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics

Summer 2011 Internship

This summer I am interning at L&L Environmental in Southern California. It is a small family owned firm that deals with Biology, Archeology, and Paleontology. I am learning a lot about mitigation and surveying sites. I am also meeting lots of people from the Army Corps of Engineers and local state agencies. The main projects I have been involved with are a project with endangered Desert Tortoise on it and a project with endangered Burrowing Owl on it. Through these projects I am learning how to identify these animal's habitats and common plants for this region. I am also learning about the paper work that is involved with these cases. It's very interesting to see how some of the things that I learned from my environmental policy class can be in the real world. That's all I have for now.

Wow, another semester has gone by already. I can’t believe that I will be graduating in May. My time here at Purdue has flown by, but it has been full of great experiences that I will not forget. This semester I was very busy balancing my classes and work with the extracurricular activities I’m involved with. As president of the agronomy club I spent a lot of time arranging activities for a successful semester which included a trip to Long Beach, California for the ASA (American Society of Agronomy) Meetings. Our club participated in contests such as poster, speech, essay, and quiz bowl, and we got to meet fellow students from universities across the U.S. This semester I also participated in a soils judging contest at Northern Illinois University where our team placed first and qualified to attend the national contest next spring in Oregon. I am very much looking forward to this trip as we will see soil in a very different landscape from Indiana. I’m very excited about the classes and activities I will have next semester, but I know it will go by very fast. I will miss Purdue a lot, but I will be happy to graduate.

Cody

Another Great Semester Complete

Hey everyone!

Yet another great semester here at Purdue has come and gone. It's hard to accept that yet another semester is over and that I'm one step closer to graduation.

Like always, I kept myself busy with 16 Credit hours and 3 different clubs. I love the challenges available to everyone here at Purdue; especially the College of Ag. The CoA is always willing to provide its students with different opportunities to prepare them for the world and enrich their college experience. I'd like to think that I've taken as many of these opportunities as I can, but I'm always looking and hope to find a-few new facets of the CoA this next semester.

Though I'm a-bit sad I must say goodbye to the Fall of 2010, I'm extremely excited for the Spring of 2011. I hope everyone has a great break and that I'll finally be able to give a tour in the Spring!

Happy Holidays!
Ian Champ
NRES Ambassador

Finally, it's December!

Hey Everyone!

This semester has been extremely stressful. Not only am I finishing up 16 credit hours, but 15 hours at my internship, and 20-30 hours at work, it's crazy! But overall, this semester has been extremely fun. I did my internship at the Columbian Park Zoo here in Lafayette. I got to work with a ton of really cool animals and people! I learned how to handle alligators, snakes, armadillos, llamas, torts, and several more. It was a great learning experience. My classes were pretty interesting this semester too, especially environmental soil chemistry. I definitely learned a lot in that class. Really looking forward to next semester, even though it's my last semester here at Purdue. :(

Hope everyone has a great winter break!! Stay safe!

-Megan