Scouting with Co-Alliance

Hello all! My name is Emily Tricker and I am currently a sophomore here at Purdue double majoring in Agronomy and Agricultural education. I am from Ladoga, IN, and this past summer I had the opportunity to intern with Co-Alliance as a field scout, working primarily out of their Advance, IN branch. During this internship, I was able to utilize some of the skills that I learned my freshman year in the classroom, such as identifying insects, weeds, and diseases. I also had the opportunity to learn many other new skills such as how to calculate stand counts and tissue sample. My daily activities consisted primarily of walking through corn and bean fields, documenting the condition of the field as I went, taking note of anything that may be of concern to the farmer. With the late planting this spring, I strove to do my best to help farmers maximize their yield in this difficult season by identifying problems early. I am very grateful for this opportunity and all of the in-field experience that I gained by working as a field scout this summer.