Boar Stud/ Lab Technician

Carthage System; Lewistown (IL); On-site; USD 17,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

Carthage System is seeking a farm operations team member to coordinate staff and oversee the processing and packaging of semen collections. Responsibilities include daily order management, equipment setup, and maintaining rigorous sanitation practices to ensure product quality.

You will also perform data-entry duties, conduct quality checks, and assist with feeding and general maintenance. This role requires reliability, attention to detail, and willingness to work nontraditional hours.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate employees into a highly effective team to produce a high quality product efficiently.
• Process and package collections, analyzing and packaging semen into the appropriate container.
• Check for order changes; monitor emails and phone orders daily to update the order log.
• Set up equipment and supplies before collection to ensure smooth night operations.
• Clean and sanitize machines and components nightly to prevent contamination.
• Write daily order slips detailing farm names, dates, genetic lines, and doses.
• Record doses and genetic lines, enter new pigs into the system, and monitor daily counts.
• Troubleshoot equipment to prevent production delays and fix issues promptly.
• Perform quality checks on batches, including motility and concentration checks as per protocol.
• Maintain general cleanliness of the farm areas including baths, offices, and bathrooms.
• Inform management when supplies run low and need replenishment.
• Assist with feeding animals daily and share weekend/holiday feeding duties as required.
• Assist in other areas as needed, such as rodent control and facility upkeep.
• Perform routine maintenance tasks like changing filters and lubricating machine parts.

Job description

Coordinate employees into a highly effective team to produce a high quality product in the most efficient manner.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Process and package collections.
  • The majority of the shift will be spent analyzing and packaging semen into the appropriate container to be used by the farm. Not all collections will pass due to structural and movement problems.
• Check for order changes.
  • Farms send their orders in either by email or phone. Check for messages and emails on a daily basis to keep the order log up-to-date. The managers use this order log to estimate how busy they will be and if they need to make adjustments.
• Set up equipment and items needed to process and package collections.
  • In order to help the night run smoothly, certain equipment and supplies need to be set up before the collection process begins. This may include mixing extender, preparing the vats, setting out pipette tips, slides, cover slips, etc.
• Cleaning and sanitizing machines and components.
  • At the end of the night, all equipment, hoses, countertops, machines, etc. need to be cleaned and disinfected. Doing this nightly helps prevent potential problems like killing the sperm and bacterial contamination in the doses.
• Write order slips.
  • The delivery drivers need to know which bags of doses go to which farms and how many doses they should have. So a packing slip, which is color coded by route, is included in the bag that has the farm name, date, genetic line, and number of doses they should be getting. These slips need to be written up on a daily basis.
• As a lab employee, you are responsible for writing down orders, figuring how many doses and how many of each genetic line are needed that day, entering new pigs into the system, keeping track of the number doses collected so far during the shift, etc. It is essential to keep accurate records in order to prevent problems such as making too many doses or not enough, to name one.
• Troubleshooting equipment.
  • The equipment used during the processing or packaging will sometimes develop problems which effect production and need to be fixed immediately. So it is necessary to identify the problem and how to correct it in a timely manner to keep production on track.
• Complete quality checks.
  • In order to identify a problem with a certain batch before the farm notices breeding problems, samples taken from batches need to be checked for motility even on the weekends. Based on the established protocol, the farm has an outside source check certain doses for concentration, contamination, and anything else the managers and veterinarian think is necessary.
• General cleanliness and sanitation.
  • Keeping all areas of the farm clean will have a positive effect on performance. This may involve mopping, cleaning the warm water baths, power washing, cleaning the office and bathroom area, scraping manure and/or feed, doing laundry and other cleaning assignments deemed necessary by the production and site managers.
• Inform management when supplies are needed.
  • When certain supplies are running low, tell the site manager so they can order the items needed and keep the farm running smoothly.
• Assist with feeding.
  • The animals need to be feed on a daily basis. The main duty will be actually dropping the feed, but also includes the refilling feed boxes, scraping feed pads the, filling the feed carts, scooping feed to boars in pens, and any other associated duties. Since the boars do not take vacations, all employees on the farm are required to share the weekend and holiday feeding schedule equally.
• Assist in other areas as needed.
  • Help in the barn or other areas of the farm as deemed necessary by the site manager or production manager. This could include rodent control, facility upkeep, and other duties.
• Assist with routine or other necessary maintenance tasks.
  • To keep the farm running smoothly, routine maintenance, such as changing filters, lubricating machine parts, checking the generator, etc. needs to be completed.