Hometown: New Park, PA

School: Pennsylvania State University

Major / Species: Animal Science with Minor in Agribusiness

Career Goals:  My career plan is to stay in Pennsylvania and be a full-time farmer growing crops and running a successful seedstock operation where I will sell my calves as show prospects and as quality livestock to improve herds. I have come to the career option through my love of livestock from raising and showing ever since I was little. I have always raised livestock and it is the only career I see myself in the future. In order to reach this lifestyle and career goal I have to have an alternate source of income until my operation is fully sustainable and financially stable. I plan to work as a beef herd manager or farm manager as my alternative revenue source. As I have many skills and options towards this career I have already worked as an acting herd manager as an intern. To make myself a better suitable for the profession I am pursuing, at college I am continuing to grow in my knowledge of the beef and related industries as well as how to care and raise livestock with more efficiency and quality. I am also improving my management practices and financial skills through the business classes I am taking with my minor. All of this will help me become more efficient and productive as a stockman and entrepreneur.

During my first summer and winter breaks I have worked for Select Sire Power Inc. breeding and synchronizing cows and also marketing bulls to customers. Then this previous summer and winter breaks I have worked at Roseda Black Angus Farm which is where I worked as an acting herd manager. At Roseda I was in charge of roughly 600 head of cattle that incorporated every part of the beef industry as we raised bulls to lease and sell to farmers, operated a cow/calf herd to maintain and improve our own herd quality, as we also finished out cattle who were sold in our store as premium beef. I had a hand in every part of this operation as I bred the cows, attested in calving, helped market bulls, fed the feedlot, and even helped with the field work as well. Being incorporated in some many different parts of the industry I really enjoy my internship there and since there is a herd manager position open there I am planning on working there as an intern again this summer and continue into a full-time career after college.