Innovative Livestock Services of Great Bend, Kan., opened its doors to more than 20 students from Great Bend, Larned, Macksville and Ellinwood, Kan., high schools for a hands-on, immersion experience with the ILS Farm Partnership on Nov. 2. Students were exposed to farm operations, equipment management, water management and more during the immersion experience designed to introduce high school students to career opportunities in production agriculture. 

ILS, a farming and cattle feeding business in Kansas and Nebraska, is always on the lookout for good talent, said Bronson Smith, ILS CEO. Hosting the immersion day was a tremendous opportunity to interact with high school students and open their eyes to potential professional opportunities.

“We are passionate about what we do at ILS, and this immersion day gave us a chance to share that excitement with young men and women beginning to make decisions about their future education and professional goals,” Smith said. “The students who participated were professional and eager to learn about what we do. There are good jobs available up and down the agriculture supply chain, and experiences like this hopefully opened the eyes of these students about opportunities in right front of them.”

In a multirotation format, the students learned about farm equipment and crop input management and safety. They got to try their hand at manually calculating crop yields and were given the chance to operate a combine and learn about tractor technology with support from BTI, a Kansas-based farm implement dealer. Valley Irrigation led the students in a rotation focused on irrigation and pivot management.

In addition, the Barton County Extension office provided a professional development rotation focused on proper etiquette and behavior in professional settings. The Kansas Department of Agriculture provided an overview of career and educational opportunities in agronomy in Kansas.

ILS has hosted a similar immersion experience for high school students at a cattle feeding operation, and it also has an internship program for college students. For more information about these or other initiatives, visit ilsbeef.com. 

Source: ILS