Four members of the Agribusiness Club at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently attended the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Judging Conference in Murray, Kentucky. This national judging conference was hosted by Murray State University. The Agribusiness Club members who participated include Emily Adelmeyer, Alyssa Demrow, Colton O’Brien and Brooke Vanderloop. Dr. Chuck Steiner, director of Pioneer Farm and professor in the School of Agriculture, served as their coach.
The students competed in two contests: Agriculture Knowledge and Ag Business. In the Agriculture Knowledge contest, they competed against other university teams to answer toss-up and bonus questions from a variety of agricultural areas including agri-business/farm management, agricultural mechanics, animal sciences, crops/soils, current agricultural events and horticulture.
The Ag Business contest included two parts. The first involved each individual completing a written and problem-solving exam that focused on key areas of agribusiness including micro and macroeconomics, agricultural finance, entrepreneurship, agribusiness management, sales, agricultural marketing and ag business law. The second part involved a small-scale hops production operation located in Western Kentucky. The case study provided information about the operation and asked the students to conduct a financial analysis and provide recommendations for expanding the business in Kentucky. The students worked as a team and presented their findings and recommendations to a group of four judges, which included the hops operation owners.
In both contests, the students were competing against other four-year agricultural programs from across the country. The four-person team placed second in the case study portion of the Ag Business competition and placed third overall.
This national judging contest provides students with the opportunity to network and compete against students from agricultural programs across the country. It also provides a variety of experiential learning opportunities that complement the programs in the School of Agriculture at UW-Platteville.
Participation in this event was funded through SUFAC, School of Agriculture and the Agribusiness Club.