Nick Clymer6/17/16

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Nick Clymer

ASM 3191 Internship Report 1

Nick Clymer6/17/16

Time has flown by as I have now completed four weeks of my internship this summer

with Cargill in the AgHorizons business unit. Last October I accepted the internship as an

Agronomy Sales Intern, not knowing exactly where I would be located. I found out that I would

be working in Benson, Minnesota, a place twelve and a half hours from home. I was not really

concerned about the fact that I was far away but more excited to be by myself away from home

for 12 weeks during the summer! Going into the summer I was not exactly sure of what I would

be doing but I was just taking the approach of doing stuff to the best of my ability, learn a lot,

and help out the company the best that I could.

My first official day of work was Monday, May 23rd in Sioux Falls for orientation that

week. Monday through Thursday I was with the 9 other interns in the Northwest region and

our internship leader, Melissa Johnson. She did a great job of setting up many presentations

from all different aspects of Cargill AgHorizons unit. Throughout the week we had lectures

about the HR paperwork aspects, Cargill Ag Marketer, agronomy, grain merchandising, grain

marketing, and sales effectiveness. I really enjoyed how we were able to learn about many

different things about Cargill during the week, especially since the interns varied from

agronomy sales, crop scout, operations, and grain sales. During the first day I also received a

company laptop that I will use throughout the summer. The second night in Sioux Falls I was

able to meet up with Chandler (Richard) McCullough, a former ASM student who lives in the

town and works in Pipestone, MN. Throughout the whole process I have been able to ask him

and Aaron Clark, an OSU agronomy grad who interned in the Benson area last year, about any

questions I had about Cargill or the West Central Minnesota area (Buckeye Nation already

helping me out)!

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Nick Clymer6/17/16

At the end of the first week we were given our summer projects and goals for the job. I

have four goals this summer:

Sales Experience Project

Cross Training

ProShop/ Plot Support

Monsanto Climate FieldView farmer enrollment

With those headlines I have discussed with my boss, Kevin Spors, about how I will accomplish

those throughout the summer. My weekly schedule will look like this- three days a week

shadowing the three area sales agronomists: Scott Olson located at the Alberta facility, Timm

Gabrielson located in Benson, and Jason Roberts located at the Gluek office. The other two

days I will spend working in the ProShop taking dating and being able to present it neatly to

customers and the sales agronomists. The last day I would like to spend crop scouting so that I

can keep up with how the crops are looking and being able to identify weeds, disease, and bugs

within the field. On Wednesday mornings when it slows down I will lead meetings with the SA’s

in the ProShop giving updates on how things look there and possibly having guest presenters

help us learn more.

My main project this summer will be to set up meetings with customers and inform

them about NextField, Cargill’s precision ag program. When I meet with them and explain what

NextField is and how it will benefit them, I can figure out what type of programs the farmers

would possibly be interested in then inform the Sales Agronomist of their possibly interest. On

the goal paper it has an objective of getting 35 sales calls.

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Nick Clymer6/17/16

For the professional documentation, I filled out the internship criteria for OSU CFAES

describing where I am located this summer and what my job title is. Throughout the summer I

will be updating that for what I am doing. For the next report, I plan on having my LinkedIn

profile updated. I am learning a lot every day and getting used to the area more and more all

the time. Whenever I have questions, Kevin does a fantastic job of answering them in detail

and helping me out. Overall I have a lot of different things going on each week and every week

is different and non-repetitive which is great. Some examples of that include going to

Pipestone to meet with the NextField agronomist, John Blair, and getting a detailed tour of their

facility from Chandler McCullough. Next week is the Intern Forum in Minneapolis for four days

and then a month after that we have a two day meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I am having a

great time and learning and asking questions all the time!

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Place I am living at this summer, Lillehaugen Inn Bed and Breakfast.

Nick Clymer6/17/16

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Tour of Emery, SD grain shed Signs We Put Up In the Plot

Observing a field of peas that had a sprayer problem

The intern in Madison, MN, Ashley, and I at a dirt track race with the Madison boss, Lynn.