Here she was looking for treated seeds that were outside of the plot.
Who said it would be boring to do an internship at a government research office? Not Asma Palmer, an Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA) Agricultural Business Management major from Columbia, MD. Palmer, a second-year student, completed her 320-hour summer internship at the USDA Beltsville Research Station in Laurel, Maryland between June and August 2019.
Since she is studying agricultural business management, she thought it would be good to work somewhere that searches for the answers to agricultural problems. During her internship she mowed grass, laid down drip tape for irrigation, harvested vegetables, transplanted crops and helped make raspberry posts using the metal cutting saw. Her favorite project was working with graduate students to identify insects like lady beetles, stink bugs and orius insidiosus that were damaging the corn crop. Her job was to count the number of bugs on the crops and record it.
Some days, Palmer admits, were not very scientific. For example, one day, she and one of the ag technicians collected rocks to throw at a wasp nest that was hovering over a soy bean plot. The plan was to throw the rocks at the nest and if it fell, Palmer and the tech would jump on the Kubota and drive really fast.
All in all, however, she marvels at all of the skills she gained over the summer: how to operate a metal cutting saw, a compact metal bender and a 977 John Deere tractor. She also learned how change the oil on farm equipment. Her advisor, Roy Walls, commented that Palmer should always remember the “righty tighty and lefty loosey” phrase.
Palmer’s career goal is to be an Agricultural Economist. Although she wishes she had worked more with the graduate students’ research projects, she said, “I am very grateful for my internship because it taught me so much about how farmers manage, plan and calculate their crops. The lifestyle and hard work they do amazed me and showed me that humans are capable of so much more if we set our minds to do it.”
