Future dairy leaders get a boost with career development program

Dreaming of a career in dairy? Five of the world’s brightest and most driven university graduates will be given the chance to specialise in the dairy industry through The Alltech Dairy Career Development Program.

The program, which has run since early 2012, aims to develop future leaders in the dairy industry and values long-term talent development. Alltech will invest $1 million in the program for 2014, with the objectives of providing innovative formats for new nutritional technologies for dairies, improving animal health and welfare and increasing dairy farm profitability around the world.

Professor Maurice Boland, Alltech’s director of research, will head the program. Professor Boland is the former director of the University College Dublin-Teagasc Partnership.

Professor Maurice Boland (left), director of research for Alltech with Dr Pearse Lyons (centre), founder and president of Alltech and Holly Geraghty (right), marketing coordinator launching the Alltech Dairy Career Development Program.

“Graduates recruited today will make the strategic decisions of tomorrow,” Boland said. “The approach we will be taking is not just to instruct and share knowledge, but to show the graduates the route of experiential learning. The program allows graduates with a passion for dairy farming to develop solutions for emerging industry issues and make their stamp on this flourishing industry.”

Candidates will learn from innovative dairy production systems around the world, work on exciting nutritional dairy innovations and receive top-class training in Alltech’s Dairy Nutrition System. They will be placed in some of the world’s most progressive dairies to develop an understanding of the operation of a dairy business and will implement nutritional technologies to demonstrate an improvement in animal health, performance and profitability.

“Alltech is proud to offer innovative graduates the opportunity to further develop their talents and welcome applicants from all over the world. We aim to develop the next generation of dairy nutritionists ready to support the global expansion of milk production,” said Dr Pearse Lyons, Alltech’s founder and president.

“Next year will bring huge change to the European dairy industry with the removal of dairy quotas. We have never been as excited as we are today about the opportunities in this industry and we look forward to closely supporting it in the coming years with our talented team and innovative technologies.”

Alltech will accept applications from recent graduates with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in animal science, dairy science, dairy business or veterinary medicine from April 1 to 30. Successful applicants will commence in September 2014. For more information, visit www.alltech.com/dairygraduate