Buyer - Feed Procurement

Looking for an exciting buying career in agriculture? Christensen Farms is looking to add an additional member to our Feed buying team. Christensen farms offers a hybrid work schedule with a mix of remote and in office days during the week.

Christensen Farms is one of the largest, family-owned pork producers in the United States, marketing approximately 3 million hogs per year. Headquartered in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, the company operates throughout the Midwest with facilities in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and South Dakota. Christensen Farms owns four feed mills, manages 145,000 sows on 44 farms, and oversees more than 350 nurseries and grow-finish sites. The company employees nearly 1,000 people and maintains 1,500 contract partnerships.

The company is vertically integrated with a strong presence across the pork value chain from farm to fork. Christensen Farms is the largest shareholder of Triumph Foods LLC, a producer-owned primary pork processing plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. In turn, Triumph Food members own 50 percent of Daily's Premium Meats, a specialty pork processor bacon and other premium pork products. Triumph Foods also holds a 50 percent partnership in Seaboard Triumph Foods, LLC of Sioux City, Iowa, a primary pork processing plant.

Position Overview & Responsibilities:

This person will negotiate, purchase and schedule logistics of ingredients for all our feed mill locations daily. Coordinate with local plant staff to accomplish defined logistics, purchasing, and follow up. Create and support the development and execution of purchasing strategies. Identify, source, and manage relative value ingredients for optimum value with the aid of the formulation system. The role includes spot and forward purchasing of bulk ingredients, relative value ingredient identification, supplier contracts and bids, and transportation logistics. This person will work closely with plant and nutrition personnel to ensure timely delivery of quality ingredients that optimize overall best cost strategies for the company.

Major Areas of Accountability:

Purchasing:

• Negotiate best price and terms with suppliers on all ingredients and freight.
• Direct responsibility for purchasing corn, soybean meal, fats, distillers grains, bakery, and soybean hulls and indirect responsibility for purchasing non-commodity ingredients for our feed mill locations.
• Coordinate with location support staff and determine appropriate level of local purchasing and logistics support.
• Monitor toll ingredient pricing and challenge them on cost, support them to lower cost, or merchandise in at their price at a profit.
• Communicate, coordinate, and/or administer purchases according to defined purchase order and accounting processes.
• Develop value added relationships with key suppliers.
• Identify and supervise the execution of supplier contracts.
• Identify new suppliers for existing ingredients.
• Conduct FOB vs. delivered analysis to reduce cost of delivered ingredients.
• Identify and schedule truck logistics in coordination with local plant staff.
• Update ingredient purchasing specifications in coordination with plant and nutrition staff to ensure defined ingredient quality.
• Monitor quality control claims on ingredients.

Relative Value Merchandising/Formulation:

• Ensure accurate weekly market ingredient price updates. Coordinate with staff to execute updates weekly.
• Leadership in relative value merchandising and effectiveness.
• Understand and use relative value spreads between ingredients to maintain existing ingredient relative values. Forward plan ingredient requirements based on forward relative values.
• Identify and execute on reformulation and savings opportunities to maintain best cost formulas.
• Identify new ingredient opportunities and their relative value.
• Ensure up to date ingredient nutrient profiles on all ingredients.

General:

• Keep up to date on research trials conducted internally and participate in periodic research update meetings.

Education, Training and Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent preferred.
• At least 2 years' experience in ingredient purchasing and logistics in the feed industry, agricultural field preferred.
• Must have prior experience and knowledge of the feed industry, ingredient purchasing and logistics, relative value merchandising, and formulation Expertise in both technical and fundamental principles and practices of grain merchandising.
• Intermediate level Microsoft Excel skill is required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong negotiation and analytical skills.
• Requires individual initiative and competitive drive.
• Ability to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Results focused individual that thrives on organizational progress.
• Ability to produce results in a fast-paced environment.

Christensen Farms is an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy to select the most qualified person for each position in the organization. No employee of CF will discriminate against any applicant for employment or a fellow employee because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, citizenship status, genetic information, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other prohibited basis under applicable local, state, or federal law.