2022 SUMMER INTERNS: Cole Consbruck

Hey everyone, my name is Cole Consbruck.  I am an Agronomy intern at the Grand Island location, working with my mentor, Jon Simonson.  This fall, I will be heading into my junior year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, majoring in Agronomy with a minor in the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship program.  At UNL, I am a member of Alpha Gamma Sigma Fraternity and involved in the Nebraska shotgun sports team, the Husker bass fishing team, and the Nebraska chapter of Ducks Unlimited.  

I grew up on my family’s farm west of Giltner, Nebraska, where we raise yellow and white corn, soybeans, and winter wheat on occasion.  During the winter months, we also take in around 300-350 head of cattle from a couple of different ranchers across Nebraska to run on our cornstalks.  My family has been involved with Aurora Cooperative for many years, so I have grown up around the Aurora “A”.  I had an idea of what to expect when going into this internship because my older brother, Bryce, is a sales agronomist for Aurora Coop at the Doniphan and Wood River locations.

It is crazy to think that I have already been here for 6 full weeks when it feels like I started just the other day.  So far, my internship has been a great experience and I have learned several new things.  I started off the summer at orientation and then got thrown right into the agronomist role.  On the first day at my location, my mentor and I went out to check fields and I learned how to treat beans.  After around two weeks of learning the basics at my location and throughout my territory, I was sent out on solo missions to deliver liquid trailers, jugs of chemical, seeds, and just about anything else our growers could need. 

 I was also sent out on my own to scout fields to check to see if there were weeds present, and if so, what kind of weeds they were.  Other tasks I do while scouting are staging crops and performing a stand count to find out the actual population, compared to the target population the grower planted.  The other tasks I have been given have been a mixture of teamwork and learning with my mentor and getting sent out by myself to experience what it is really like to be an agronomist.  

I’m enjoying my location because it allows me to cover parts of territory and ground that I am familiar with and grew up around. It also allows me to travel to new parts that I have hardly explored and am unfamiliar with.  I have had the opportunity to meet and connect with multiple farmers who use different methods and techniques than what I am used to. But, on the same note, I have also met multiple farmers to whom I can relate with similar methods and techniques as my family farm.  I have thoroughly enjoyed and learned so much from this internship so far and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me.

Cole Consbruck