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Five Careers for a Graduate of Agricultural Studies

I. Introduction

Agriculture is a vast and expanding world for many people here in the mid-west. This is not a career to be taken lightly, since it has it's ever-changing highs and lows; which attract people and also discourage them too. Deciding what a graduate wants to do in agriculture is a difficult process, I know since I am in the process right now. Some of the following careers are ones that I am more familiar with since I have been around most of them. The following jobs: Self-employed farmer, sales (equipment, chemical, and seed), district research manager, teacher, and farm manager are a few options of a new college graduate. Below are the descriptions of each.

II. Five Careers for a Graduate of Agricultural Studies

In the following paragraphs I will be discussing the five jobs selected that a new graduate in agriculture may want to follow to upstart his career.


A. Self-Employed Farmer

A self-employed farmer is one that you see out in the field early in the morning and late at night. He does not work for a large company growing crops for them; he grows them for him to sell. The farmer's main goal is to raise the most productive crop he can, earning the best profit available, and working with the land to keep it sustainable condition. A variety of crops can be grown, and animals can be raised too. This is a job that one must truly love and be devoted to for if one is not then many things can go wrong and they will not succeed.

B. Sales (Equipment, Chemical, Seed)

A sales person is a person who has to have a lot of initiative to go out and introduce people to his product. I grouped sales all together because they all use the same principle and that is initiative. The sales person has many hours on the road traveling all over his district talking to people and just keeping up his public relations with the farmer, so when it comes time to sell his product he might have a edge up. This person is also very knowledgeable of everything he sells, since the buyer always has a question and they come to him when they want it answered. Also public speaking is a big part in this field, since meetings are required to introduce new products each year.

C. Ground Truthing Mananger

Ground truthing managers are involved with the managing of crop scouts, who survey crops. These managers are also involved with the growers in their project and keep up
public relations with them. Managers will be called on to answer seed and chemical questions and make recommendations to the growers, from the data collected by the
scouts in the grower's respective fields. One needs to be knowledgeable in many aspects of agronomy, examples such as, soils, weeds, seed, crops, crop development and
chemical knowledge are a must. Computer skills are used since there is handheld computers in the field, then the transfer of the information taken down at the field must be put onto another computer and sent to the headquarters for evaluation.

D. Teacher

Teachers provide insight to young aspiring agriculture students. Teachers take what they have learned in school and also from practical experience, and pass it on to the students in a form that can be taught or studied. Teachers are employed at schools as Vocational-Agriculture teachers. They may be required to head up the FFA chapter in that school and make all arrangements that go along with that. A graduate wishing to teach, but not on the high-school level, may try teaching at a university. Additional education will be needed such as an advanced degree or a master's degree.

E. Farm Manager

Farm manager's is a job where you can work from the comfort of your pick-up. You are in charge of some land that was put into your hands to manage. The manager is the middleman between a person who owns the ground and the person who rents it and raises a crop on it. He is also in charge to make sure the ground used to its optimal level, and will make suggestions to the owner on what to do to make it a better farm. He then will work it out with the farmer how they will get it done to the specifications that the owner wanted. Also the manager is in charge of keeping on top of the crop progress and makes sure there is no real problem with disease or pests.

III. Summary

As talked about above there are many opportunities a graduate can pick and choose from to pursue once he is done with his schooling. These are just a few but I figured it gives a basis to work from. A person needs to look at what they are really interested in and what can lead them to another job down the road. All the skills a person will learn in school will come into play in all fields of agriculture. Agriculture is a broad and exciting field that many people have found a job in and then made a career.