This summer a cohort of undergraduate interns are working alongside OSU Extension County Educators to conduct on-farm research. The Agronomic Crop Research Experience (ACRE) interns are placed in county offices throughout the state and work with county educators and state specialists to support on-farm research and extension activities. The program has the goals of 1) training the next-generation of agronomists, 2) empowering locally-directed on-farm research, and 3) identifying solutions to critical agronomic issues in Ohio.
This year, there are 9 ACRE interns working across Ohio: Ross Andre (Fulton), Michael Schmenk (Paulding), Rose Vagedes (Miami, Champaign, Darke, Auglaize, Mercer), Abigail Hill (Pickaway, Madison), Cody Clyburn (Fayette, Clinton), Emily Bauman (Ross), Evan Bedard (Highland), Sara Weber (Scioto), and Colin Sandrock (Sandusky).
Here is an excerpt from Rose Vagedes about her experiences so far: Through this internship much of my time is occupied with assisting educators by collecting data on various research projects. These projects consist of Seeding Rate trials for corn and soybeans, Cold Front Trails of corn and soybeans, Starter Fertilizer Trials, a trial on Waterhemp, Pollinator Investigation, Spotted Wing Drosophila traps, Brown marmorated Stink Bug traps, and Western Bean Cutworm traps. I scout corn, wheat, soybeans, and hops fields, as well as collect other data as needed. My time has also been filled with radio interviews, field days, meetings, and presentations. The variety of work done, skills gained, and connections created is the most rewarding part about this internship!
More information can be found here: https://senr.osu.edu/research/acre_internship