Kirkwood ag programs are seeing an increase in students in the transfer program, in which students move on to a four-year institution, and the horse science program, one of the best in the nation. Both programs have doubled in the past four years, Bolton says. We have about 50 students here that their goal is to go on to a bachelor s degree program, he says of the transfer program. MANY OF the transfer students complete degrees at Iowa State University, Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Bolton says job opportunities in agriculture are expanding, and employers like employing students with farm backgrounds.
Agriculture is a growing industry.
Everything we read in the press or listen to on the radio and TV talks about the declining number of farmers. If you look at owner-operators, that s probably a true trend, but the support areas and the other explosions that agriculture is having in precision agriculture GPS, GIS and biotechnology and the application of information to farm is just growing and growing, he notes. It s a whole different world of opportunities. If you just limit yourself to a definition of agriculture as having sows, cows and plows, you re pretty limited and that s an old definition. Today, the computer and biotechnology and satellite farming is really changing the opportunity that students have.