Alex Coursen grew up on a 60-cow robotic dairy near State College, Pennsylvania. This summer, he decided to complete an on-farm internship at Hemdale Farms in Clifton Springs, New York. While he has experience working on a robotic dairy, Hemdale Farms was a push outside his comfort zone – the farm milks approximately 1,400 cows and is more than 200 miles away from his hometown.
“Even when I’m at school, I’m only 30 minutes away from home, so this was definitely out of my comfort zone,” Alex said. “Moving three hours away was a bit of an adjustment, and my days look much different here than any day I have had at home.”
As a sophomore studying animal science at Penn State University, Alex expanded on his skills through the on-farm internship. He focused a lot of his time each day treating sick cows, starting each morning assisting with treatments and then helping the herdsman throughout the day with daily chores. He also had the opportunity to shadow Hemdale Farms’ on-farm robot technician to learn more about maintenance and problem solving.
“26 robots compared to one robot is a big difference. I got to see and do a lot of different things in a day,” Alex shared. “Because there are a lot of cows, you can get a lot of practice on them. It helped better skills that I didn’t have the opportunity to do at home.”
On top of his daily tasks, each on-farm intern is encouraged to complete a research project that benefits the dairy operation. Alex has been focusing on the farm’s fresh cow treatments, updating and changing those protocols with input from their veterinarian. He also worked on streamlining the process of entering treatments into their management software.
When thinking about his future, Alex hopes to pursue a career in dairy farming and production. The internship has helped him gain dairy farming experiences in a new location with different regulations, cultures, and on a much larger scale.
“Gaining the relationships and getting to learn how they take care of their animals, while maintaining such a large operation, has been very valuable,” Alex added.
The Dairy Excellence Foundation, the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association provide $3,000 grants to support the on-farm internship program each summer. Learn more.