AVS: Business

Balance courses in accounting, economics, communications, business management and marketing with courses in animal and meat sciences.

A Bachelor of Science in Animal and Veterinary Science Business Option from the University of Idaho prepares you to make important business management decisions about animal production.

Emerging niche markets and concerns for environmental sustainability create opportunities for exciting new products and business practices in the livestock industry.

Get hands-on animal experience in on-campus labs and animal centers. Learn how to maximize the value of retail cuts at the meat science laboratory. Explore pregnancy rates and grazing management systems at our beef and sheep centers.

In your senior year, you will integrate lessons from business and animal science. You might determine the efficiency of a cow-calf operation, examine how horses are bred and sold, or develop a plan for marketing a swine vaccine.

You’ll learn from teachers involved in today’s most pressing issues in animal and veterinary science.

Students are encouraged to complete an internship the summer between their junior and senior year. They work for farms of all sizes and other businesses in the food industry.

Prepare for Success

This major is a good fit if you can see yourself:

• Working for businesses that rely on domestic animals such as cattle, sheep and horses.
• Making decisions about budgets, production levels and marketing strategies in animal agriculture.
• Using communication and leadership skills to work in teams that may include accountants, veterinarians, environmental scientists and engineers.

To prepare, you may want to:

• Participate in 4-H activities, volunteer at a county fair or work for a farm.
• Practice your leadership skills in student office.
• Pay attention to current issues in the news related to animals and agriculture.

Your First Year

Your first year, you will hone your communication skills with course work in writing. You will also take the science of animal husbandry, an animal husbandry lab, and an orientation to animal and veterinary science.

More advanced major courses include farm and agribusiness management, feed and ration formulation, animal reproduction and breeding, and agricultural economics.

See the four-year plan.

What You Can Do

With this degree, you may become one of the following:

• Production manager: Manage the production processes of a dairy, meat processing firm, or feedlot.
• Business owner: Direct all operations of a farm, ranch or other agribusiness.
• Sales representative: Sell veterinary supplies and medicine for a pharmaceutical or animal products company.
• Marketing director: Make decisions about marketing strategies and advertising for a ranch or farm cooperative, pharmaceutical or equipment manufacturer or a food processing company.
• Analyst: Gather and interpret data about the livestock industry to promote the interests of a state or national organization and support its lobbying efforts.

Opportunities

Almost all of our graduates receive job offers upon graduation with starting salaries of up to $50,000.  They work in businesses, governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations.

You may also want to continue your education. Pursue an advanced degree in business, law, nutrition, genetics and breeding, reproductive physiology or other specialized fields.

Current Research

Our faculty members conduct research concurrently with teaching, exploring such topics such as reproduction, growth and lactation physiology; meat and dairy science and nutrition; and aquaculture.

Research opportunities are plentiful. Collect and analyze feed samples in beef, dairy and sheep nutrition laboratories. Analyze the hormone composition of blood in the bovine or equine reproductive physiology labs. Evaluate alternative uses of waste products from a meat processing facility. Care for animals at the beef, dairy and sheep centers. Paid positions are available.

Activities

National Agricultural Marketing Association: Join the student chapter and attend national meetings.
Agribusiness Club: Meet business leaders and potential employers
Student Idaho Cattle Association, Livestock and Meats Judging Teams, Block and Bridle: Visit farms and ranches. Practice judging and showing livestock.

Hands-On Experience

Intern. Get real-world experiences likes these:

• Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center: Help feed and care for 400 crossbred mother cows at the University of Idaho’s ranch near Salmon, Idaho.
• Idaho Beef Council: Work on promotion and marketing for the beef industry.
• Livestock Marketing Information Center: Apply new decision making tools to determine how to successfully introduce products into the market.

• Mexico: Visit family operated ranches.
• Taiwan: Tour food production facilities.
• Australia: Visit a country that prizes its beef industry.

Facilities

Facilities you will have access to include:

• Beef center with purebred cows
• Dairy center with milking Holsteins
• Sheep center with breeding Suffolk ewes
• Reproductive physiology labs
• Agriculture-biotech labs
• On-campus processing facilities for meat and dairy