Welcome to Washington!

There are many things a college student can do during the summer months to occupy their time and even make a bit of money. Usually we try and go for the whole money making venture...got to pay tuition somehow, right??

This summer I decided to take a paid internship with AgriNorthwest, one of the farms owned by the LDS church. After my semester finished up I drove on up to Kennewick, Washington to start my summer adventure! 9 hours in the car driving and I was still able to make it here in time to attend my new branch that afternoon! Go me! I even made it without any car problems! Go little Nissan!

May 6th was the first day of my internship!
Managed to get lost twice already but am slowly figuring my way out. By the end of the summer I'll be able to navigate my way around like a champ!

Grain storing pads at the Grain Driers. Each pad holds up to 1.2 billion bushels

I showed up to the Agronomy Lab to meet my supervisor. Martin explained to me what I would be doing and showed me around the lab. Essentially I'll be taking the samples that are gathered from each of our potato fields and run tests to determine Nitrogen levels. Right now we're just doing the soil but next week after the plants are a little bigger we should be getting some petioles(leaves from the plant) to run tests on as well. I guess potatoes are a bit finicky about the amount of Nitrogen they like at the various stages of development. Who would've guessed?? In order to get maximum yield the farmers have to monitor this closely so doing my job correctly is very important to the well being of those precious potatoes!

The farm is actually located in Plymouth which is about a 30 minute drive from Kennewick. From there I'm just a few minutes to the Oregon border so that gives you an idea of what part of Washington this is in.

Silos at the Grain Driers

Things are pretty slow in the lab right now but Martin says they'll start picking up in a couple weeks. June is their busiest month and around then is when we will be getting samples each week from every one of our potato fields. There are about 176 potato fields and each of those fields get 3-6 samples of soil and then an additional sampling for petioles...you do the math. We try to get the results to the farmers by noon so that makes for some early mornings!

While it's slower here in the lab I get the chance to learn how to correctly do the testing without being rushed. Which I am very grateful for. The other lab worker, Sergio, has been showing me the ropes. After a week of doing it on my own I'd say I'm about pro!
I was beginning to worry that I'd never actually get a chance to see what goes on outside of the lab while I'm here. I'm real happy that I was wrong with that one!

 Last Tuesday, Sergio took me over to the Grain Driers Plant just across the way from the lab. One of the head guys there took me on a full tour of the place. We even climbed all the way to the top of the 441 foot tower. This is one of the largest Grain Drying facilities in the western US. They send a majority of the corn and wheat by train to Kalama, WA and from there a lot of it goes internationally. Some of the wheat lately has been going to Montana and the Dakotas and then local areas as well.
Earlier this week they had a train come to get a load of wheat to take to Kalama. Of course I had to go ride on the train for a little while as they were loading it. I was hoping they'd let me drive it but that was a no go. It's been neat to learn about what they do at the facility and how it all works. I was amazed at the amount of grain they run through there. Just one of the storing pads alone will hold 1.2 billion bushels! They have three of those! And that still doesn't include the six huge silos they have!

Last week one of the samplers took me along with him as he went to get some samples from a couple of the fields. This was my first chance to see the actual fields! Bernie was real great about it and explained how they get their samples and everything. He's been here for about 13 years so he's definitely the expert when it comes to sampling. When they collect the samples they use the probe to get two collections from either side of the furrow and then three collections from the top where the potato plant is. These five collections are mixed together to create one sample. This is done three times per site. Each field has one main site and depending on the farm manager, they may have an alternate site.

One cool thing I learned while going around the farm with Bernie was the practice of Dammer Diking a field. Theres a piece of equipment attached to a tractor that makes little water retaining pockets in the furrows between each row. It helps prevent water runoff and Bernie told me that they have noticed that potato plants will emerge a lot faster if they dammer dike a field. Enjoy the cool pictures!

We drove around the farm so that I could get the chance to see more of it. There are around 800 fields just here on the Plymouth Farm! We clocked 40-50 miles in the truck and I didn't even see all of the farm. It is huge!

So far I am loving it in Washington! My YSA branch has been a lot of fun. I made friends with one of the other interns that is up here with AgriNorthwest for the summer so I haven't been completely alone. We've been going to Institute each week and the class is actually taught by a USU Alum! Go Aggies! Gradually I'm getting to meet more people. One of the highlights of the week is going to play Volleyball Wednesday nights with a group of people at the church. So much fun!!!

Hope your summer is off to as good of a start as mine is!