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Agriculture businesses recruit at World Dairy Expo

Agriculture businesses took advantage of an opportunity to recruit new employees during last week’s World Dairy Expo. 

Mike Creek

Agriculture-related businesses are constantly looking for new employees, and Mike Creek with TransOva Genetics says they are recruiting young people with or without a farm background. “A lot of our employees do have agricultural backgrounds, particularly bovine backgrounds, but we’re also recruiting for laboratory staff all of the time and team members there, R & D team members, those type of things, customer service members. Some of our best team members don’t have or didn’t come from an agricultural background.”

And, he says today’s new workforce places a high value on a good work-life balance. “On a whole, it’s probably equal to compensation.”

Along with schools, Creek says TransOva tries to establish a reputation in local communities and the industry to help attract employees, including work with local Chambers of Commerce.

Mike Creek at the World Dairy Expo Career Connections session with Brownfield’s Larry Lee
Lance Brown

Lance Brown with Lely North America says they’re always looking for people who want to work with cutting-edge technology like robotics and software development.  “You don’t have to have a farm background, but if you love robots, you love figuring out to do things autonomously, Lely and their Lely centers have a lot of opportunities for you to work on some really cool stuff.”

Brown says they also reach out to FFA members and to school robotics clubs.

Lance Brown at the World Dairy Expo Career Connections session with Brownfield’s Larry Lee
Sara Kruse

Sara Kruse is with ST Genetics. She tells Brownfield, “We have a very strong intern program, and we actually hire some of those interns that were fresh out of college.” Kruse says a wide variety of positions including entry-level, lab, sales, and working with animals are in need of quality people, and for many positions, ST Genetics can provide the necessary training.

Both say the challenge is to show young people there are great science, technology, engineering, and math careers within agriculture, and not all ag jobs are traditional farm work.

Sara Kruse at the World Dairy Expo Career Connections session with Brownfield’s Larry Lee

Creek, Brown, and Kruse spoke to Brownfield during the Career Connection session at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

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