What does the future of the Pennsylvania dairy industry look like? Many young herd managers get their start through the Center for Dairy Excellence and Dairy Excellence Foundation programs, including on-farm internships, pre-apprenticeships and a Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship program.

For Logan Keister, Rylee Fuller, Calvin Dechow, Adria Russell and Shara Allman, their paths to finding their passion in the dairy industry all look very different. Learn more about their journeys – from first exploring agriculture in high school to eventually finding a career as a full-time herd manager.

Getting their start in high school 

For Keister, a high school senior at Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, his interest in agriculture started on his grandfather’s beef farm. Keister hopes to be part of his family farm one day, but he doesn’t know exactly what that looks like. He decided to complete the Center for Dairy Excellence’s Dairy Laborer Pre-Apprenticeship Program – a gateway program into the Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship Program – to explore his options and make connections within the industry while he’s still in high school.

“The pre-apprenticeship has helped me learn about a lot of different opportunities in the dairy industry that I wouldn’t have ever thought of. I’ve also learned how to run an operation,” Keister shared. “I want to get my foot in the door of the agriculture world since I don’t know how long my family farm is going to stay around.”

Logan Keister, a high school senior, is completing a pre-apprenticeship program to get his foot in the door within the dairy industry.Image courtesy of Center for Dairy Excellence.

The pre-apprenticeship program gives him hands-on learning opportunities on dairy farms across Pennsylvania. These learning opportunities include immersive labs and farm tours that allow him to explore different careers and meet dairy professionals. Keister hopes to complete the Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship after graduation and maybe one day go to college. The options are endless, and the pre-apprenticeship program is giving him the foundation to build his skill sets and explore different career fields.

“I like all the hands-on experiences. Someone might be interested in agriculture, but they don’t know exactly what aspect they want to pursue. These experiences give us the chance to come out and see what goes into a dairy operation. We can make more informed decisions about what we want to do in our futures,” Keister said.

Entering the workforce through apprenticeship program 

For students who want to expand on what they learned in high school through the pre-apprenticeship program but aren’t sure if college is the right fit for them, the Center’s Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship program allows them to enter the workforce right away. Fuller works at Laurel Grove Farm in Pennsylvania. Just like Keister, she was enrolled in the pre-apprenticeship program during high school and loved what she learned from the dairy farmers who took the time to give her meaningful experiences. Fuller didn’t grow up on a dairy farm, so it shows just how powerful it can be for the current generation to mentor young people and give them a chance to learn.

“I called Laurel Grove Farm, a dairy farm in my area, and said, ‘I've never milked a cow before, but I want to try this.’ I just knew it was something I wanted to do. She [the farmer] showed me the ropes and then I started milking there. After that, the [herdswoman] on our farm would invite me to go along to do things with her such as taking blood for pregnancy checks,” Fuller shared. “I always went along and saw what she was doing. I really liked seeing all the extra things that you could do other than milking and how many people it takes to keep a farm going. That kind of sparked my interest.”

Knowing college wasn’t the path for her, Rylee Fuller is completing the Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship program. Image courtesy of Center for Dairy Excellence.

After graduating high school in June of 2024 and starting the Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship on the same dairy farm, Fuller continues to strengthen her skills. She’s currently responsible for milking cows, feeding calves, pushing and feeding, establishing vaccination protocols, helping with breeding, taking blood draws for pregnancy checks and more. She has about 2,000 hours left in her apprenticeship program.

“I enjoy being able to learn on the farm and have people around me who also give me opportunities to go to different workshops, so I can continue to further my education that way. I love being able to visit different farms and see how they do certain things versus how we do it on this farm,” Fuller shared. “I had a lot of pressure to go to college, but I knew it wasn’t really for me. This apprenticeship is a great experience, and I feel like I’m furthering my education without going to college.”

Completing on-farm internships during college

Dechow has been around cows for as long as he can remember, and pursuing a college degree in animal science at Pennsylvania State University made sense. After talking to dairy industry professionals who encouraged him to broaden his skill set and gain experience on a dairy farm outside of his grandparents’ operation, Dechow decided to complete an on-farm internship at Furnace Hill Holsteins in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, last summer.

