Internships

Applications being accepted now for January 2024 Internships.

1-year internships only
Deadline to submit application packet: July 31, 2023

For an application packet and additional information about internships, please email us for a form to fill out.

Click here to get the latest on schools, workshops and more at Green Pastures Farms.

Today, people yearning to work on the land find the deck stacked against them. The cost of buying land, equipment, livestock, etc. is very high. Another major obstacle is gaining the experience to be successful.

We’ve made it one of our goals to help future graziers over these obstacles by offering internships that provide not just experience, but background in practices that will help you get started without land or livestock of your own.

A Hands-on School for Future Graziers

You can read about subjects that interest you, that may entice you into thinking that this is what you want to do for a living. That is all good. Reading is one powerful tool to build your knowledge about the unknowns of ranching or grazing. But the best way to get experience is to actually get your boots on the ground and do the work day in and day out. You will not get the experience needed to make a decision unless you physically do the work.

A Green Pastures Farm internship is an opportunity to learn the skills and cutting edge techniques for running a profitable livestock operation. We show you how to move sheep and cattle, and to set up fences based on what the grass and animals are showing you.

You’ll learn about different fencing, the different ways for getting water to livestock, how to work with guardian dogs, how to use grazing charts and more. You’ll see how to create new enterprises that add to farm income. At Green Pastures Farm this includes turning trees removed from silvopastures into lumber and furniture and growing medium for shiitake mushrooms. Finally, we’ll show you the ins and outs of how we built our operation on leased land.

Best of all is that we guarantee you multiple grazing job opportunities around the world if you complete and prosper in our internship program. It is unbelievable how many high quality good paying jobs that are out there for experienced grazers. The very best part of our internship is that you have no student debt when you leave here and a guaranteed job somewhere in the world. I don’t know of a college program anywhere that can offer that.

What Do We Look For In an Intern?

Be super passionate every day about learning to be the very best.

There is no in between. Be passionate about your opportunity to learn a craft that can support you the rest of your working life or don’t do the internship.

Have a can do attitude about any chore that comes up.

Not everything on the farm is roses. You’ll come up against some difficult times. These tough times separate the wheat from the chaff. But, I will tell you this: there are a whole lot more good days than bad days working on a farm. If you don’t want to sit and look at a computer screen the rest of your working career, you might be the perfect candidate.

Prior farming experience is not necessary to make a great candidate for a grazing intern. Some of our best interns have had no experience at all before arriving on our farm. What they did have was passion, good communication skills, honesty, hard work ethic, great attitude about life, eager to learn each day, self starters, etc. If we have those traits from a person coming onto the farm, they are going to be successful no matter what they do in life. They are also a joy to work with.

Intern Compensation and Application Process

In addition to their training, interns are provided with housing (a 2 bedroom house), meat, eggs and milk, and a monthly stipend for incidentals.

The application is due by July 31, 2023 by midnight for a start date in January of 2024. Applications received after the due date will be considered for the following year.

We review applications and call references. Potential interns will be invited to the farm for a short visit so we can all meet and make sure there’s a good fit. We select the final applicants and give time for them to make their plans for the coming year.

Please email us for an application to get started.