Agriculture Technology (A.S. Degree)

A degree in agriculture technology will require students to complete classes from the agriculture technology program, communication, and English programs. These classes include at least one credit hour of lab work. Students will also complete at least one internship.

Dordt's Agriculture Technology courses blend hands-on learning with a strong biblical foundation and workplace skills that will make you a better communicator, collaborator, and management lead.

Core Classes

• Introduction to Farm Operations and Management: A foundations course that introduces students to a framework for obediently understanding and responding to the Lord’s call to work effectively for His kingdom in the field of farm operations and management. Uses tours, career planning projects, and industry discussions to develop an understanding of the opportunities available and competencies needed to serve in modern agriculture. Uses real life experiences around equipment and farm activities to develop a safe work ethic and an understanding of situational safety.
• Farm Maintenance and Repair: Equips students to maintain and repair various agriculture implements. Develops skill in the interpretation and use of owner’s manuals. Includes the use of hand and power tools following best practices.
• Introductory Welding: An introduction to the principles of metal joining and cutting techniques. Students will evaluate methods and techniques for metal joining and cutting. The course will cover principles and practice of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), oxyacetylene welding, and cutting. Curriculum aligns to federally endorsed national standards for production workers.
• Intermediate Welding: Students will learn and utilize intermediate techniques for metal joining and cutting. The course will cover intermediate level concepts, skills, and practices of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), oxyacetylene welding and cutting. The course will focus on project-based learning activities.
• Agriculture Electrical and Plumbing Construction: Introduces the student to electrical safety, basic wiring methods and materials, and basic electric circuits. Develops wiring skills using trainers that facilitate the construction of actual circuits. Introduces the student to basic plumbing construction design, methods, and materials as they relate to farm applications such as dairy milking systems, crop chemical and fertilizer sprayers, and product handling equipment. Uses lab activities to develop skills in cutting, assembling, and threading both plastic and steel pipe.
• Biology, Care, and Production of Domestic Animals: History, management, physiology, breeding, lactation, feeding, health, and products of cattle, swine, sheep, poultry, companion animals, and other species as they relate to humans and the creation. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory period per week.
• Animal Nutrition: Nutritional principles, digestive systems, composition and nutritional characteristics of common feedstuffs, ration formulation and recommended feeding programs for farm animals.
• Introduction to Plant Science: Students will study plants, their care and use within agroecosystems, as well as their role in creation. Students will be introduced to how agriculture both influences and is influenced by human cultural development, how humankind’s understanding of stewardship influences creation care, and how plants serve as sources of food, fiber, fuel, and fascination. Plant biology concepts including plant structure and function, growth, development and reproduction, and plant/environment interactions will be introduced. The course will demonstrate how these biotic and environmental factors integrate with plant biotechnology, crop breeding and propagation, protection, cropping systems, and crop economics and utilization. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week.
• Fundamentals of Soil Science: An introduction to soil formation, classification, physical properties, water, organic matter, pH, and fertility with applications to common soil management goals. An application of humanity’s call to work and keep the Lord’s creation is integral to the course.
• Integrated Pest Management: Covers various methods of pest control and their alternatives. Growth habits and identification of common weeds, insects, and diseases will be reviewed as well as the calibration and operation of broadcast and band applicators. Includes current topics such as the development of herbicide resistance.
• Precision Agriculture: Introduces the framework for understanding global positioning systems and related components. Topics include precision farming, positioning systems, yield monitoring, GIS systems, and variable rate technologies.
• Farm Business Management: Current principles and practices of farm management. Topics include current agricultural policy, goal setting, planning, organization of the farm business, systems management, record keeping, budgeting, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, investment analysis, tax planning, and risk analysis.
• Commodity Marketing and Agriculture Sales: Introduction to the commodity futures markets, futures contracts, forward contracts, and risk management, as related to crop and livestock sales. Foundational business skills such as cash flow planning projections are also covered. Examines principles of sales and transactions common to the agricultural sector regarding inputs such as seed, fertilizer, feed, chemicals, and services. Includes steps of the sales process as well as the study of different personality styles as they function in the sales person-customer relationship.
• Professional Networking for Internship: Students will develop and apply professional networking competencies in the process of securing their summer internship. Example activities include exploring and identifying internship sites, networking with company representatives to identify possible options, applying to and interviewing for positions, and completing pre-employment paperwork.
• Agriculture Technology Internship: An off-campus experience that provides Agriculture Technology students with opportunities to work with a mentor and apply knowledge, principles, skills, and attitudes gained in the program’s courses in a workplace environment.
• Agriculture Technology Internship Closeout: Students will reflect on, evaluate, and share outcomes from their summer internships. Example activities include written reflections, exit interviews, discussions with peers, and presentations to summarize their activities and learning.
• Workplace Communication: During this semester we will be exploring the types of formal and informal communication encountered in a workplace setting. Where we work is a fundamental part of who we are so it is vital we learn about and practice the various kinds of communication that take place in an organization. There is a lot to cover during our time together, but some of the issues involve discovering the communication process, improving listening skills, developing public speaking and presentation skills, improving interpersonal communication, and examining cross-cultural influences.
• Leading and Serving Others: This course is designed to be a general elective for students in any major. Leadership studies involves the study of human behavior and how individuals influence that behavior. This course will reflect a diversity of perspectives on leadership and motivation. Students will examine different models, skills, and styles of leadership, review common traits of effective leaders, and evaluate, from a Christian perspective, the ethical and moral issues facing leaders.
• Serving Christ’s Kingdom Through Technology Programs: A capstone course that develops and applies a Reformational framework for Christian service in technical vocations, within agriculture and engineering technology fields, and explores the relationship of these fields to other areas of Western society. The framework is applied to current cultural topics such as the role, appropriateness, and impacts of technology and automation. The course explores dualisms that tend to separate faith and work and applies a Reformed perspective to questions such as safety and risk, professional responsibility and authority, social and economic structures, and career choice.
• Workplace Writing: Workplace Writing focuses on the processes and strategies for creating written communication within a workplace setting. Examines audience awareness, stylistic conventions, and document design. Emphasizes the preparation of a variety of written documents, such as resumes,
  internal and external correspondence, descriptions, proposals, instructions, summaries, and reports.

See the course catalog for more information.