JH Careers Visits Lorraine Moore
Launch the media gallery 1 playerOn February 10th, we visited Lorraine Moore at the Farmers Union Coop in Clarkson, Nebraska. We learned a lot about her personal life and her childhood. She explained a lot about how she grew up and how all of her jobs evolved into what she is doing now. Let me tell you about how agriculture has always been a part of her life.
Lorraine’s parents did not push their kids to attend college because there were ten children, but they did advise them to get a job and work hard. Her life was not always easy. She did not always have a lot of food and enough money to pay bills. She started off living in apartments with very little. As an example, Lorraine and her twin were once given $200 by their dad to go pay for groceries, but instead, they decided to put it towards a bill.
Lorraine lived on a farm as a kid and graduated from Clarkson in 1981. First, she worked at a grocery store. She then went to work at Doernemann Farm Service waiting on customers, cutting chains, looking up parts, filters, etc. After working at Doernemann’s she then made the change to Platte Valley because of insurance. She worked there for seven years as a parts manager. Her task was to receive invoices for parts, helped farmers get things asap such as truck, tractor, machinery parts. Sometimes when the parts needed were not available she would contact other Platte Valley offices to get them sent over. After 7 years had passed she then got a call from Farmer Union Cooperative about an opening position for scale and grain order. For taking this job she does things like weigh trucks, print out tickets, and keeps track of a grain book every day. She has been doing this job since April of last year.
Lorraine feels the skills she has gained from these experiences are learning about different brands of machinery and parts for them. Her biggest skill she has found most helpful is becoming more open and good with people. She finds this very helpful because she used to be very shy when talking to people. Something she has to remember every time when she is with a customer is to remember they are always right, even if they are not. She goes by this because she does not want to argue or tell them they are wrong, so sometimes she must show them pictures and put it into words.
Lorraine’s job can be very hectic when planting and harvest comes. This time of the year is slower, but they are still doing the end of the year tasks. She is taking it all in because when April comes there will be truck after truck, probing, testing and unloading the grain. Sometimes grain is hauled to ADM but other times it is stored in Clarkson. So Lorraine must keep daily reports on corn, soybeans, and oats. She also has to keep track of direct farmship, deferred payments, and open store.
Lorraine’s future advice to JH students is to get a job in agriculture and see what you think of it. She says, “A job is not always what you think it is.” She encourages you to be in involved in high school such as FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, and speech. She also encourages you to take classes that will help you with your finances, such as personal finance. I learned about Lorraine and her personal life. “I always told myself I had to work hard to make it,” she said.
By: Chloe Hanel