Agronomy, What Today’s Students Study
Kansas State University
College of Agriculture Honors Program
Spring 2007
Cammie Feldt
Advisor: S.J. Thien
Abstract:
Agronomy curriculums are changing at universities today. Four out of 12 land grant
universities surveyed currently have an Agronomy department. The others have been
divided and split into other areas or departments. Students now specialize in specific
disciplines within the agronomy curriculum. This specialization allows for more intensive
study in the specified area, instead of studying the entire agronomy curriculum. In
addition to academia, departments offer an organization or club that allows students to
actively participate in activities outside of the classroom and gain professional
development opportunities.
Introduction:
As a student in Agronomy at KSU, I became highly involved at the regional and national
level. At meetings of SASES, Students in Agronomy, Soils, and Environmental Sciences,
I had the privilege of meeting students from across the nation that are involved in
Agronomy. However, I started to notice that many of them were not from an actual
“agronomy” department. They were split into Soil Science, Crop and Weed Science, or
Environmental Sciences, or some sort of mixture of the three. Range science is often not
associated with the above mentioned departments. The variety of department names
sparked my interest, so I chose to research and compare the departments and part of the
curricula within the department at several land-grant universities across the continental
United States. For this study, I chose to base my research on the objectives stated below.
Objectives:

Compare names of Agronomy Department or equivalent

Compare numbers of options available in the Department

Compare number of courses available in the Department

Does the department have an active club available to the students
Materials and Methods:
Most of my research was completed through online searches. Thanks to the internet,
information regarding departments, classes, and universities was easily accessed. I
originally planned to contact a representative at each university that was the equivalent of
the teaching coordinator at Kansas State. However, I was able to find adequate
information online so I chose not to follow that method.
Once I gathered the needed information from the university websites, I simply compared
and contrasted some differences in the universities and their curricula. The information
from this comparison was then presented in the form of a poster.
Results and Discussion:
For objective number one, I searched the university website for the core values of
agronomy, which include crops, soils, weeds, environmental sciences, business and
management, and range studies. I found the above mentioned in the following
departments at their respective universities. As you can see, only four of the twelve
universities contain a department of Agronomy as a single entity.
University
Texas A&M
Purdue
Michigan State
Iowa State
Florida
Oklahoma State
Nebraska
Colorado State
Kansas State
Wyoming
Washington State
Pennsylvania State
Department Name
Soil and Crop Sciences
Purdue Agronomy
Crop and Soil Sciences
Agronomy
Agronomy
Plant and Soil Sciences
Agronomy and Horticulture
Soil and Crop Sciences
Agronomy
Plant Sciences
Crop and Soil Sciences
Crop and Soil Sciences
The second objective was to compare the number of options available within the
department. First all the options offered within the department were listed in a database.
From there I tried to find the original five options within the choices offered at each
university. Of the twelve universities, only two offered all five options within a single
department. I chose to show both the comparison to the original five options and the total
number of options offered in the chart and graph below.
Availability of Main Five Agronomy Options
University
Colorado
State
Business and
Industry
X
Consulting
Plant
and
Science and
Production
Biotech
X
X
X
X
X
Iowa State
X
Kansas State
X
X
X
X
X
X
Michigan
State
Oklahoma
State
X
Range
Management
X
Environmental
Science
X
X
X
X
Pennsylvania
X
X
State
Purdue
Soil and
X
X
Texas A&M
X
Florida
X
X
X
X
X
Nebraska
X
Wyoming
X
X
X
X
Washington
State
X
X
X
X
Number of Options Available
12
10
8
6
4
2
Pu
rd
ue
Te
x
U
Un
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it y
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The third objective was to compare the number of courses available within the
department. In order to find this information, I searched the department website for a
course schedule. The results are shown in the graph below. The information for Texas
A&M, Nebraska, and Washington State was unavailable online. The numbers for this
part of the project are slightly skewed due to differences in course catalogs at different
universities. Some contain undergraduate and graduate level courses, while others only
contain undergraduate courses. I was unable to separate some of the information.
However, my goal was to find the number of courses offered by the department, not
specific to undergraduate, graduate, or both, therefore the information is correct for
meeting the objective.
Number of Departmental Courses
120
97
100
80
60
40
87
70
37
20
66
43
34
26
16
NA
NA
NA
Co
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The fourth objective in the project was to find information regarding a student club or
organization within the respective department. Ten of the twelve universities offered a
club or organization within the department. All but the departments at Pennsylvania State
and the University of Wyoming boast active crops and soils or agronomy clubs. The
names of the club with respect to the university are listed in the table below.
University
CSU
Purdue
TAMU
Michigan State
Iowa State
UF
Oklahoma State
UNL
KSU
Washington State
Penn State
U of Wyoming
Club Name
CSU Agronomy Club
Purdue Agronomy Club
Agronomy Club
MSU Agronomy Club
Agronomy Club
Agronomy/Soils Club
OSU Agronomy Club
UNL Agronomy Club
Wheat State Agronomy Club
Crop and Soil Science Club
NONE
NONE
Conclusion:
Although the name “agronomy” is disappearing in land grant universities across the
nation, it appears that the universities still boast strong departments committed to plants,
soils, and environmental sciences. Within these departments, many also provide
extracurricular interactions by way of a departmental club or organization.
Resources:
Colorado State University, CSU Agronomy Club, Online
<http://agronomyclub.agsci.colostate.edu/>
Colorado State University, Department of Soil and Crop Science, Online
<http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/SoilCrop/undergrad/undergrad_program.htm>
Florida, University of, Department of Agronomy, Online
<http://agronomy.ifas.ufl.edu/progareas.html>
Iowa State University, Department of Agronomy, Online
<http://www.agron.iastate.edu/>
Iowa State University, Agronomy Club, Online
<http://www.agron.iastate.edu/agronclub/index.aspx>
Kansas State University, Department of Agronomy, online,
<http://www.agronomy.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx>
Kansas State University, Wheat State Agronomy Club, online,
<http://www.agronomy.ksu.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=161&tabid=393>
Michigan State University, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Online
<http://www.css.msu.edu/Specializations.cfm#BioTech>
Michigan State University, MSU Agronomy Club, Online
<http://www.msu.edu/~agclub/Links.htm>
University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, online,
<http://www.agronomy.unl.edu/index.html%3bjsessionid=FB5B1C54E2D8F19FA949C6
DD451B6A08>
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, UNL Agronomy Club, online
<http://agronomy.unl.edu/agronomyclub/agronomy%20club%20website_files/page0001.
htm>
Oklahoma State University, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Online
<http://pss.okstate.edu/>
Pennsylvania State University, College of Agriculture, online,
<http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/$agmenu.htm>
Purdue University, Purdue Agronomy, Online
<http://www.agry.purdue.edu/pro_major_marketing.asp>
Purdue University, Purdue Agronomy, Online
<http://www.agry.purdue.edu/pro_major_marketing.asp>
Texas A&M University, Department of Rangeland, Online <http://rangeland.tamu.edu/>
Texas A&M University, Agronomy Club, Online <http://soilcrop.tamu.edu/>
United States Department of Agriculture, Land Grant Universities, online,
<http://www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/partners/state_partners.html>
Washington State University, Department of Crop and Soil Science, online
<http://css.wsu.edu/>
Washington State University, WSU Academics, online
http://academic.cahnrs.wsu.edu/academics.htm
Wyoming, University of, Academics at UW, online
<http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UW/academics/>
Wyoming, University of, Crops, online
<http://academics.wsu.edu/fields/study.asp?ID=CROPS>