MI - Pullet/Production Internship

Herbruck Poultry Ranch•Saranac, MI

About The Position

Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch offers a paid, 12-week summer internship for students early in their careers who are considering agriculture. Interns apply classroom learning in real-world situations and develop project management, problem-solving, and communication skills through service-learning opportunities, community outings, field experience, and professional development lunch-and-learns. As a Pullet and Production Intern, you will work with Flock Service, Manure, Maintenance, and Service Crew members to learn how a pullet and layer site operates. The internship focuses on production data, project planning and execution, farm organization, continuous improvement, safety and compliance, and project closeout and reporting.

Requirements

Be enrolled in a program related to agriculture, such as Animal Science, Poultry Science, Poultry Management, or Agribusiness.
Do not own or have contact with birds or swine while interning, due to biosecurity regulations.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience in an agricultural environment, such as a family farm or larger operation.
Work experience with animals, people, or machinery.
Mechanical aptitude and maintenance experience.
Action-oriented approach, with urgency, energy, and enthusiasm when taking on opportunities and challenges.
Ability to communicate effectively across different modes and audiences.
Nimble learning through experimentation and learning from successes and failures.
Resourcefulness in securing and deploying resources effectively and efficiently.
Commitment to self-development through formal and informal learning opportunities.

Responsibilities

Contribute to the production team’s project schedules, budgets, and production goals.
Manage incremental improvement projects, monitoring progress against scope and available resources and helping estimate the time, resources, and personnel needed.
Analyze production input and output data and create project work scopes with the Production Farm Manager.
Maintain project schedules and timelines, participate in kick-offs, execute work plans, and promptly update schedules when scope changes.
Alert the Production Farm Manager to changes that could affect project scope, schedule, or completion.
Help coordinate and schedule compliance or safety audits during projects.
Keep the farm organized throughout projects, help coordinate and supervise production activities, and create and maintain daily production reports.
Review farm conditions and their effects on other disciplines, including construction, maintenance, manure, flock service, compliance, and service crew.
Prepare, schedule, and report on project closeout.
Collaborate with teams across Herbruck’s and regularly communicate with managers, supervisors, Compliance, and Bird Crew about project design, scope, schedule, and budget changes.
Promote safety, encourage safe work practices, rectify site hazards promptly, and support safety and compliance training by addressing audit findings and helping create and update training at Herbruck’s University.
Attend daily supervisor stand-up meetings and compile and communicate farm-wide action items.
Assist the Pullet and Production Manager with communication, project photography and documentation, data collection and analysis, and office administrative work.
Communicate project deliverable needs and success factors to Herbruck’s leadership at the end of the summer.
Perform other related duties as assigned.