Students gain hands-on agriculture experience through internships with farming cooperative

Five Northwest Missouri State University agriculture students traded classroom lectures for fieldwork, agronomy training and crop protection decisions this summer through internships with Agriland FS.

Charles Rudolf, Easton Nelson, Leah Sandin, Tucker Carroll and Cooper Berry were among 22 interns from nine colleges in Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois who participated in the program.

Agriland FS – a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative that offers products and services to support farming, energy and agricultural operations – provides students with experiences that include an eight-to-12-week paid internship, a two-day mid-summer conference and networking with Agriland FS employees and management.

Agriland FS locations also offer varied operational focuses, giving each student an experience molded to their interests and major.

Carroll, a senior agricultural sciences major from Guthrie Center, Iowa, completed his internship in Burlington Junction, Missouri, where he explored the feed side of the industry in addition to agronomy and crop scouting.

“I wanted to be able to get out of the classroom and actually experience what it’s like working in agriculture,” Carroll said. “With Agriland, I was able to work hands-on with crop scouting, help look at problems in fields, and see how we can help customers make the best decisions for their operations.”

Day-to-day responsibilities at Agriland FS changed often, and Carroll split his time between fieldwork and the feed mill.

“I was responsible for bagging feed at the feed mill so it could be shipped to customers,” Carroll said. “I also helped deliver feed to customers so they could keep their livestock operations running. Even though my responsibilities changed from day to day, I liked that because it gave me the opportunity to learn about different areas of agriculture instead of doing the same thing every day.”

Berry, a senior agriculture business major from Maysville, Missouri, completed his internship in Albany, Missouri, where he focused on how field insights inform herbicide decisions for customers. His primary responsibilities in the field often connected directly to his coursework at Northwest.

“All of the learning opportunities within Agriland really built upon my coursework and were more of a hands-on learning experience,” Berry said. “It allowed me to use some of the things I learned in the classroom and expand on them in an actual field setting.”

Beyond his day-to-day fieldwork, Berry also took part in a “day in the life” feature during a group trip to Omaha, Nebraska. He worked alongside Agriland FS’s marketing team, gaining a new perspective on how the company markets itself and its ideas to the public.

“I felt like I went farther because I said yes to things like doing the day in the life,” Berry said. “It was something that I had never done before and I was a little nervous about, but I had a lot of fun doing it, and it allowed me to connect with more of the other interns as well as the marketing team.”

Sandin, a senior animal science major from Stanton, Iowa, connected with Agriland FS at Northwest’s Career Day, hosted by Career Services. She spoke with an Agriland FS feed salesman and applied for the internship with hopes of gaining knowledge for her future career.

“One skill I really focused on getting better at was my communication skills,” Sandin said. “During this internship we talked to many different customers. Some were wanting to buy feed while others wanted to buy seed, so learning how to talk to each customer was impactful.”

Sandin’s project, “Seed to Feed,” gave her a close look at how a product moves from the field to the feed bunk.

“The part I found most interesting in the supply chain was the feed mill,” Sandin said. “Every feed gets quality tested before it is mixed. These mixes include so many different minerals and vitamins depending on each herd and animal, so seeing each feed get mixed was very eye-opening on how many different combinations of feed we can make to improve our animals’ performance and overall health.”

At the completion of the summer internship, each participant created a capstone-style presentation that encapsulated their experience. They presented to Agriland FS employees and management.

Northwest Career Services Coordinator Kristin Little traveled to the Agriland FS Corporate Headquarters in Winterset, Iowa, to attend the students’ presentations.

“In order to get the internship and get the job, there’s got to be some effort on the student’s side,” Little said. “That’s what you see with these go-getters. They are the ones that are landing these great internships.”

Connect with Career Services at Northwest

Career Services hosts a variety of networking and professional development events each fall, including Career Day, Mock Interview Days and Meet the Pros panels, giving students the chance to connect with employers, practice interview skills and explore career paths within their majors.

Learn more about Career Services by visiting www.nwmissouri.edu/career/.