Bob Nielsen has been “The Purdue Corn Guy” for decades, but he recently went half-time as he prepares to retire this year or next. With that, Purdue has a new “Corn Guy”. Dan Quinn is the new Purdue Extension Corn Specialist.
“I’m originally from Central Michigan. I grew up in a farming family up there between Grand Rapids and Lansing. I was able to do my education at Michigan State. So, I did a bachelor’s and master’s in crop and soil science at Michigan State, working in everything from corn, soybeans, sugar beets, potatoes, all of the above. I really got introduced to Extension applied research and kind of fell in love with it. I moved down to Lexington, Kentucky for my PhD, so I worked at the University of Kentucky for the last 3 years. I worked a lot with corn and cover crops.”
Quinn says he’s excited to be in Indiana and is really looking forward to meeting farmers and working with them.
“There’s a lot of corn in the state. There are a lot of really good corn farmers in the state, a lot of good soils, just good production. So, just being able to work with those folks and getting to work with everyone across state, getting research out there, and getting to meet and speak with everyone, you know that’s a big learning thing for me… So, just learning everything I can. I’m so excited to learn from the folks in this state- just great people from what I’ve seen so far. Great farmers. It’s just a great state to be in.”
You can hear more from Quinn as he joins Nielsen and Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel in the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, dropping this week at hoosieragtoday.com. You can also check out Quinn’s website, The Kernel, for the latest corn information.