Stage-ervaringen van Tobias Nagl 

Already a long time ago I wanted to do an internship in the Netherlands. Furthermore, my father also grows potatoes on his farm, and I am very interested in precision farming. Finally, I got a recommendation to do my practical training at Van Den Borne Aardappelen.

It had recently rained heavily when I arrived. Because of that I helped breaking down the old potato storage where the new workshop and the Van Den Borne Campus will be built. I was also driving around with Jacob in order to have a look at the wet fields and if the ditches work correctly. During these days I had the chance to ask a lot of questions and get to know the farm. Also the farm-management software Dacom and the self-developed portal were introduced to me. I also went for two probing rounds with Jacob where we took a sample of leaves and potatoes. We also wrote down the length and weight of the plants. After we had finished the work on the field I put the potatoes into the robot which measures the size, volume, water content and weight. Moreover I squeezed out the juice in the leaves and analyzed the nitrogen concentration. I was very impressed how precise the collected data show the circumstances and development on the fields. At  the end of my internship I also had the chance to see the Precision Days where I could see the newest technology in agriculture.

To come to an end I wanted to thank for a very nice and interesting time and internship. Especially Jacob really gave me a lot of his knowledge about potato growing and precision farming. I am looking forward to visit the farm again one time.