December 10, 2024, Devils Lake, ND - Farming today isn’t the same as your granddad did it, and at Lake Region State College, the Ag Program is striving to keep up with the times. After the highly successful Precision Ag program was revived in 2013, it has been re-organized as of this academic year as the Agriculture or Ag Program.
Under the new program name, instead of a degree in Precision Agriculture, Lake Region students can earn their Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree in Agriculture with a stackable certificate in either Precision Agriculture or Agriculture Production Management. The AAS consists of 60 credits, which includes certain core classes and general degree requirements, but with the option to select the rest from program electives to achieve one of the specializations. These courses allow students to customize their experience, have more options within the program, and better align their educational path with their strengths and interests. The AAS in Agriculture is also easily transferable, to be able to apply earned credits toward a bachelor’s degree in a four-year college or university program.
In terms of the title change, those outside the industry may wonder what exactly the difference is between precision agriculture and agriculture. According to Tanner Nicholls, Director of LRSC’s Agriculture Program, “Precision ag is basically doing more with less, being able to maximize our outputs while minimizing out inputs. But the truth is, everything we do in farming now is precise.”
An information brief from the department explains further, “The demand for farmers to continuously produce more food, fiber, fuel, and pharmaceuticals has made it increasingly necessary to become more efficient. The need for efficiency has prompted the adoption of various agriculture technologies.” As such, modern farming has a strong focus on keeping up with useful advances in technology and making data-driven decisions, which are the essential principles of precision ag.
Nicholls continues, “Where precision ag originally meant a focus on reducing costs, it is now more about spreading and mitigating risk and diversifying production and revenue streams. We save where we can, maximize what is available, and have to be able to adapt to the changes and challenges that come our way.” Farming is, of course, a notoriously risky endeavor. Crop insurance may help cover some losses when something truly awful happens, but the federal Farm Bill and its protections currently remain held up in Congress, and farmers and the ag industry generally tend to be deeply underinsured.
In addition, the cost of purchasing equipment with cutting-edge technology is exorbitant, and that machinery is becoming more and more difficult and expensive to repair, often to the point where they cannot be serviced by those who own or lease them. Instead, farmers must rely on certified equipment repair specialists, another severely understaffed sector in the ag industry. Nicholls re-caps with a sigh, “the bottom line is, farming is challenging, complicated, and expensive.”
The new Ag Program has been designed to provide students with generalist knowledge about a wide range of interrelated topics, a solid base for any career in the field. Farming is the primary focus, with ranching and livestock as an option for diversified learning. Students are taught principles of agronomy, animal science, machinery, precision technology, finance, data analysis, as well as fundamental skills like writing and public speaking. The development of communication skills is incorporated throughout the program, exposing students to critical life experiences like interviewing, writing a résumé, and interning.
As Nicholls describes it, “We seek to provide a well-rounded educational basis for whatever they decide to do next. We make sure our students are trained for what tomorrow brings, and set up for success.” Courses were developed by instructional staff to tie together and be relevant to one another by, for example, applying skills learned in Introduction to Soil Science to the material covered in Field Scouting Techniques. All faculty in the department have deep industry and ag experience from outside the education arena and bring that knowledge into their course design and instruction.
The Ag department also works hard to build awareness in the community, because, as Nicholls explains, “Farming scares people a little. Yes, farming uses chemicals and that seems daunting , but we use them responsibly because we need to be able to feed everyone. There are still a lot of misconceptions about what we do and what we are, and farming is so much more than sitting in a tractor.” Every student in the Ag Program is helping to solve this problem by taking back and sharing what they’ve learned in terms of new research and technological advances to others who may have been farming for many years. “Our students now are retroactively training the older generation of farmers in new tech and management ideas,” Nicholls adds.
Those students are in increasingly high demand. At least once a month ag-related companies email program administrators on the hunt for new employees. Fewer students are entering the field, and nearly all recent program graduates already had plans in place to return to their family farm, go on to pursue a 4-year degree, or enter employment in ag production, sales, insurance, tech/machinery maintenance, agronomy, agribusiness, or other related fields. The vast majority of students who pass through the Ag Department come from existing family farms, where they have developed the extremely high work ethic major employers are seeking.
Lake Region sees an average enrollment of 40-50 students in a two-year Agriculture program cohort. This year’s freshman enrollment of 28 is a welcome increase over the previous academic year’s 22. Over the next five years, administrators expect the program will continue to grow and adapt. The North Dakota University System was left reeling after COVID, and communities in ND are seeing smaller graduating classes than previously due to lower birth rates. There is room in the program for more students as these numbers bounce back, putting Lake Region in a position to become the regional home for agriculture in higher education.
An exciting partnership this year has sparked interest from one critical group of high school students: Devils Lake High School’s agriculture classes are currently sharing space in the Hofstad Ag Building at LRSC while their own building is being completed. The high school program had been dormant for many years, but is now re-launching with fresh courses and an FFA chapter. Program coordinators hope the experience of working with the college will ease the transition for students to continue their studies here after graduation.
Nicholls’ pitch to high school juniors and seniors is that in the new program, they can save money while getting a quality, well-rounded educational base, then specialize in areas that are customized to their interests and needs. “Come and take a tour, see what we do here! We are a one-stop shop for agricultural education.” For more details or to contact program administrators, visit www.lrsc.edu/academics/programs/cte-programs/agriculture.