THE WILLIAM H. MINER AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Summer Experience

Farm Management

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, Heather Dann, Wanda Emerich, 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 semester is $3,000, this includes housing in the Middleton Miller Student Housing Complex and breakfast and lunch each weekday in our on-site cafeteria.  A refundable $100 security deposit for the room is deducted from the first paycheck.

The 2024 program begins May 20 and ends August 16.

To Apply

Applicants are required to provide the following:

* Non-US residents should contact Miner Institute for additional details prior to completing application process.

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
emerich@whminer.com
518-846-7121, ext. 117
518-846-8445 (fax)

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