“I wanted to get more experience and a different idea of what a functional day [looks like] on a dairy farm. My grandfather doesn’t milk anymore, so I wanted to be on a farm that does milk, get experience breeding and see the management side of dairy farming,” Dechow said. “I also talked to other people about finding jobs in the dairy industry. One of the biggest things they said was to get more on-farm experience.”

Calvin Dechow gained hands-on experience with breeding and genetics during his on-farm internship.Image courtesy of Center for Dairy Excellence.

On-farm experience is exactly what he received. Throughout the internship, Dechow gained direct skills and firsthand experience applying some of the breeding and genetic skills he learned in artificial insemination (A.I.) school. He also developed soft skills such as confidence and independence by being trusted to get the job done.

“They do a lot of genetic work and embryo transfers at this farm. Joel, my host farmer, let me breed and everything. He put a lot of trust in me to do that, which I’m appreciative of. The internship was extremely valuable,” Dechow shared.

Russell, another college student at Pennsylvania State University, raises show heifers and cows at her family’s small dairy operation. The on-farm internship gave her an inside look at a completely different-sized operation than her home farm. She interned at Kulp Family Dairy LLC in Pennsylvania, where they milk more than 2,700 cows across three farms.

“I’ve always had an interest in working in a lab setting, but I also really like the idea of working hands-on with animals. I was trying to decide whether I want to be in the barn every day or if I’d rather do field work or work in an office all day,” Russell said.

Adria Russell learned what it was like to work on a 2,700-cow dairy during her on-farm internship. Image courtesy of Center for Dairy Excellence.

“During the internship, you are getting to experience the nitty-gritty and what it’s really like to be working on the farm. It’s a really good experience. Whether I end up doing herd management or reproduction specifically, I definitely see myself being in the barn every day,” she added. “Even if you aren’t 100 percent sure about what you want to do after college, I would recommend [this internship] to others. You can figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are.”

Finding a rewarding career as herd manager

Whether students complete the Dairy Herd Manager apprenticeship or earn a college degree, their journeys are never the same and their paths are not always linear. However, through the foundation’s programs, finding a rewarding career as a herd manager is a very real possibility for many of them. Allman, a full-time herd manager at S&A Kreider and Sons in Pennsylvania, is a true example of that. Allman graduated in 2021 from Pennsylvania State University, where she studied animal science and minored in Spanish. Now, she is living out her dreams at the farm level and working with cows on a daily basis.

In 2019, during her college career, Allman completed an on-farm internship where she gained in-depth skills that she continues to utilize to this day.

“I wanted to do something different and meet new people. I already knew a lot of the farmers in our area. I worked on two different dairies up in New York through the On-Farm Internship Program that were bigger, really progressive, and technologically advanced and efficient,” Allman said. “I learned a lot of hands-on skills through the internship as far as IV'ing cows and breeding cows.”

After completing on-farm internships throughout her college career, Shara Allman found a rewarding career as a full-time herd manager on a dairy operation after graduation. Image courtesy of Center for Dairy Excellence.

Allman has been in the herd manager role for almost three years. She has expanded on the herd management skills she learned through her on-farm internship and is now contributing to the Pennsylvania dairy industry every day with her knowledge and passion.

“My role is everything related to health and reproduction of the cows. I treat sick cows, watch transition cows, assist in calvings and breed. I really like diagnosing sick cows, coming up with a treatment plan, discussing with the vet each week to tweak the plan, and see cows progress and get better. Seeing a cow and knowing her life story, or where she’s at in her lactation, is pretty rewarding,” Allman added.

The Center for Dairy Excellence manages the Dairy Laborer Pre-Apprenticeship program and Dairy Herd Manager Apprenticeship program to give young professionals the opportunity to explore careers in the dairy industry and one day join the workforce. 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. To learn more about these programs, contact Michelle Shearer, the workforce development manager.

Visit the website to learn more about how you can join our mission and help build the next generation of dairy.

With less than 2% of the U.S. population directly involved in production agriculture, the Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania was created to expose students to agriculture-related careers and inspire the producers, consumers and advocates of tomorrow. This is an overview of the foundation’s recent impact.