Ruminant Nutrition Formulator

**Who we are**:
The GVF Group of Companies empowers farmers to produce meat, milk, and eggs profitably and sustainably for the advancement of human lives, nutrition and health.

Founded in 1960, Grand Valley Fortifiers specializes in the formulation, manufacture and sale of high quality, leading-edge mineral premixes for swine, dairy, beef and poultry producers. We create opportunities for livestock & poultry farms to be more profitable by providing innovative products, programs and services which lower feeding and livestock producers costs, maximize animal performance, and increase nutritional and commercial value of our customers products; meat, milk and eggs.

Today the GVF Group is comprised of six divisions: Grand Valley Fortifiers, Fortified Nutrition, Farmers Depot, Direct Source Commodities, Valley Feeds and True Foods.

Ours is a family business that cares about its employees and its community. We make sure that all our staff get what the best in class team members deserve: benefits, good wages, and respect. Whether through our charitable work, or our dedication to staff, GVF is committed to living out our principles and values.

**Why we have this role**:
We’re growing and looking to add a **Ruminant Nutrition Formulator **to our Nutrition team **in Western Canada.** This is an integral role where you will be a part of the team overseeing all formulation requirements for Western Canada and be directly responsible for managing nutrition and ration requests for Manitoba. You will create and balance accurate diets and rations for on-farm use. You will also be the point person who looks after triaging all nutrition and formulation calls and requests from the team. This will require you to have a basic understanding of ruminant nutrition and excellent troubleshooting skills to be able to answer, resolve or escalate requests further. Lastly, this role requires a passion for data management, an interest in database optimization and a desire to serve the agricultural industry - both internal customers at GVF and external customers purchasing our feeds/services.

**Working with us**:
**What you’ll do**:

- Accurately balance rations, formulate new rations and update current rations as requested by the sales team or customers in a timely fashion. This involves using NDS, Brill and Bestmix.
- Receive assay reports from the lab, input results into the ration balancing program and customer files.
- Receive and log ration requests daily.
- Submit completed rations to the Sales Rep or customer and communicate well to ensure both optimum and accurate rations are formulated.
- Maintain and update all existing formulas within the formulation software.
- Triage calls and requests from the ruminant team troubleshooting where needed and escalating unresolved issues.
- Provide sound knowledge and understanding on nutrition matters.
- Critique formulas and provide feedback to Ruminant Nutrition Consultants.
- Be responsible for regular updating of products in Brill, NDS, Brill Tags, send appropriate files and interact with toll milling partners.
- Maintaining tags, databases and software for accuracy of information.
- Closely collaborate with the internal nutrition team in Ontario to ensure that information and processes are aligned and systems are integrated.
- Assist with creating efficient processes to house information and updating it using uploads/downloads.
- Work with other departments to update software use, bring ideas on how to improve use of software and continuous personal development toward understanding the software.

**Experience we like**:

- A true passion for agriculture
- 5+ years’ experience in ruminant ration balancing and formulation within the feed industry
- Basic understanding and knowledge of ruminant nutrition is required
- Willingness to learn and ability to quickly understand nutritional knowledge
- Post secondary education in a related field of study (agriculture or computer science)
- Highly developed interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills
- Experience with Brill Formulation is required
- Bestmix Feed Formulation Software and NDS experience is an asset

**Why work with us**:

- Competitive salary
- Canadian Family Owned and Operated Company
- Extended health and dental benefits
- Paid vacation
- RRSP matching program
- Profit sharing bonus
- Donation matching program

**How we behave**:

- **Passion**:Serving customers innovatively and well.
- **Humble Confidence**:Confidently choosing to forgo our status, deploy our resources and use of influence for the good of others before ourselves.
- **Integrity**:Consistently honest while honouring commitments with our customers, co-workers and suppliers.
- **Professional**:Committed to excellence in the way we lead, serve and relate.
- **Caring**:With a servant heart, truly caring for customers and co-workers. Find satisfaction in assisting with others’ challenges and joy in witnessing their success.