Live Production Intern Day in the Life

To get a sense of what a typical day is like for a Live Production Intern, take a look at a day in the life of Kelsey who worked in the turkey barns and in our Spicer, Minnesota office.  This is an entry from her sixth week at Jennie-O Turkey Store.  Start and end times have some flexibility with each internship offered.

5:00am
Report to work, unlock the office door, punch in on the time clock, turn the TV on to check the day’s weather forecast, put my boots on and head out to 1 Barn.

5:10am
Pick dead birds in 1 Barn. Check the feed lines and make sure the waters are not running over. Check overall bird health. Record the mortality in the barn and bring dead birds to the incinerator. Start picking dead in 2 Barn. Kathy, the farm manager that I work with usually meets me in this barn. She picks dead in 3 Barn while I am picking dead in 1 Barn. The same procedure is done in all three barns.

6:30am
Usually done picking dead by this time, unless the birds are younger, then it takes longer because you have more record keeping. We take a coffee break and get a game plan for the day. We watch the weather and decide on how many of the doors are going to be open on the barns. Today the high is 85 with thunderstorms forecasted. Tomorrow’s high is 92 with very high humidity so we will be opening the barns up.

6:45am
Get the tiller started and head into 1 Barn. Kathy runs the tiller and I move waters and use a flag to move the birds away from the tractor and tiller. The tiller is attached to the back of a tractor and is used to till the bedding. This helps keep the bedding dry. We have to raise all the stoves, waters, and feed lines in the air. We go back and forth on the East side and then finish on the West side. We have to lower all the feed lines, stoves, and waters back and then count and record the birds that have been culled while we tilled.

9:00am
We are done tilling 1 Barn. We head to the office and take a water break. It’s starting to get hot!

9:20am
We start to head over to barn 3. We till 3 Barn. Same procedure in 1 Barn. We till Barn 1 and 3 on Monday and Thursdays. 2 Barn gets tilled on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays we do maintenance, rat bait, spray for weeds and move waters.

11:00am
We are done tilling 3 Barn. We bring all the culled birds to the incinerator and start it for the day. Then head to the office for a lunch break.

11:15am
We walk the barns and check temperatures. We open the doors on the North side to get a cross draft in the barns.

11:45am
I leave the farm and head for home to quickly shower and get dressed for the office. It’s about a 20-minute drive home from the farm and then a 20-minute drive to the Spicer office from where I live.

1:00pm
I start my computer and get updated on what is going on in the office. I check my email and check in with a couple of people in the office.

1:15pm
I begin to put data into the computer from my research project. I have been collecting weights from various farms and foot pad scores. I will enter them into the computer and run different reports to see if there is a correlation between these two. Today I entered 14 different flocks and have updated the main database.

5:00pm
I shut down my computer, pack up my data, and get ready for my next day.

*** Once a week I take a day off from the farm and drive to different farms and do my research project. Biosecurity is the main concern while I do my schedule of what farms to visit.