Four members of the Agribusiness Club at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville recently participated in the 2022 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Judging Conference in North Platte, Nebraska. The student club members included Jenna Feavel, Rebecca Wilke, Shealyn Klosterman-Havens and Jada Flannery. Dr. Kishore Joseph, assistant professor in agribusiness and club co-advisor, accompanied the students to the event.
All four students competed in the Agribusiness and Knowledge Bowl competitions against other four-year universities. The Agribusiness contest included two sections, a written exam and a case study. The written exam covered key topics from microeconomics, macroeconomics, sales, marketing, finance and management areas relevant to the agricultural industry.
This year’s case study was based on a small-scale soil testing and mapping enterprise from Central Nebraska looking to develop the business. Contestants were asked to develop a set of assumptions for the business, complete a SWOT analysis, and perform cash flow and profitability analysis to make recommendations for business development and expansion. Students presented their findings before judges and received critical comments for their analysis.
In the Knowledge Bowl contest, students answered toss-up and bonus questions that challenged their knowledge in broad areas of agriculture, including soil and crop science, agribusiness, animal science and horticulture.
The activities at the event provided students with valuable networking and extracurricular learning opportunities that are not readily available in a traditional classroom.
The NACTA Judging Conference is held annually and was hosted this year by the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis, Nebraska. Participation in this event was funded through the SUFAC Fund and the Glenn Webb Education Fund of the GROWMARK Foundation.