Week 5 AEG

WOW! What a jam-packed, sink or swim week. Starting Monday, we were doing asbestos containing glue pod abatement for ceiling tiles in Wixom, MI. The way this particular building was laid out, we had to shut down almost an entire wing of the school to do our work and keep other tradesmen safe. There were demolition guys, drywallers, roofers, electricians, and carpenters in the building all working with our state-mandated schedule to get the work done. Without much help, I had to make sure the demo guys were out of our rooms so we could get started on schedule to allow other trades to remain on their schedule. I was now not only managing my guys, but also working with/directing other trades to get out of each other’s ways, which was not exactly easy. Each of 4 rooms took an entire day to abate, so I was constantly dealing with problems and other trades being slow, needing to work in that wing, or otherwise in the way. On Friday, I went to a different school in the same district, but with it’s own set of challenges. To put it nicely, the crew I was managing contained 3 of the companies least motivated workers. Instead of completing 2 rooms and starting on a third as planned, they struggled to finish one room. That left me bored with my typical job and instead caused me to have to get on them a little bit. That also caused Saturday to be the most stressful and busy day of work I think I’ve ever experienced. With 7 total rooms to abate and only one completed, we had to kick it into high gear to make schedule. The supervisor got a whole new & larger team of workers to get everything done, and I don’t think I had more than 15 minutes of downtime throughout the day. This week taught me a lot about working with experienced adults who need a little talking to from a college kid as well as the effects of not completing enough work per day to meet schedule. Between the things I’ve learned and the 61 hour workweek paycheck, I’d say this week was definitely worth it.

Morgan Composting – Week 5

As I have passed into my fifth week at Morgan Composting, I have been working more in the maintenance shop as well as the liquid barn. The liquid barn is where we create liquid fertilizers from farmers and gardeners to put on their crops. There are even fertilizers that are created for food plot planters. This area of the business surprised me because there are many customers who I did not see in the store, that arrive to the barn and purchase these fertilizers. I really enjoy working in this area of the farm because I get to work more hands on and watch how these products are created.

I also got to spend a few minutes with VP, Justin Morgan. He explained to me the different techniques of being a salesman as well advice for the future. I really enjoyed this and I hope there will be more experiences in the future.

Week 5 Webberville Feed

This week was another good one. It was a pretty standard week as I begin to fall into my roll at the company. I started the week off helping with some of the office duties. I also was able to help research and put together a sales packet for a new customer that had stopped by the store recently. Later in the week I helped helped the guys outside manufacture feed and finish up some projects around the mill. It was a slower week for us being that it is towards the end of the month. All in all it was an uneventful week that allowed us to get caught up on maintenance and other projects that had been put off.

JBS Week 4

Week 4 of the internship was a fairly boring one. Had to go and manually sift through 55,000+ rows in an excel sheet in order to gather data. I had to go through and change rows that were uncategorized and put them back in to their rightful places. This took up the whole week but was able to finally finish it on Friday. This new data will help us to decide whether or not our new processes that we are coming up with will be able to be implemented into the company systems.

I was also able to have another Microsoft Teams meeting with the head of Fed Beef here at JBS, Tim Schellpeper. He explained more on how he got to where he is today and gave up life advice. I was also able to speak with another JBS employee who was in the same department as me, Vikram, who is now in another unit due a promotion. He gave me valuable advice that I will certainly be using in my future.

Week 5 Corteva

This week at Corteva was a little faster paced as soybeans are beginning to move into the reproductive stages. This means that they are now flowering. The flowers are still very small and just emerging from buds. Flowering is another crucial time to verify that the soybeans have the correct traits sold to the growers. 

It rained at the end of this week, which was desperately needed. Most of the topsoil began the form deep cracks in the field and some beans even wilted from the heat and lack of moisture. It’s hard for beans to emerge due to the thick crust and for their stems to continue to develop when they’re restrained by the compacted soil. The rain will trigger the soybeans to flower and grow more rapidly. Because of this, I will have to expedite some flower counts and possibly assist another intern in Ohio. 

To check to see if the soybeans in the reproductive stage match the marketed trait, scouts will check the color of the flower. Most Corteva beans will produce a small purple flower, which is usually covered by leaves of the highest node. Any bean that is off-type will grow a white or pink flower. In order to do a proper check, 3000-6000 soybeans must be evaluated depending on the type of seed. Usually it’s best to measure out sections of 200 plants and then walk down the middle of two rows, doubling your count to 400. Scouts use a T shapes PVC tool to help pull back leaves so they can see the flower. The allowed off-type percentage is only 1%, so 30-60 plants per field. It’s a very slim margin but usually there are only 3 or 4 off-types, if any. 

We also continued professional development training which I am happy to be part of. Our meetings start at 7am on Zoom, and we usually complete 3 chapters of A2E training each day. Everyone on the team, including interns, is required to be there. Essentially the training is teaching us how to be independent critical thinkers as well as team leaders and communicators. It’s a good program and I’m enjoying it. The modules are interactive so we all give our input in the duration of the course. A lot of the people complain about this training as it’s so early in the morning, not to mention monotonous. 

