Sisters Bobbi and Leah Pulfer, students at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture, have no complaints about the new pressure to combine business and management studies with traditional agricultural training.
Bobbi recognizes farming is a business.
“(It’s) not just putting the seed in the ground and hoping it’ll grow, any more,” said the third-year agronomy student. “It’s a business and industry.”
Originally from a farm near Weyburn, Sask, Bobbi is majoring in soil science and minoring in crops and agri-business.
“I chose that because the business side will give you all the marketing and the different types of economics related to it, along with the traditional agronomic part,” she said.
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Bobbi figures farmers must become more business-oriented, and she plans to convert that belief into a career.
“What I really want to do is develop plans of how to make your farm more efficient and profitable,” she said.
She thinks mandatory courses like business management and public speaking will help her reach the goal.
“(The university) wants the students to relate to the farmers and also to pass on their ideas,” she said.
“I think they found in the past that the students had a lot of knowledge but they didn’t know how to relate that to farmers and to get their ideas passed to the community.”
Bobbi’s sister Leah is in her second year of agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. She is part of the new curriculum that allows for more diversification in the first year.
“It would be really practical to minor in (agricultural economics) or agri-business,” she said.
These options are new ground for veterinarian Don Pulfer, father of the sisters. He attended the College of Agriculture at Saskatoon a generation ago and sees his daughters having more opportunities to take business and management courses than he did.
A little of each taught
“There’s definitely been a change,” he said. Most of his courses were focused on science with little emphasis on business.
“I think the university has done a good job of balancing the two,” said Pulfer.
He likes the idea that his daughters are taking agriculture now because it opens many job opportunities.
“I’m excited for them.”
Neither sister seemed concerned about finding a job after convocation.
“I think a lot of agriculture students do plan to have a career in agriculture,” said Leah, who will follow her father to veterinary school. “But I think a lot of them also plan to either go back and help their parents farm or farm on the side. I would love to go back and farm.”
