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Along with the Plant Sciences Core Curriculum students in the crop management emphasis area are required to take theses additional courses.
Required Courses
for Emphasis Area:
Credit
Pest Sequence-Enroll in course not taken as part of core.
3-5
Theory & Concepts of Plant Pathology
3*
Plant Breeding & Genetics
3*
Forage Crops
3
Grain Crops
3
Crop Physiology
3
Select ONE:
Soil Fertility & Plant Nutrition
3
Soils and the Environment
3
Soil Conservation
3
Select ONE:
Physical Principles for Agric. Applicaitons
3
Animal Science
3
Intro. Meteorology
3
Agroforestry I: Theory, Practice & Adoption
4
Total Credits:
18-20
* No additional credit given if taken as part of the core curriculum.

Crop Management

What can see but cannot speak, respond to vibrations but cannot hear, and is all around us? Plants! If you have eaten today, it’s only possible due to plants. With the world’s population soon to reach 7 billion and the cost for fossil fuels continuing to rise, improved crop production and the use of crops as biofuels, plastics, inks and for generation of medicinal compounds may be the key to sustaining life on earth. 

Crop management involves the supply of nutrients for plant growth, identification and management of plant pests (weeds, diseases and insects), improvement of soil factors (pH, organic matter) and tolerance to environmental stresses (temperature, water, salinity). Students can pursue training in agronomic (e.g. soybeans, corn, alfalfa) or horticultural (e.g. tomatoes, melons, squash) crops, or even participate in discovering the crops of tomorrow.

Vocations in crop management range from becoming agronomists, consultants and farmers to becoming technical specialists in industry, extension or government agencies (NRCS, USDA). Crop managers can work in rural or urban areas and focus on plants early in their growth cycle (seed) or at maturity (crops as grains for feed or food or as oils for feed or fuel). 

Come explore an emphasis area with a myriad of possibilities and a job waiting after graduation.