Truterra Dairy Systems Specialist - East Coast

Geographical significance

This position is expected to make frequent on-site visits to dairy farms in the East coast milkshed. Therefore, the ideal candidate would be located in the State of Pennsylvania, in order to facilitate frequent visits to farms.

Job Summary

The East Coast Truterra Dairy Systems Specialist role supports the implementation of the dairy portion of Truterra’s Climate Smart grant. This includes on-farm assessments using Truterra’s On-farm LCA GHG Tool (On-farm Tool) and interaction with farmers to discuss results and implications effectively.  The On-farm Tool is a component of best-in-class dairy environmental stewardship assessment/improvement guidance tools being developed for utilization by Truterra trained service providers to support Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods and other Truterra customers. Support for Truterra’s commercial programs will also be a focus of this position.

The successful candidate is expected to have a high proficiency working collaboratively with others, and a deep understanding of the needs of different dairy-based audiences. This position requires a customer service mindset, a flexible, can-do attitude and the ability to work independently, sometimes making executive decisions. Daily responsibilities will be to support Truterra’s USDA Climate Smart grant by way of visiting farms and performing assessments to fulfill the data collection needs of enteric, manure, feed and energy GHG footprint estimations.  The ideal candidate will have training and experience in either dairy nutrition or manure management, dairy farm experience and ability to develop and deliver communication materials (i.e., Powerpoint slide decks, summary charts, written documents for farmers, advisors and industry staff.

Responsibilities:

1.     Serve as part of a team to support USDA-Climate Smart grant goals of conducting 900 or more dairy GHG assessments and achieving impact on at least 400 dairies.

2.     Collect data for whole farm footprint assessments using the On-farm Tool, to support customer needs and USDA-Climate Smart grant deliverables, assist with customer training, work closely with dairy processor field team members to coordinate farm interactions and best customer experience.

3.     Develop efficient ways to meet assessment deliverables for Climate Smart Grant on East coast farms.

4.     Support in the timely delivery of assessment results to farms.  

5.     Interface with farm advisors and industry technical consultants to educate on Grant and other Truterra opportunities to benefit farms

6.     Discuss GHG reduction results with farmers, advisors and processor field representatives to support adoption (impact), tracking of practices adopted as a result of this work so it can be reported to USDA under the Grant.  

7.     Work with Truterra team to improve tool functionality, reports and reporting.

8.     Develop summary information from outcomes of the GHG accounting work.

9.     Assist with development and maintenance of project management documents (Gantt charts, accomplishment summaries, reports), as well as program training materials to continuously improve the program.

10.  US travel, primarily East Coast, approximately 20% to 40% depending on seasonality

Minimum Experience/Knowledge: 

• 5 years of professional experience 
• Undergraduate or higher degree or equivalent work experience in Agriculture, Animal Science, Agricultural Engineering, Environmental Science, or closely related field 
• Experience working with dairy farmers 
• MS Office 
• Strong communication skills 
• Project management skills 
• Self-starter 
• Accomplishment-oriented 

Preferred Experience/Knowledge 

• 5 or more years of documented dairy systems professional experience 
• In-depth understanding of climate change mitigation and adaptation methods available to dairy farmers 
• Experiential insights to conduct dairy whole farm environmental system scenario analysis 

Salary range: $91,120 - $136,680