From Centreville Maryland, IAA student (Institute of Applied Agriculture) Alexander Evans completed his internship from March 20th-August 28th, 2022 with his strong passion for farming alongside his family. He was able to work on his family farm doing a variety of different tasks. He works with his father Temple Rhodes, grandfather Clarence Temple, younger brother Temple Sidney, and cousin Chris Rhodes.
Evans’ internship at his family farm grows corn, soybeans, and wheat, and raises beef cattle. His primary duties on the farm consisted of spraying crops, planting beans, harvesting crops like their wheat, running irrigation systems, and knifing liquid nitrogen in the springtime. Evans was also assisting in delivering calves and vaccinating the cattle on the farm. He was able to work “hand in hand” with his father in order to make sure that everything was finished by the end of the day.
Evans has a huge passion for farming and it has grown as he has aged on the farm working with his family. Due to this passion, he has grown a lot in his skills while working on the farm. Evans said, “I don’t really know how to explain it but I just can’t get enough of being on the farm, long days and sometimes even longer nights but I'm up ready to go the next morning and this is why I chose this internship”. What Evans said here really shows in a quote from Evans’ college advisor Meredith Epstein who was able to visit his workplace to see what Evans does on the farm, “Alex Worked tirelessly this summer to ensure that his family’s farm ran smoothly. This internship allowed him to put new knowledge from school into practice and enhance his understanding of the business side of things. He is positioning himself well to run the farm someday”. Some of the skills that he was able to enhance were reading their plants (knowing if they needed to be sprayed), pulling samples, and running the grain system and dryer.
Not only did working on the farm help him improve his skills, but he also learned a lot of behind-the-scenes work. He was able to see the paperwork side of the farm and how important finances are in order to keep the farm running. Some of this paperwork included the farm’s income statements and balance sheets. Both are very important in keeping records of everything that happens on the farm so that financial decisions can be made if need be.
Although the internship has finished, Evans still works for his Father, Temple Rhodes, on the farm. He plans to continue farming with his family and help the farm grow. Evans said, “People always have told me if you aren't doing something you love and want to wake up for every day then that's not what you were put on this earth to do, but ever since I could walk I was on the farm, I know this is what I was meant to do”. With this in mind, he hopes to take over the farm with his younger brother someday in the future.
