Pioneers’ Healey taking hands-on education to internship with Dairlyland Seed

Platteville, Wis.- Sophomore Alexis Healey, of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's track program, knew she wanted to major in agriculture. When her college search began, her home state of Indiana had one public agriculture program, Purdue University. Purdue was just a little too close to home for Healey, and she began her search that led her to UW-Platteville.

"I knew in advance that I would be going out of state," Healey said. "Indiana's agriculture schools are Purdue and private institutions, and Purdue was a little too close to home, so I knew I would be looking out of state."

Originally recruited by the women's soccer program, Healey saw the track program and liked what she saw. She committed to the Pioneers and enrolled in the agriculture business program with an animal science minor. 

The Rensselaer, Indiana native finished her sophomore year with the Pioneers, competing mainly in the long jump and the 4x100 relay. She has qualified for the WIAC Outdoor Championships twice and the WIAC Indoor Championships once. She was also a member of the 4x100 team that qualified for the 2022 Drake Relays.

The early mornings and long hours attending track meets helped prepare Healey for her summer internship at Dairyland Seed, a Wisconsin based company that set up test plots across the Midwest. Her focus is managing alfalfa crops, from cutting and harvesting to testing the plots.

"I just got done with my first cuttings of alfalfa and managing all those plots," Healey said. "I am kind of on a break right now, so I've been traveling around with one of Dairyland's agronomists and just scouting corn and soybean fields, just helping them where they need me."

The willingness to help and eagerness to learn was something that Healey showed during the interview process with Dairyland's product support specialist and Healey's supervisor, Sara Hagen. 

"It was really her desire to learn, adapt and jump in and get stuff done," Hagen said. "Having a farm background and the fact she was active in her family operation. To have that knowledge and experience with harvesting, planting and comfort level with different machines was helpful, but her go-get-it attitude and personality played a big role."

As Healey's internship continued, Hagen learned a lot more about Healey and her involvement on campus. "I learned a lot more about what she does on campus; her involvement with the hydroponics lab and everything she does with track and field," she said. "It really opened my eyes to how detail oriented she is and just the necessity to have that  level of organization to juggle all of those responsibilities." 

The time commitment that Healey puts into her academic and track career easily transitions into her internship. "All my alfalfa plots are throughout the whole state of Wisconsin," she said. "Being able to plan with different sales managers when to harvest their crops and being able to manage that is similar to me managing my workouts and classes and everything. Being on the track team has helped me be organized."

Another strong trait that Hagen appreciated was Healey's ability to work without a lot of supervision.

"I wasn't 100% sure if she would be able to handle all of that, because it is pretty autonomous work and I don't micromanage," Hagen said. "They get to set their own schedule, so her ability to already do that was great, and it circles back to her willingness to just jump in and be 'okay, let's do it, let's just get it done.'" 

Healey isn't the first UW-Platteville intern for Dairyland Seed. Hagen has worked with three interns in her five years with the company, and she loves how the curriculum is preparing Healey and students in the program. 

"I really love the hands-on practical approach that I have seen from the interns from UW-Platteville," said Hagen, who graduated from UW-Madison. "UW-Madison was a fantastic school. I loved it, but I feel at UW-Platteville, the curriculum and ag program do a better job at preparing students for a full-time position using a bachelor's degree. At UW-Madison, I felt the curriculum was geared more towards going on for an advanced degree or research. I really appreciate just how hands-on and practical the curriculum has been out of UW-Platteville and how prepared the interns are for real world application of those skills."

Besides cutting and harvesting the alfalfa plots she oversees, Healey has taken a liking to the science of the plant she is harvesting, something that she learned in her feed and feeding class.  It is also something she would like to do after her graduation in May of 2024.

"I have been contemplating what I want to do after I graduate lately," Healey said. "Being an animal nutritionist, creating the diets and doing formulations, that is what I have been leaning towards the past couple years."