Stage ervaringen Max Hoelling

After my farming education, an Australian internship and before the university studies I did a very short internship at van den Borne Aardappelen. I knew Jacob from one of his presentations and was very amazed when he said there “average field size: 3.5 ha; average corners per field: 6”. From this moment on I knew, once I will do an internship there.

And that happened in June 2018: Most of the time I were in the field to take samples to feed the big data system. Another task was to analyze the samples for nitrogen content and to calibrate the tubers in between different sizes etc. As it was very dry when I have been there most of the staff were busy by irrigating. Sometimes I supported them as well.
For me the most excited thing to learn was not even the high level of precision farming but the high intensity of agriculture. A high level of soil prizes and a high level of livestock production in the Brabant region cause the high cash crop production. That was excited to see for me as where I live most of the fields are grown with grain. Sure, the precision farming was the second most exciting thing to learn and it is furthermore one reason to produce such a high cash crop as potatoes.
All in all this internship gave me a bit more bravery for investments and a view on a very intensive agriculture and one way how to proof yourself there.