The application for this internship will be available very soon.  Please reach out to the program coordinator Carrie Simon (cns44) if you have questions.

The Lund Fellows Program for Regenerative Agriculture provides Cornell undergraduate students across disciplines with the opportunity to broaden their perspectives and understanding of natural ecosystems and to learn about ecological and social approaches to agricultural systems. 

The Lund Fellows Program provides students opportunities to gain applied experience working on an agroecological farm and contribute to the farm in meaningful and helpful ways, while learning about the process and considerations involved in managing such an enterprise.

We work to spread awareness about the value and mission of agroecological biodynamic, organic, regenerative, and sustainable approaches to farming, strengthen relationships between the university and local farms and provide assistance to small farms that could not otherwise fund summer internships. 

Host farms participating in the Lund Fellows Program were prioritized based on the following values:  

• Explicitly uses agroecological, biodynamic and/or organic farming methods
• Diversified farm (not just certified organic with industrial farming approach)
• Small-scale farm (less than 200 hectares)
• Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers when possible

Internship description

You will be working with Ike and Dave Mallula, co-owners of Red House Ranch.  This is rough description of the major enterprises on the farm and some of the tasks.  This is not an all inclusive list and there will be many other tasks that arise that you will be asked to assist with.  We are looking for someone who is able to work in a loosely structured environment and adopt to constantly changing needs of the enterprise.   

Beef cattle management:

• Daily cattle moves to new pasture
• Setting up large grazing sections
• Monitoring and keeping mineral tub full
• Moving portable water system along with daily moves as needed
• Fly management, using sticky paper, daily or as needed

Hog management

• Assist with moving hogs to new silvopasture paddockevery 10 to 14 days
• Move hog water with paddock moves
• Feed hogs daily as needed, and monitor feed consumption

Laying hens

• Feed as needed
• Assist with pasture moves and fence set up
• Pick eggs daily
• Assist with egg packing once a week

Order fulfillment

• Assist with order picking and packing and processing, every Monday
• Prepare orders for shipment once a week with dry ice, every Tuesady
• Prep for delivery to GreenStar, in Ithaca, every Wednesday
• Fulfill walk-in customer orders

Charcuterie manufacturing and product development

• Assist with salami and salumi manufacturing, typically, Thursday and Friday

Property maintaince

• Trail mowing
• Perimeter fence repair
• Fence line clean up
• Tractor and Kubota maintenance as needed
• Misc projects and repairs

Agrotourism (HipCamp)

• Assist with camper arrival
• Assist with site clean up as needed

Social media

• Work with Chris Mallula (marketing manager) with Instagram and Facebook posts, pictures and content
• Write blogs on various topics if interested

Basic Qualifications and Preferred Experience

• Comfortable outdoors in all weather conditions
• Willing to listen, understand and follow instructions
• Basic computer skills (e.g., Word, Excel, willingness to learn point-of-sale systems)
• Must follow all safety requirements, including use of provided safety glasses and gloves when appropriate
• Your clothes will become soiled throughout the day, so please dress appropriately. Wear closed-toed shoes; preferably waterproof shoes or boots.
• To perform on this assignment you have to be able to adapt to constantly changing priorities
• Note that all other on the job skill training will be provided.

Internship schedule 

Monday - Friday, generally 8:00 to 5:00, Saturday possibly to support store but not required

About the farm

Red House Ranch is a small family-owned livestock farm located in Van Etten, NY.  Their mission is to produce wholesome, deeply nutritious, and sustainable food that improves the health and wellbeing of people, animals, soil, and the planet. They operator under the idea of "real food for better health" producing 100% pasture raised beef, lamb, chicken, pork, and eggs using regenerative methods including silvopasture, and mob grazing.