Helena Week Five

I’m already halfway through my internship and man has it flown by! I believe a mid-point reflection is in order. The first few weeks were like a daily shot in the dark. I wasn’t quite sure how I played a valued role within my locations daily operations. The following three weeks I have found a rhythm that I believe is making me an asset to my co-workers. Each week I’ve exposed myself to a new area of the company while trying to keep my assistance open at all times. I figured if I wasn’t sure what to do, someone who did know would eventually ask me to help. By week four I found a schedule for test plot monitoring that seems to be effective. Each week I visit our Zypro (a Helena product) corn plot to monitor growth stages and size differences in the varying tests we have going. I have found an efficient data collection system of pictures, dates, and notes that I keep track in my notes. All the data, times, and pictures will be ordered into my final project to present in Indiana at the end of my internship. I have found satisfaction in seeing the drastic differences that our products can produce for a grower at each growth stage of corn. From VE to now V9, it has become clear which product and practice is best.

Going forward I plan to continue on my data tracking schedule. This week we have a large event coming up for our growers called Bean Wise. We will be serving lunch and talking about a yield competition utilizing Helena products that each grower can enter into. I am excited to meet new growers, put names to faces, and introduce myself to a large group to get my foot further into the door or rural Croswell. Coming up this week I am expecting to help our warehouse employees with inventory count as well as organizing for the Bean Wise meeting.

In the news, Beyer has announced settlements on the Dicamba litigation that has kept farmers wary of the product. As an essential tool in their tool belt for weed control, farmers rely on the different mode of action some Dicamba products bring to the table. Their corn and soybean hybrids are often resistant only to this product; making weed management difficult. Beyer has announced a $5 billion dollar pledge over the next ten year to innovation in weed management. This announcement will hopefully set the minds of the wary at ease going forward.

https://www.michiganagtoday.com/bayer-resolves-roundup-dicamba-lawsuits/

Week 2 at Illinois Tool Works

This week I started working on my project. I was assigned a project in the welding segment of the company. I do have a project checkup every Monday morning. Bernard Welding is the client and they are trying to improve their warehouse and, distribution and supply line efficiency. They are currently having issues picking items from different part of the ware and preparing them for shipping.

I have also partnered with the industrial engineers at UPS to work on this project. We have ben provided data for the clients sales and distribution data. They do want to know if it will be easy to ship orders from their Wisconsin distribution center or the Illinois distribution center. We had meeting on Tuesday to introduce everyone on the team working on the project. I have analyzed some of the data and have provided the item numbers, description of the item, the ship date, and pick location.

I also spoke with more people on my team. Their names are Ryan and Christine. Ryan works as an analyst and signs off on every project that involves UPS as partner. Christine works in the ITW location in Germany. she lives in Japan with her family but travels for work often and spends most of her time in the German office.

At the end of the week, I had and intern event with the Supply Chain Director. She went through the whole aspect of ITW’s supply chain, why they are very decentralized and how they stay that way. It was pretty interesting knowing every part of the company has their own way of handling their business because of ITW’ diversified portfolio. We also got into more details of the 80/20 principle. By the end of the week i had already met everyone and got a bearing of how to go about my project.

Jacob Hamm: CropWatch

It was another normal week at crop watch, fields are still growing well, yet spirits are melancholy due to the stringent hours of incessant tasks. If boredom was not a factor I believe that the crews would still be operating at regular physiological capacity. So for now I will continue with the monotonous tasks of my position until something new within the field arises.

Echo Week 5

This week was the busiest week we’ve had since I started working at Echo a year ago. There were a total of 2000 loads on the board that we had to book when on average, we have around 700-800. We usually have a bit of time during the day to just relax and work on our book of business, but everyone when done with booking loads with their own carriers, had to call on random carriers to try to get all the loads booked up. Something I learned this week was that even when a carrier says no to a load, there is still a possibility of getting them to say yes to the load in the end. I learned by trying that raising the rate for them and trying to switch around delivery or pickup appointments can help the carrier like the load after all. More businesses are starting to open up after they shut down for a few month from the Coronavirus, and that is why it has been so busy lately. So I found that interesting in the logistics industry.

Week 2 ASM Samuel Lawrence

Week two has been an amazing learning experience of positive growth and challenges to be autonomous. Mr. Bean gave me 32 fields that must be done before Friday. The growth is both in crop scouting and problem-solving. I learned how to take a female stand count, which takes 3 times the amount of time it takes to do just a male stand count. The week started with getting my reports of which fields to survey. Prior to this week, I had only scouted fields with a partner. I rode with my boss and my coworker Kelsey. We were able to do fifteen to eighteen fields a day. The first challenge I experienced was how many fields to get down in a day. Once I was on my own it was a little different, I was only able to visit 7 fields a day. I was considerably slower since the female corn requirement is based on acreage. For example, in a two-hundred-acre field, I needed to evaluate thirty plots (17.5 feet x 17.5 feet area). The second challenge was finding the best routes to be the most time-efficient.  When I evaluate a map of a location, I may not know the traffic patterns, conditions of the roads, and the best field access point for crop analysis.  I am learning on the job problem-solving.  It is important to give yourself permission to make mistakes, call help when you need it, and think outside the box for solutions.  For example, I decided to map out my route the night before I started to drive and I use Google maps for visual reference.  Thankfully, I was able to upgrade my cell service and data plan to have unlimited access to use Google Maps, Apps for my survey results, and the Purdue Integrated Pest Management.   One of the most interesting finds this week was finding golf balls in the fields as well as the Japanese Beatles.  Of course, I reported the beetles on my survey reports, but I will start a collecting of golf balls.  My goal for the summer is to find the same number of golf balls I loose on the course. I will keep everyone posted.