Technician - Breeder Service Technician

This is a Farm Service Technician position. 

Farm Service Technician

This individual will monitor the flock records, provide poultry health services, and advise the producer regarding feeding program and general flock management. Displaying and driving George’s Inc. Values that the company was founded on nearly one hundred years ago by ensuring contract growers are practicing good animal husbandry and producing quality product in an efficient and safe manner. The ideal candidate would possess our core values of Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Teamwork, and Excellence.

• Reviews weekly records. Monitors and responds to bird weight and uniformity, mortality, feed consumption, and blood and fat sampling.
• Performs bird health functions. Ensure grower has set up house correctly, prior to layers arriving at contract houses.
• Works with labs to get flock diseases diagnosed.
• Monitors and responds to house cleanliness, ventilation, feeding and water system, and fly and rodent control problems. Including monitoring of the applicable animal welfare policies.
• Identifies problems or potential problems and works through possible solutions alongside growers and Live Operations Management.
• Follows the philosophy of George’s Inc. feed program in coordination with flock health.
• Performs all other duties as directed by the Live Operations Manager and Broiler Manager.
• Takes supplies to growers to include vaccines, rodent control, etc.
• Vaccinates each flock.
• Adheres to George’s Inc. “Five Freedoms” for every animal that comes from our farms.
• Keep accurate records - ensuring growers are keeping accurate records: mortality, outside access log, sanitation data sheets, etc.
• Take blood and fat samples. Processes and sends to appropriate lab.
• Always look for ways to improve the flock.
• Work closely with other flock supervisors and growers.
• Helps drive all of George’s Inc. Environment Management Systems (EMS) in a manner to assist in minimizing our environmental impact.
• Upholds high standards of Animal Welfare Policy.

SUMMARY:  The Breeder Service Technician is responsible for managing the relationship between George’s and contractor growers which includes inspection of the farms for compliance with contractual agreements, animal welfare and biosecurity regulations, as well as animal husbandry practices. The Breeder Service Technician ensures each grower successfully achieves set performance metrics by recommending changes in facilities, equipment, and medication to improve production, based on knowledge of poultry farming, hatchery operations and processing.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Inspect farms for compliance with contract and cooperative agreement standards and advises farmers regarding development programs to aid in producing quality poultry products.
• Tour farms to inspect facilities and equipment for adequacy, sanitation and efficiency of operations.
• Examine chickens for evidence of disease and growth rate to determine effectiveness of medication and feeding programs.
• Recommend changes in facilities, equipment, and medication to improve production, based on knowledge of poultry farming, hatchery operations and processing.
• Inform farmers of new procedures and techniques, government regulations and company and association production standards to enable them to upgrade farms and meet requirements.
• Recommend laboratory testing of diseased chickens, feeds, and supplements or gathers samples and takes them to plant laboratory for analysis.
• Report findings of farm conditions, laboratory tests, recommendations and farmers’ reactions to keep manager apprised of farmers’ efforts to furnish quality products.
• Responsible for using proper Animal Welfare techniques and following biosecurity guidelines as deemed necessary by the manager.
• Analyze reports for hatch, fertility, weight, etc and creates action plans for improvement.  
• Manage full lifecycle of birds in excess of 18 months. 
• Oversight of production and placement of over 4mm eggs per week.
• Operating budget over $25MM.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position will not have supervisory responsibility.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

·        Required

• High School Diploma or equivalent and 3+ years of experience in live poultry operations OR Bachelor’s Degree in Poultry Science, Animal Science or related field. 
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word

• Preferred
• MTech experience.