SUMMER INTERNS: Korbin Moore

This summer I am doing an agronomy internship with Aurora Cooperative. I am currently working out of the Minden location, but I started my internship at the Bertrand location. While I was in Bertrand, I scouted fields which included checking for emergence, doing stand counts, and checking for weeds. I also helped load trucks and mix chemicals in the blend room.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been at the Minden location. I have been helping out with tissue samples, looking for insects and diseases, and also checking fields for weed pressure. My experience these last couple of weeks has been educational. It has been interesting to learn how to handle all of the different things that can have a negative impact on yield.

I would have to say my favorite part about this internship is getting to interact with farmers. We are spending so much time in their fields figuring out solutions for them, it’s great to be able to communicate with them because I always learn something new about their operation.

This year has had a huge learning curve because of the weather and the significant impact it has had on this year’s crop. I got the opportunity to be in two different locations this summer, and I feel like I have seen it all. I have seen flooded out portions of the field where crops were unable to come up, to fields that were so flooded the farmers were unable to even plant. Unfortunately we also were in fields where the corn leaves were so stripped from a hail storm there was not much left. This weather is teaching all of us a thing or two this summer.

I look forward to continuing my learning experience for the rest of the summer, and everything I have yet to experience at Aurora Cooperative.