Hi, I'm John Pirrung, the new summer field technician for the SWNYDLFC team. I just graduated from Cornell University's College of Agriculture & Life Sciences with a bachelor's degree in environmental science and am most experienced in agriculture, especially with weeds, pests, and soil quality. In addition to working in this area, I'm planning to learn more about dairy production and livestock in my time with the team, so you'll be seeing me around.

This summer I'll be working on a number of different research projects. For many of these projects I'll be working as a scout, surveying fields for insect damage, weeds, and diseases. I'll also be collecting and analyzing all sorts of samples, collecting data on things like crop yields, pest counts, and pesticide efficacy. Quite a bit of this summer will be spent on the road, so while I'm based out of Southern Erie County, I'll be working on farms in all five of the counties that the team covers. 

In addition to my hands-on work collecting data for the research projects, I'll also be helping the team with outreach programming. Whether that's just by contributing to the newsletter (like this article) or by helping to organize workshops, I'll be making sure that our educational outreach content makes sense, looks good, and reaches a wide audience. Looking forward to meeting you!