Five Careers Of Ag Essay, Research Paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter of Transmittal?????????????????.. iii I. Introduction???????????????..

1 II. Five Careers for a Graduate of Agricultural Studies. 1 A. Self-Employed

Farmer?????????. 1 B. Sales (Equipment, Chemical, Seed)????. 1 C. Ground Truthing

Manager???????? 1 D. Teacher???????????????. 2 E. Farm Manager????????????.. 2

III. Summary????????????????? 2 List of Sources?????????????????.???.. 3 iv 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 1 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. 2