Intern 2014
Overview
Hello!
My name is Elodie Gapihan and I am studying Agronomy at Agrocampus-Ouest in Rennes (Britany). I did a 5 month internship from the beginning of September 2014 to the end of January 2015 at the Field Research Centre at Lincoln University.
(Top) Elodie at Ashley Dene (Mid) Gracie, Elodie and Irene head out to the field and (Bottom) Elodie on holiday.
During my internship, I worked on dryland pasture management and I learnt a lot of very interesting things. I worked in the field at Ashley Dene with Malcolm Smith, a great and nice technician and his team: Gracie and Marie. It was a lot of fun to work with the sheep. We had to follow the lambing, move sheep from paddock to paddock and weigh lambs and ewes in order to know the live weight gain from the different pasture types. I got to take samples of different grass pastures or lucerne in the field, drive the motorbike with the trailer to move sheep and also sort samples for botanical composition.
I really enjoyed my internship at Lincoln because I have experienced a lot of different jobs. All the time, the staff and students were happy to explain a little bit more about New Zealand agriculture to me. I discovered sheep production, working most of the time outside with the sunshine and the good weather.
For all these things, I would like to say thank you to Alistair Black, my supervisor who gave me the opportunity to come here and who explained a lot of things about kiwi agriculture to me, and thank you to Malcolm because it was awesome to listen, to talk and to work with him.
I also had the chance to travel all around the North and South Islands during weekends and holidays. New Zealand is a very beautiful country with a lot of awesome landscapes everywhere. So, I have just one thing to tell you: If you have the opportunity to come, take it!