Internship experiences Antoine Vandenberghe

For our school we had to do an internship abroad in the first year. A few years ago a friend of mine did an internship at van den Borne potatoes and he advised me to go to this company too.

At van den Borne it is not like other farmers. The aim is not to grow more ha of potatoes, but to achieve a higher yield per ha. For this, van den Borne makes many decisions based on measurements. Sampling takes place every 2 weeks on all plots to see where the potential lies and to make adjustments. During my internship I carried out the first 2 samples on the fields. Plants and stems count, but also the number of tubers and underwater weight.

There are also various test fields at van den Borne with, for example, different seed lots, plant depth and storage regime. Different fertilizers are tested on another test field and there is also a track that is not fertilized. It is very nice to see what the crops look like.

During my internship we also planted sweet potatoes by hand. This is a new crop that Van den Borne wants to try out. I also helped with the maintenance of the harvesters and I irrigated a lot, this was completely new to me because this does not happen in our region.

I found the internship very fun and educational and would immediately like to do an internship at van den Borne potatoes again, I also highly recommend this company to do an internship

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