Internship experiences André van Valen

In the first year of my education at the CAH in Dronten I did a practical internship at Van den Borne potatoes. The purpose of this internship was to get to know another company. In the first weeks I was engaged in soil scanning with the Dualem soil sensor. After scanning, I drove potters and leather legs for a week. When all the potatoes were in, sampling started on the test field, where I carried out nitrogen measurements and petiole analyzes to determine the nitrate content. The fertilization was adjusted on the basis of these data. After that the sampling of the plots started and the irrigation was started. In between all the hustle and bustle we cleaned the barns and the yard for an open day at Farm Frites and Jacob took me to an information day in Valthermond about sensors in agriculture. {Andre1} From school I was advised against going to a large arable farm internship because the entrepreneur often sees you as staff instead of an intern, so that you learn little. This is very different at Van den Borne. Jacob took enough time to teach me things so that I achieved all the pre-set goals. For this I also discussed my goals with Jacob in advance so that we could work on them together. I learned a lot with regard to potato cultivation and precision farming, such as a variable irrigation trial. I also determined the issue of a sprinkler gun and boom. {Andre2} All in all, the more than two months at Van den Borne were very busy, but above all educational. An internship with Jan and Jacob is highly recommended if you want to gain knowledge of precision agriculture and potato cultivation.

André van Valen