After a 4 Month Hiatus, I'm Back!

I was looking, and I believe the last blog I posted was in April.  After finals week, I went home and jumped into a work schedule where I simply didn't make the time to write.  If you follow my Life of a Future Farmer Facebook Page  

As some of you know, I took an internship this summer as a seed sales and agronomy intern with a co-op in Southern Indiana.  As a college student, and one who only ever worked on a family farm, I saw this experience as beneficial and necessary.  That sounds odd, "beneficial and necessary."  I say this because I've only ever had one boss prior to this experience, and I will honestly say he's probably been the best employer a person could ask for. 

Working for a company or corporation like the co-op places you in a total different environment.  My branch had an operations manager, salesmen, applicators, truck drivers, and many seasonal employees.  Being part of such a diverse operation is unique.  Not only did I spend days on end hauling soybean and corn seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, I also spent a significant amount of time pulling soil and tissue samples, repairing equipment, assisting with field days, and putting countless field signs in the ground.  I  had never had many of these experiences, and I got the opportunity to make some realizations about what I do (and what I don't) want to do with the rest of my life.  My boss always says, "It's better to spend a summer learning you don't like doing something, than hating your career because you made the wrong choice as a young person with no field experience."

Other than being an intern, I got to do many other exciting things this summer.  One of which was be on a National Title Winning Agriculture Economics Quiz Bowl team.  As a student at Purdue, I took AGEC 498A, which last year happened to be Ag Econ Quiz Bowl.  We met once a week spring semester, and every other Sunday during the summer, went over ten different categories of economics questions, and prepared for national competition.  In mid-July, we attended the Applied and Agricultural Economics Association (I think that's right) annual conference in Minneapolis, MN.  This is largely a convention for professors, graduate students, and the like.  There were teams from across the nation that came to compete as undergraduates in this competition from schools including Mizzou, Iowa State, Manitoba, and the like.  You could say we had very fair competition.  In the end, My team of three won the contest, bringing home a large trophy and another bragging point to Purdue University!

This is a short synopsis of my summer - Hope yours was great as well!

As always, please submit questions and comments - I am always happy to discuss. 

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