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Shyanne Ackerman grew up on a 100-cow, tie-stall dairy operation. When she had the chance to complete an On-Farm Internship this summer at Rohrer Dairy – a 1,700-cow dairy farm with a rotary parlor that’s vastly different from what she experienced growing up – she jumped at the opportunity. As she prepares to begin her senior year at SUNY Morrisville where she studies dairy management, Shyanne was looking to gain more hands-on experience.
“I wanted to get more on-farm experience in addition to what I’m getting at school. I didn’t really care what size farm, but this experience on a larger farm has definitely been very eye-opening,” she shared.
One of Shyanne’s goals heading into the internship was to expand on her breeding skills, using the foundation she had built in one of her college classes.
“We started breeding right away during my first week of the internship. And now I’m definitely improving. I just bred three today. I’m going to start breeding the heifers down in the breeding pens, so I’ll be in charge of that,” she explained. “I definitely wanted more experience breeding, because even though we had the breeding class at school, we didn’t really get to confirm any pregnancies or anything.”
Part of the On-Farm Internship includes a research project that should benefit the dairy operation. Shyanne’s project focuses on enhancing herd health protocols and studying the reports provided through the farm’s smart boluses and smaXtec technology – tools the farm uses to prevent mastitis and other diseases in their cows.
“The farm has a new product that they’re trying to use to prevent mastitis. It’s called Aspi. They have smart boluses and smaXtec in about every cow, and then they have an Aspi report on the smaXtec. I check that [report] every day, and then we’ll compare the graphs with the milk weights, conductivity, and somatic cell count to figure out which cows we want to give Asby to,” Shyanne said. “I’ve been able to put into practice what I learned at school. We can talk about it all we want in class, but being here and actually experiencing how mastitis and ketosis works has been really eye-opening.”
Working on a large dairy farm has allowed Shyanne to be hands-on with the herd and spend most of her days on the cow side of the operation, which she has enjoyed.
“I’m hoping to stay in some sort of dairy or herd management role. Back home I would do a little bit of everything from milking to helping in the fields. During this internship, I’ve been with the cows pretty much all day. It’s very interesting to see how they act and everything,” she added.
What would she tell another student who’s considering the On-Farm Internship Program?
“I would definitely encourage the internship. Getting the extra experience in addition to learning everything in school is definitely a positive – and just getting to experience the day to day on a farm.”
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The Dairy Excellence Foundation, the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association provide $3,000 grants to support these on-farm internships each summer.