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Plant Breeder Intern (Summer 2021)

PLANT BREEDER INTERN (Summer 2021)

Conagra Brands has the most energized, highest-impact culture in food. Our people persistently challenge and disrupt marketplace/business conventions and we are respected for our great brands, great food, great margins and consistent results. Conagra Brands, be part of building something BIG.

What Can You Expect from Your Internship?
Your internship will be an 11-week immersion into Conagra Brands. We place a high value on intellectual curiosity and will expect you to help uncover inefficiencies, improve capabilities, and ultimately enable growth with the support of your team. To enhance your overall understanding of our company, we will provide opportunities to network with peers and leaders to gain an appreciation for the breadth of career paths available at Conagra Brands. 

  • Location: Brookston, IN
  • Paid Internship
  • Housing Assistance will be available to those who do not have housing in the location of their internship
  • Social and Professional Development Opportunities, such as Intern Orientation, Lessons from Leaders and a Summer Send Off
  • Functional and Cross Functional Trainings, Overviews, and Learnings

Below is the list of activities to be performed by the Plant Breeding Intern, activities include field, laboratory and office operations performed some concurrently or individually depending on the time period, during the growing season:

Field Operations

  • Assist with layout and planting of nursery and yield trials
  • Assist with elaboration of stakes to identify field plots
  • Assist with crew management to clean and maintain nursery weed free
  • Assist with the generation of row bands to identify nursery plots and yield trial plots
  • Assist in data collection on yield trials
  • Assist with crew management in the following nursery operations:
  • Shoot bagging
  • Pollination
  • Bloom date data collection at nursery and yield trials
  • Collection of phenotypic data on pre-commercial and commercial inbred lines and hybrids for characterization
  • Nursery harvest and procurement of samples for popping from yield trials

Laboratory Operations

  • Assist with crew operations in the following activities:
  • Oversee that proper shelling procedures are followed during the shelling of nursery plots according to breeder direction
  • Shelling operation
  • Place in plot order shelled nursery plots prior to inventory
  • Cleanup of popping samples from yield trials
  • Layout and arrange samples to be popped in conditioning room
  • Monitor samples to be popped in conditioning room until all are stabilized at 14% moisture
  • Pop yield trial samples

Office Operations

  • Assist in the planning and preparation of yield trials and nurseries
  • Assist with the generation of pull lists of seed
  • Pull seed from cold room for seed preparation
  • Prepare (count) seed
  • Re-inventory seed of items pulled from cold room for yield trial and nurseries
  • Return envelopes to cold room
  • Arrange seed envelopes for yield trials or nurseries
  • Inventory new seed harvested from nursery
  • Assist in the data capture from observations in yield trials and nurseries
  • Assist in data summarization of nursery and yield trial data

Are You the Right Candidate?
We’re looking for a driven, highly motivated individual who wants to be part of cultivating the most energized, highest impact culture in the food industry. If you are craving an opportunity to build your talents, make a difference, and be empowered to kick start your professional career in a refuse-to-lose environment, then we want to meet you! We encourage you to discover your own potential and we will provide you with unparalleled opportunities to make an impact. Qualified candidates:

  • Are currently enrolled in a degree program with at least one semester remaining after your internship
  • Are pursuing a degree in Agribusiness, Agronomy, Horticulture, Plant Breeding, Plant Pathology, Biology or related field
  • Master’s Degree strongly preferred
  • Knowledge of plant breeding and work experience in a plant breeding program
  • Knowledge of genetics, molecular, quantitative and statistical genetics
  • Knowledge and experience in marker assisted selection and prediction models
  • Knowledge of Statistics and experimental design
  • Are able and willing to relocate
  • Have a continuous improvement mindset and ability to make data driven decisions
  • Desire to pursue a career in plant breeding
  • Must attach a resume to your application and should indicate anticipated graduation date
  • Must not require visa sponsorship now or in the future and must be authorized to work in the United States