OVERVIEW: Work Experience for Farm Management students includes milking, herd health, calves, and a variety of field work activities such as tillage, planting, and harvest. The students fit and show a string of dairy cattle at the local county fair. The Summer Experience in Farm Management introduces students to the modern farm as a business, which has as its objective the conversion of plants into milk and meat. All students will be asked to work long hours on occasion, but no more so than would normally be expected on a dairy farm. Students work approximately every other weekend.
Weekly meetings update the students about farm activities; a combination of dairy, crops and equine. Extended sessions on relevant topics such as nutrition, reproduction, mastitis management, animal health, and field crops will be held throughout the summer. Instructors include Miner Institute faculty members Katie Ballard, Kurt Cotanch, Heather Dann, Wanda Emerich, Eric Young, Rick Grant, Karen Lassell, and graduate students. The small class size makes it possible to at least partially tailor the program to meet the needs of each student. Students interested in careers in veterinary medicine, farm management, vocational agriculture and agricultural extension have found this program to be particularly useful. Students will have the opportunity to enroll in an Artificial Insemination certification course offered in cooperation with personnel from a bull stud.
ENROLLMENTS, CREDITS, & COMPENSATION
This program is available to agriculture and life science students in their junior or senior years of study. Students are encouraged to register for college credit at their home institution, and are responsible for making arrangements for credits. This program is designed as a 4-credit course, although other arrangements may be made through the student’s home institution. Each student’s wage for the 13-week semester is $3,000. The students live at Miner Institute where student housing, and breakfast and lunch each weekday are provided for a cost of $300 for the summer.
The 2017 program begins May 22 and ends August 18.
TO APPLY
Applicants are required to provide the following:
• Completed Summer Experience application
• Copy of college transcript
• Two letters of recommendation, one must be from college advisor
• Letter outlining career goals and reasons for application
Please include any experience with field crop or livestock production.
Printable farm management internship brochure
SEND COMPLETED APPLICATIONS AND LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION BY FEB. 15 TO:
Wanda Emerich
Dairy Outreach Coordinator
Miner Institute
1034 Miner Farm Rd.
PO Box 90
Chazy, New York 12921
518-846-7121, ext. 117
518-846-8445 (fax)