It's impossible to see every aspect of business that runs through the agricultural industry. Still, first-year agribusiness students gave it their best shot earlier this semester with numerous field trips and guest lecturers.

The events were designed to give students a broader understanding of the different ways business interacts with agriculture to assist them in choosing which agribusiness stream to focus on in their second semester. After a common first semester, students choose an area to specialize in. Potential streams include agrifood and tourism, finance, marketing, production and sustainability.

“We have expanded the streams our agribusiness students can choose from,” explains Nadine Farkash, instructor for Introduction to Agribusiness. “With the option to focus on sustainability, production, marketing, finance or agrifood and tourism, we thought it was important to show them how each stream can look in the real world. Connecting them with industry specialists in every area will help them determine which stream most aligns with what they're interested in.”

For some students, the experiences inspired them to reevaluate which stream they wanted to focus on, while others found their initial choices reaffirmed.

Julie-Anne Warner, a first-year agribusiness student from Makwa, Sask., began the program intending to enter the production stream. She's from a cattle farming background and plans to run the family farm one day.

“The field trips were really interesting because we got to learn more about each. We got to see how there is a business side that runs through all the different streams. Even if they're all different, there are so many similarities,” Warner explains. “When I started, I thought production best suited my preferences, but after seeing the differences first-hand, I switched to finance.”

She was inspired to make the change after a guest lecture from Carter Babij, a Lakeland alumnus employed at the Vermilion Credit Union.

Along with Babij's guest lecture, students also heard from Carl-Eric Guertin, an investor in the Old School Cheesery from Montreal, Dan Webb from Webb's Machinery, and Hannah Musterer from the County of Vermilion River. They also visited the Wasylik Family's Chatsworth Farm, the Hutterite colony in Minburn, the Old School Cheesery in Vermilion, and toured Lakeland College's Dairy Learning Centre.

Lloydminster's Kosten Eaton had already decided on a marketing focus before the field trips but found the experiences helped him feel more confident in his choice.

“The field trips reaffirmed which stream I wanted to pick,” Eaton explains. “There was a little bit of everything. I really enjoyed the Cheesery, which focused on both agrifood and tourism and marketing, but I enjoyed the marketing side more. I was already set on it before but the field trips backed up my choice.”

For Blake Van Assen from Neerlandia, Alta., visiting the different locations and hearing from the guest lectures didn't change his intention to focus on the production side of agriculture, but it did open his eyes to the different facets of business in agriculture.

“The visits confirmed what I really want to do, which is production,” Van Assen says. “I really enjoyed going to the Hutterite colony the most because it was more focused on that side of it, on a large, full-scale farm. But it's really interesting to see all the different ways that business can look in the ag industry.”

Photos: 1. Lakeland College Dairy Learning Centre. 2. Chatsworth Farm. 3. Mennonite Farm near Minburn. 4. Old School Cheesery.