Agri-Business

Students who choose the agri-business emphasis will complete courses in agriculture, chemistry, business administration, and economics in addition to completing the general requirements for an agriculture degree. Although students have some flexibility about which courses they take, students will complete at least three credit hours of lab work and are encouraged to perform an internship.

• General Chemistry: A first course in the fundamental principles of chemistry for students in all science disciplines. Topics include measurement, the mole and reaction stoichiometry, atomic and molecular structure and bonding, intermolecular forces, gases, types of reactions, and energy in chemical reactions. An introduction to laboratory safety and chemical hygiene is included in the laboratory. Three hours of lecture and one three-hour laboratory period per week.
• Principles of Chemistry: A study of the fundamental principles of chemistry and an introduction to foundational issues in science. Topics include atomic and molecular structure, chemical equilibria, chemical kinetics, chemical thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. An introduction to laboratory safety and chemical hygiene is included in the laboratory. This is the first course in chemistry for majors in the physical and life sciences. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory period per week.
• Agriculture Law: An overview of legal issues as they relate to farm and agribusiness management, specifically focusing on the practical application of contracts, negligence, debt instruments and commercial transactions of the farm, agribusiness and food production. Selected state and federal laws, basic animal and food laws, including regulation of farm to table activities, and environmental and social regulations will be considered.
• Agriculture Finance and Investment Analysis: This course will incorporate theory and applied experiences to initially address the nature, scope and principles of financial management. Additional topics include: credit risk assessment; capital structure, leverage, and financial risk; time value of money; lender-borrower relationships and loan servicing practices; and ownership and leasing of equipment and farm land.
• Agriculture Sales: Investigate the foundations of professional selling and the connection of marketing with sale in agriculture, planning and selling strategies, prospecting and understanding customers. The components of the face-to-face sales process – opening the call, identifying needs, communicating value, handling objections and closing the call – are the focus of study and practice for the majority of the course. Design strategies for online sales of agriculture products and services will also be explored.
• Agriculture Risk Management: This course will investigate the major types of agriculture risk along with corresponding mitigation strategies. Study of associated theory and applied practices using recommended steps within strategic risk management frameworks will enable students to develop relevant and practical risk management plans. Strategies to manage alternate forms of risk will be applied to the content and practices of risk management in agriculture.
• International Business Strategies in Agriculture: An examination of core concepts and techniques for entering the international marketplace. Emphasis is on the effect of sociocultural, demographic, economic technological, and political-legal factors in the foreign trade environment associated with trade in food and agricultural products between countries. The course will include trade development to assist development in lesser developed countries.
• Commodity Futures Marketing: The course will explore agriculture commodity markets in general and specifically commodity futures and options markets. The emphasis will be on major commercial agriculture field crops and livestock. The course will involve study of commodity price behavior and the role of futures markets as an institution in a market economy, as well as the use of futures contracts and options on futures contracts in firm asset and risk management. The mechanics of futures and options trading, basic relationships between cash and futures markets, fundamental and technical behavior of commodity future prices, hedging strategies, futures market regulations, and commodity futures market performance will be examined in light of risk management, stewardship, justice, and market development that show respect and concern for fellow human beings.
• Nature and Properties of Soils: A comprehensive introduction to the field of soil science with an emphasis on scientific principles and their application in solutions to practical soil management problems. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Feeds and Feeding: The evaluation, composition, and values of feedstuffs as they relate to animal nutrient requirements will be considered. The basics of ration formulation and feeding management will be covered for the major livestock species. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Principles of Dairy Science: Dairy reproduction, physiology, lactation, breeding, nutrition, and genetics will be discussed with an emphasis on scientific principles and their application to dairy science. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory period per week.
• Principles of Animal Health: Animal care and facility sanitation will be discussed, focusing on care, disease prevention, disease detection, animal treatment, pharmacology, and health programs. Three lectures per week.
• Principles of Swine Science: A study of swine care and management, physiology, diseases, equipment, reproduction, and nutrition. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Beef and Sheep Science: A study of beef and sheep management, production, physiology, nutrition, reproduction, diseases, equipment, facilities, and care. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Horticultural Plants: The study of greenhouse, vegetable, and ornamental plants. The aesthetics, culture, physiology, and propagation of horticultural plants will be examined. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Forage Crop Management: The production and management of crops for livestock feed are considered, and the establishment, growth, harvesting, preservation, and quality of these crops are examined. Primary emphasis is given to the value of major temperate region grasses and legumes as livestock feed, and the energy, protein, and other nutritional components they supply. The identification of common and alternative forage species is an important component of the course. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Principles of Financial Accounting: Introduces the concepts and terminology of accounting and financial reporting for modern business enterprises. The course is centered around analyzing and interpreting accounting information for use in making decisions about organizations. There is a special emphasis on analyzing the balance sheet, the statement of income and expense, the statement of cash flows, and the statement of stockholders’ equity. Additional emphasis is placed on problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills that are necessary for forming conclusions about business activities and to communicate these conclusions to others.
• Principles of Managerial Accounting: An introduction to managerial accounting, presenting basic accounting concepts that are important to management decisions. Emphasis is placed on analyzing and interpreting accounting information that enables management accountants to work with managers from other areas, particularly marketing and operations, and to make decisions about costing, pricing, and production. The tools and information that are important are described within the decision framework rather than as isolated accounting procedures.
• Principles of Marketing: A study of marketing institutions, product development, channels of distribution, price determination, promotion methods, government influences, and ethical problems facing marketing personnel. Includes a foundational study and discussion of business from a Christian perspective.
• Principles of Economics: Micro: The study of allocation of scarce resources at the level of the individual, household, and firm. Included are human motivation and preferences, the market, the function of prices, supply, demand, perfect and imperfect competition, and selected policy questions. Christian views on the nature of humanity, human motivation, and the market are also studied.
• Internship: Students are given the opportunity to apply the principles of agriculture and business in an off-campus assignment.

See the course catalog for more information.