Lillie Hegeman

The past few days, I have been working on a few different video and photo projects. I have put together the first draft for an expanded crop insurance business card for agents across the state. 

Option 1:

Option 2:

Additionally, I have created the first draft of a video showcasing how MFA employees and the producers they work with are a sort of family. 

This week, I have been doing a lot of wrapping up on some of my projects. Today, was a big day for writing and editing.

Wow! The last week+ has blown by. Last week, I had a photo/videoshoot every day. 

Monday, June 29, I met with @mfasara​ in Maysville, Missouri and got a glimpse of what she has been learning this summer in MFA’s feed division. 

Tuesday, June 30, I traveled with three others on the communications team to a farm near Jackson, Missouri to film a training video for MFA’s end-of-July training camp kickoff event. I was in control of audio.

Wednesday, July 1, I met with @mfacaleb​ and KAM Gabe Smith in Bernie, Missouri and learned not only about his summer experiences and project, but also about cotton, rice and peanut crops in the Bootheel. See Caleb and Gabe in a peanut field below.

Thursday, July 2, I helped the others on the communications again with a video for MFA’s training camp kickoff event. Not only was I in control of the audio, but I was also a clapper girl.

This week has been a little more about catching up. I created a couple social media posts about @mfagraeson​ and @mfacash​. Go check them out! (P.S. Cash’s will come out tomorrow) I began working on a crop insurance infographic project and a 30-second video about how MFA is a family. I also did some more copyediting tasks, video editing for the intern video, updated my weekly infographic and wrote a few pieces for Today’s Farmer and our Focus newsletter.

Wow! The last week or so has blown by. I have been doing a lot of really interesting things. 

Friday, I traveled with my fellow intern, @mfaryan​, to Boonville, Missouri. It was really cool to see his project development. This summer, Ryan is answering the question: How well is MFA’s herbicide-impregnated fertilizer working to control weeds in pastures? To answer this, he has been traveling across the state, gathering soil samples and doing hula-hoop testing. 

Here is a little teaser photo of Ryan at work before the official posts go out on social media Monday!

After visiting Ryan, I met with fellow intern, @mfamason​. His summer project is within the precision agriculture division. He is making sure farmers’ plots are updated and accurate on the MFA Agronomy Dashboard. Here is a teaser.

Monday, Kerri, the photographer, and I visited Leeton, Missouri for a Shield advertisement video and photoshoot. Here is a teaser.

Tuesday, I met with fellow intern, @mfagraeson​, in the IT department. His project this summer is make sure the MFA website is hack-free. Her is a teaser.

Wednesday, I travelled all the way to Maryville, Missouri to follow my fellow intern, @mfacash​, around for the day. Cash is collecting soil and forage samples across Missouri this summer to answer the question: What is the correlation between soil pH and forage quality? Here is a teaser.

This week, I have been working with the photographer, Kerri Lotven, and the Today’s Farmer editor, Allison Jenkins, to work on stories and features for the August-September issue of Today’s Farmer. 

On Monday, I helped do some food styling and take some pictures of some yummy cantaloupe popsicles for the recipe page. 

Then, on Thursday, Allison and I travelled all the way to La Belle, Missouri, to take photos and do some interviews for a story I am writing about the NCMC and State Tech programs with MFA. 

I will say that I had the most unique interview experience I have ever had - conducted inside the cab of a spreader!

Last Friday, I went on my first photoshoot in the field with Allison Jenkins, the editor of Today’s Farmer magazine. Allison and I were accompanying Brownfield Ag News reporters who were recording interviews and B-roll for a couple videos showcasing MFA and its employees. I was able to observe the process (and I held up a reflector.

Then, Allison and I took some neat field photographs of Kyle Besgrove, the current Region 2 Agronomist, and Dara Boardman, MorCorn Product Manager. 

Photo I took of Kyle Besgrove checking out the Area 51 corn plot.

Photo I took of Dara Boardman digging up and evaluating a corn plant’s roots the Area 51 corn plot. 

Allison and I proceeded to take some B-roll footage of the different varieties of the crops. And Allison showed me how to use the drone to get some footage. 

This week, I have been tackling a number of different projects. I have been doing an extensive archive search for topical calendar photos as a part of a project with the agronomy department. 

After visiting with one of the other interns, @mfaerik​, last week, I was able to use some of the photos and information I gathered from the interview to make three Day-in-the-life posts about Erik and his work this summer for MFA. 

Day #14

This week, I made some final changes on my infographic, and it was published on the MFA website and referenced on social media. I am proud of my work and hope it provides farmers across the state with helpful information. 

Over the past two days, I have taken on a variety of tasks, two of which have been to post ads on social media for a new MFA program with North Central Missouri College.

^My LinkedIn post^

The last few days, my big project has been to create interesting infographics using weekly crop data from the USDA. It was a challenge, but I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator (with some help from my coworker, Craig Weiland). After all my work, I can say I’m pretty proud of the first draft!

Day #7

I am learning that every day in the MFA communications brings something new. My task-load is always changing. I am becoming comfortable with skills I was not before, like copyediting, photography and layout.

The big task today was to finish copyediting and preparing the June-July edition of Today’s Farmer magazine for print!

I was able to contribute important suggestions that helped improve the publication. I look forward to working more on the next issue!

Over the past three days, I have done a lot of things:

1. I wrote a brief piece about the 2020 Ag Experience Interns (like me!) for the June-July issue of Today’s Farmer Magazine. I went through the accuracy check and editing process with Allison Jenkins, the editor on the communications team.

2. I sorted through the photos the communications department had on file to determine which photographs we do or do not need to track down for the annual MFA Kickoff Service Awards booklet. Of course, made a fancy excel sheet to keep myself organized.

3. Then, I worked in Photoshop to resize and crop the awardee photos we already had.

4. I completed some of my MFA on boarding videos on MFA University.

5. I reviewed the fundamentals of photography so I can get some practice on the camera Steve Fairchild, the Director of Communications, lent me.

6. And finally, I did some copyediting...

Day #1

Today is the first day of the 12-week internship, and I am getting eager with anticipation of what I am becoming a part of this summer.

From getting to know the other interns and learning about myself and other people a little more through the DISC program, today has started off as a great, helpful day!