Agriculture sustains human life on Earth. The challenge is to meet the world's food needs into the 21st century and beyond, while preserving Earth's natural resources. By becoming a specialist in Sustainable
Crop Production and Marketing/ Plant Health Management, your knowledge, techniques and applied experience will be specifically focused to prepare you for a rewarding career. Positions can be pursued in
sustainable agriculture, agricultural extension,
agribusiness, sales, conservation,
organic crop production, produce buying/brokerage, plant pest monitoring and management, government, teaching and research.
Our indoor facilities (plant and soil labs, design rooms, and classrooms) are supplemented by 500 acres of outdoor lab space within walking distance. On any one day during the semester you can see professors and their students taking land measurements, pruning trees, identifying plants, scouting for pests, and jumping in soil pits.
Plus, all classes are held at one centralized campus!
Our 500 acres of outdoor laboratory space include:
- Putting green
- Sports fields
- Lawns
- Turfgrass variety trials
- Woodlands
- Wetlands
- 35 acres of orchards & vegetable fields
- Corn, alfalfa, and wheat fields
- Tissue culture lab
- 2 acres of greenhouse space
- Henry Schmieder arboretum
- Herb gardens
- Perennial plant gardens
- Annual plant gardens
Classes also take field trips to local businesses and properties that have additional facilities to study.
To gain valuable "real world" work experience, each student must complete 500 hours of employment in an approved job that is directly related to their major. In fact, most students work each summer in a major-related job. Some even work part-time during the semester. The extra experience and professional contacts they make not only helps them get their first job but helps them keep their job. Plus, students get to sample potential careers. This helps them find their preference and niche.
The biggest benefit of the required Employment Program is it almost guarantees you a job upon graduation. Employers that hire you for summer work often make job offers to you after graduation. This is one of the main reasons that the job and graduate school placement rate for our graduates has been near 100 percent for many years.
