When Hanna Snelgrove decided to begin a career in agriculture, she didn't let her lack of experience in the field stand in her way.

Intrigued by the idea of becoming an agronomist, she reached out to Crop Management, a crop retail outlet selling agricultural products that also provides agronomic expertise. Snelgrove worked with them for a year, learning more about what being an agronomist would entail. She liked what she saw and decided to invest in post-secondary studies to become an agronomist.

“Lakeland was definitely the best option,” Snelgrove, from Camrose, Alta., explains. “I really wanted to be an agronomist and Lakeland had a lot of agronomy-based technology. The fact that I'd be on their farm, driving equipment and getting that first-hand experience, it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Studying crop technology at Lakeland gave Snelgrove the opportunity to build on the foundation of knowledge she had gained from her year working at Crop Management.

“When I got to Lakeland, I was able to expand on that knowledge and deepen my understanding,” she explains. “Lakeland's instructors are amazing, you can go to them for any reason.”

While studying at Lakeland, Snelgrove continued to work for Crop Management over the summers. During her second year, a project on the Student-Managed Farm - Powered by New Holland (SMF) brought Snelgrove's agricultural experience full circle.

Snelgrove was the research manager for the SMF's crop unit and the unit was looking into different options for a student-led demo on the farm.

“We were looking for a project that was very producer-focused, something that would be easy for producers to implement on their own operations if they saw what we had done and wanted to explore it as an option for themselves,” Snelgrove explains. “We wanted something producers could relate to and decided to look into alternative fertilizers for producers that would be more sustainable for the environment.”

While the student research team brainstormed ideas for their project, they decided to investigate Crystal Green, a continuous release root-activated phosphorus fertilizer. When they ran into challenges sourcing the product because it wasn't yet available in the Vermilion area, Snelgrove, who had been introduced to the product while working at Crop Management, was able to source it from them.

The product also needed to be used on a field that hadn't had manure used on it for fertilizer, because of elevated phosphorus levels. Conveniently, Lakeland had also just acquired a piece of land that was untouched and the perfect location for the trial. They were able to use it on the canola planted on that new field.

“We wanted to see the effects Crystal Green would have on the crops,” Snelgrove says. “We wanted to look at at emergence rates, yield, maturity as well as differences in root mass.”

After graduating from Lakeland in 2021, Snelgrove's summer job with Crop Management turned into a full-time position in the career she had been aiming for. She is now a location administrator and inside sales agronomist.

Snelgrove is looking forward to incorporating the hands-on experience she gained at Lakeland into her career.

“It's been a long journey, going from not knowing what crops were to having this as a full-time job,” she says. “I found this industry and made so many friends at Lakeland, many who also work in this industry. I really like the company I work for and always have. I want to keep working in this industry for as long as I can."