Stage ervaringen van Ihno Riesener

After my stay abroad as a harvest helper in Lithuania and Latvia in 2020 and the great experiences there, I wanted to spend my upcoming practical semester abroad as well. I already knew Jacob van den Borne and his company from numerous newspaper articles and videos. Because I'm studying precision farming, it made sense to do the practical semester on his farm. With his company and his way of working in the field of precision farming, Jacob is an absolute pioneer and is therefore trend-setting for this part of agriculture throughout Europe and parts of the world.

My internship at Van den Borne Potatoes took place during the summer months. Therefore, the focus was on potato sampling, which contains visiting almost half of the potato fields every two weeks to map growing conditions and yield progress.In addition to soil moisture, soil temperature and rainfall, the leaf, root and tuber parameters of three sampled potato plants were analyzed. These parameter values end up in a data record that also contains information on fertilization, previous crops, field conditions. In addition to sampling crops, I have helped with a variety of current activities, such as removing datura stramonium (better known as thorn apple) from potato field, accompanying drone flights and monitoring test plots where, for example, the effect of different types of fertilizer was tested. The sampling was hard physical work, but you only get a feel for the plants and the soil by working in the field. This is very important to me. Since I was on the farm shortly after planting until the beginning of the harvest, I was able to grasp the long-term differences between the locations and varieties.
A particular highlight for me was being able to work on the harvest for a few more weeks. As an intern, I had the opportunity to gain an open insight into the special features of a progressive arable farm. Questions were always answered very openly and honestly, which unfortunately cannot be taken for granted everywhere.

It was a great pleasure for me to be part of the van den borne team for this time.
I would especially like to thank Jacob, who made this opportunity possible for me.
But I would also like to thank Dieter, Luka, Arnout and Niels, we spent a lot of time together and were able to learn a lot from each other.

I would also like to thank the rest of the team, who have always made me feel comfortable. You have always helped me and stood by my side when I had questions.
It was a great pleasure for me to be able to work with you all.

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