Co-Alliance Welcomes the 2023 YieldPro Interns
The “Pros” have arrived! The YieldPro Interns and Student Coordinators have hit the ground running this summer! These interns serve as our front line in the field providing the much-needed information to growers and employees on the seasonal crop conditions.
This summer the YieldPro interns will gain hands-on practical agronomic knowledge, learn how to identify weeds, insects, and diseases. The best part, the scouts get to use advanced agricultural technology like the awesome drones all our scouts are given for their internship! Not only do the scouts get all this hands-on experience out in the field, but they are also getting the chance to develop their professional relationships!
First up, the student coordinators!
Riley Brand, Region 6
"Co-Alliance is an innovative company that welcomes new members to the team with the opportunities of a large company and a small business atmosphere."
What drew you to intern for Co-Alliance? This is my second year with Co-Alliance, I decided to come back because of the opportunity for a variety future employment opportunity as well as good company culture.
What are you doing in your specific role? In my role as a student coordinator, I manage a group of interns coordinate field assignments, work with the sales and agronomy team and ensure scouting and report quality.
What are the main projects you will be working on throughout the summer? I will be working to look at data from test plots as well as analyze and improve the usefulness of the drones in scouting.
What are you looking forward to the most during your summer internship? I am excited to explore the opportunities that Co-Alliance offers as well as continue to improve my leadership skills.
Madisen Carns, Region 1
"Co-Alliance is a community driven by the success of their employees and growers. It is a company that is proud of its culture and the people who work for them."
What drew you to intern for Co-Alliance? I wanted to work at Co-Alliance because I have no prior knowledge and experience in agronomy. Growing up in a suburban area, I knew my knowledge was already limited. I wanted to expand my experience in this area of the agriculture industry and better understand our growers.
What are you doing in your specific role? In my role, I supervise a team of field scouts as they travel and scout fields across region. I am reviewing reports that are eventually sent to our growers. Overall, I am helping to make sure that our fields are in top condition and the grower can easily see the progress of their field.
What are the main projects you will be working on throughout the summer? Aside from working with the Region 1 field scouts, I will be working on a personal project comparing the effectiveness of Intelinair and our Data on Touch Scouting App. This region is special and uses both apps to communicate with their growers. I am going to be doing research on the pros and cons of each app throughout this season.
What are you looking forward to the most during your summer internship? I am most looking forward to building connections with those who are working at Co-Alliance and using their knowledge to help me throughout the summer. I cannot wait to see how much I learn from these individuals. I already feel like I have learned quite a bit!
Coy Walker, Region 2
"Co-Alliance is an elite caliber company that continues to grow, and still holds a family type atmosphere that cares about their people."
What drew you to intern for Co-Alliance? I have been with Co-Alliance's internship program since 2019. I wanted to do an internship in agriculture and heard about Co-Alliance through friends of my family. Last spring, I attained my Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems license. The second half of last summer I primary flew the Phantom 4 drone. At the end of the summer, I flew over 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans. I enjoyed last summer and wanted to be involved with drones again. I knew I wanted to come back.
What are you doing in your specific role? I am a Region 2 scouting coordinator. I have 6 scouts all with drone licenses. My duties consist of dispatching fields, reading reports, editing reports, and helping scouts identify issues in the field that can potentially lower the crop’s yield.
What are the main projects you will be working on throughout the summer? I will be focusing on teaching the field scouts how to scout fields with good coverage and be out of the field as efficiently as possible. We will be learning scouting patterns, identifying pests, weeds, and diseases. We are also in the process of using our DJI Mini drones for aerial pictures and flying patterns in the field for identification purposes. We will also be gathering data from bug traps that we have set up in the corner of selected fields.
What are you looking forward to the most during your summer internship? I am looking forward to working with people who have a passion for agriculture like I do. Every summer I look forward to helping the farmers get the most out of their crops, building a relationship with each of my field scouts, developing a team, meeting people and building new connections.
Dani Crane, Region 5
"Co-Alliance is family that you can always count on. They are always looking to create a bond and ways to make sure all customers are happy at the end of the day."
What drew you to intern for Co-Alliance? I was an intern as a field scout a couple of years ago just to get my hands on something. I came back this year to get my hands on a different role to kind of figure out what exactly I want to do after college.
What are you doing in your specific role? I am the region 5 student coordinator. My role is to oversee four different scouts in region 5. I review their field reports, assign different fields, and help them with anything they need help with.
What are the main projects you will be working on throughout the summer? We have not really gone over projects yet; besides, we have a couple of first step fields that we will be keeping an eye on. The first step fields are some plants are treated with more nutrients in the seeds to see if they make better progress, rather than the untreated seeds.
What are you looking forward to the most during your summer internship? This summer I am looking forward to the most is learning about where I want to stand with a career. The role in my internships gives me chances to learn more about agronomy, but also gives me a chance to oversee others. But I am also excited to see all the different things Co-Alliance has to offer.
Karlene Wolfe, Region 3
"Co-Alliance is more than a co-op. It is a family that will support you and make sure you are getting the best customer service possible and the best results for your farm."
What drew you to intern for Co-Alliance? I worked for Harvest Land before the merger and absolutely loved the company so when the opportunity arose to come back and try a new role in the company for a summer, I knew I had to take it! This company is unique. Each branch is their own family inside the huge Co-Alliance family.
What are you doing in your specific role? This summer I am a student coordinator for the field scouting interns. My role is to dispatch them to fields each week as well as read the reports they send back in. I am their first point of contact when they have questions or need help in any way out here. Along with that I also have a couple projects that I am working on this summer.
What are the main projects you will be working on throughout the summer? This summer I will be working on is process improvement. How can we make it, so the scouts cover the most acres accurately. Seeing how the drone play into efficiency and how we can use them more. Another project I will be working on is creating a file that is able to be passed on from coordinator to coordinator. Having an excel sheet that tracks all the growers and fields to make sure you are covering all the acres and seeing who has had alerts reported. This file will also include a mini manual to help the next coordinator jump in and know what they are doing.
What are you looking forward to most during your summer internship? I most look forward to exploring Co-Alliance further. Looking into the other aspects of the company and seeing how well I like the role of semi-managing the field scouts. And being able to investigate the sales aspect of things.
Now, the YieldPro interns! We welcomed 31 YieldPro interns this summer!
