Daniel Heyser stands with his gorgeous work environment in the background.
Image Credit: Ken Ingram
With plenty of fresh air and beautiful views, Daniel Heyser spent his summer days in Biglerville,
Pennsylvania on a farm where he worked a long nine and a half hours every day for 13 weeks.
Heyser worked as a general farm laborer intern at Boyer Nurseries and Orchards Inc. He is a
current second year Agricultural Business student at the Institute of Applied Agriculture; and has
a background in agriculture, growing up on his five acre family farm in Colesville, Maryland.
Ken Ingram, Heyser’s Internship Advisor, was impressed with the location and remarked,
“Daniel's internship site, Boyer's Nursery & Orchard, was a gorgeous, ‘heaven on earth’, family
business at the foot of the Catoctin Mountains in Southern Pennsylvania. Daniel's own family
farm store in Maryland had sold Boyer's fruit for many years which made a great relationship for
an internship opportunity.”
During his days in Pennsylvania, Heyser completed an assortment of tasks including harvesting
produce, taking inventory of trees on the farm, packaging produce, fertilizing trees, cutting grass,
grading produce, and cutting briars out of the trees. Heyser also had an unpleasant surprise this
summer, accidentally stepping on a copperhead, but made it out unbitten.
He acquired many skills such as being able to drive a stick shift and a forklift. He also learned
what running a large farm and managing one was like. These skills will help him with his future
aspiration to run and expand his family farm, Heyser Farms. Heyser commented, “It was great to
have the opportunity to work with a great bunch of guys and see how other farms operate.”
One of Heyser’s favorite summer tasks was shaking the sour cherry trees with a Friday Cherry
Shaker machine, where the cherries would run up a conveyor belt afterwards to packaged up and
sold to Knouse Foods.
Overall, the internship at Boyer Nurseries and Orchards Inc. offered experiences that allowed
Heyser to become well equipped for his future goals to expand his family’s farm. Heyser said he
“wanted to do even more, there was not enough time there.” He now is more familiar with the
behind the scenes operations that are taking place in order to run a functional and successful
farming business.
Heyser gets a photo with his boss, Dave Lower. Credit: Ken Ingram.
