PODCAST: Excitement in the Agbiosciences Sector
IIB's Gerry Dick talks with AgReliant's Clayton Michael-Butler
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA veteran of the seed industry, who is also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, gets very excited when he discusses career opportunities for college students. Clayton Michael-Butler is the Western Dealer Development Lead for LG Seeds, one of several seed brands offered by Westfield-based AgReliant Genetics.
“There are just a couple roles that students normally think about when they think about agbioscience. And typically, it’s sales, research, or working for a co-op, or some type of retailer. But there are so many different opportunities. And so that was something I really love talking about,” said Michael-Butler, during a recent session of the Ag+Bio+Science podcast presented by AgriNovus Indiana.
He grew up on an Indiana farm, taking part in FFA and 4H. Instead of going to college, Michael-Butler served with the Marines. After his military service, Michael-Butler went back to school to study agribusiness at Purdue University.
After working for several seed companies, Michael-Butler joined AgReliant in 2019. He helped to launch the company’s Seed Academy
“Coming into the organization, the first thing that I did was start talking to our past interns and our university partners. And one of the things that we really heard was, ‘Hey, your internship programs, they’re great, but we need more,’” Michael-Butler told Inside INdiana Business and podcast host Gerry Dick. He says students in the academy cohort can learn about sales, production and research, allowing them to find which aspect of agriculture they wish to pursue. But he says the industry has so much more to offer. “There ares so many other roles that are growing within the agriculture industry, such as data science. Biostatistics is really what companies are utilizing, to take all this data that we’re partnering with our farmers to get and make better decisions to help grow. So that’s something that’s really big,” said Michael-Butler He says it is an exciting time to be in the agbiosciences sector as technology is quickly advancing. “We are advancing at such a high rate right now that who knows what we’re going to accomplish in 10 years.” Learn more about career opportunities from Michael-Butler in the brand-new Ag+Bio+Science podcast which will be available Monday morning. Click here for more information on how you can listen.