Corporate Headquarters in Philly

I spent this week in Philadelphia, PA where the corporate headquarters of FMC is located. I flew in on Monday with other interns from around the country. We had meetings throughout the day and discussed commercial sales, manufacturing, registration, safety, marketing, etc. At night we had time to explore and enjoy the city! My conversations with people have made me realize the many great qualities of this company. FMC values family, challenges, adaptability, and developing skills. I love so many things about FMC, and I see that it is a wonderful place to work.

Philly was fast paced; people are busy and the skyscrapers can make you feel insignificant from 56 floors below. However, the sense of urgency makes you feel alive. I was born and raised in the southeast so Pennsylvania was a different world for me. This internship has given me the opportunity to travel around the country and meet new people, explore new places, and challenge myself with unfamiliar experiences which in return have made me grow.

Wheat

FMC has research plots at the Agriculture Center in Memphis, TN. When I first began my internship I visited some wheat trials. Our "tech service" guys use the plots to run tests with different chemical responses vs. untreated crops.



The picture above shows an untreated plot on the left and a treated plot on the right. The reason that they are so dramtically different is because of a process called "lodging" in wheat. Rye grass is considered a huge problem in wheat and is the reason for lodging; the wheat falls over to the ground and cannot stand up straight. When this happens the crop is difficult to harvest, the yield is decreased, and the farmer loses both time and money. FMC's goal is to get a label for a post application to protect wheat.

Marvel in Arkansas

This week I am in Arkansas with a sales representative for this region. Today we traveled to meet some people from Helena, a distributor of FMC's products. One of my main objectives this summer is to work on a new product called Marvel. Marvel is an herbicide for soybeans that is sprayed post-emerge, or after the plant is above ground. I will be asking growers what they think about the results, documenting pictures, and keeping track of the product's progress in different southeastern regions.

The picture above is a soybean plant. You can see the burn from the chemical on the plant - this is a GOOD thing! It means the chemical is working on the weeds that surround the crop rows. The chemical kills the weeds, but does not hurt the actual soybean. Each product that FMC distributes has a label that has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Also, each product has a specific "rate" at which the grower sprays each acre.

These are some good lookin' soybean plants that have been treated with Marvel!

We went to Kansas City, Missouri to be trained last week. I enjoyed getting to know other interns from different regions. Talking with them opened up doors to learn from fellow peers who come from various backgrounds and universities. We were taught how to "sweep" alfalfa fields for pests - it is amazing how many different insects you find when you actually are in a field. You cannot see these critters from the side of the road. The importance of this concept is to understand how to show a grower that they need a product to reduce the pests before their crop gets destroyed. I come from an environmental background, so organic farming was interesting to study on a small scale. However, I have certainly learned that large scale farming is absolutely impossible to obtain without the help of herbicides and pesticides. There is an alarming number of people facing world hunger and the only solution lies in teaching people how to farm the land in an efficient and sustainable way!

Introduction

I am a proud Mississippi State University graduate and I will be working with FMC Corporation this summer as a Field Sales Intern for the Southern region. My job will consist of getting to know the company's customers, products, and mission. I am using this blog to share my learning experiences and my journey around the southeast. In no way I am speaking on behalf of FMC Corporation or its people. I hope you enjoy reading about my exciting internship with a wonderful company that is steadily growing in the agriculture business!