Ag grads in high demand - Youngstown Business

There's good news for agricultural science and agricultural business majors: Large and smallcompanies are eager to hire them. According to Sara Newberg, director of the University ofMinnesota career center, job posting boards, on-campus interviews and a special annual career fairreflect the same trend: "We have a limited number of students with an interest in that careerdirection and far more employers interested in hiring them."

Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that from 2010 to 2015there would be about 54, 400 openings yearly in agriculture and natural resource jobs, and about23, 300 graduates from specialized colleges and university departments to fill them.

And according to Brian Buhr, dean of the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural andNatural Resource Sciences, "There's a whole high-tech side of ag that's really booming. It'severything from robotics and sensors in harvesting equipment or livestock production systems, oreven managing soil and drainage issues, all the way over to the genetics and genomics side of theworld."

Other opportunities and positions include: Peoplewho can analyze chlorophyll in plants to see howwell they're growing, specialists to designprecision planting equipment and analysts tostudy soil chemistry and crop history to predictwhich varieties to plant and how far apart to spacethem (basic agronomy knowledge, along with thelatest technical skills would be a definite win-wincombination for job-seekers).

CHS, the nation's largest farmer-owned cooperative, has enhanced its efforts to contactundergraduate and community college students early in their studies to inform them about ag-related fields and careers for the purpose of recruiting the best people. The company also maintainsstrong partnerships with colleges and universities.

"The need continues to grow to feed a hungry world with the same amount or less of acreage, andthat's all coming through technology: environmental sciences and agricultural sciences," said AdamHolton, CHS senior vice president of human resources. "My guess is there are jobs that will exist inprecision ag 10 years from now that we're not even thinking about."

Source: "Ag grads finding bumper crop ofjob picks"-Star Tribune (Minneapolis)(TNS)-The (Sunday) Vindicator, March 8,2015