Sustainable Cropping Systems

In hands-on laboratories, you’ll learn by doing: insert a jellyfish gene into tobacco to make it glow in the dark, produce biodiesel from canola seeds and create a dual potato-tomato plant through grafting. Field trips will take you to farms and processing facilities. More hands-on opportunities are available at our plant science farms and computer-controlled greenhouses.

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

Most of our students complete an internship the summer between their junior and senior year. They work for farms of all sizes and other agriculture-related businesses.

Prepare for Success

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

• Breeding crops using genetic transformation, molecular markers, and other new and classical techniques.
• Using innovative practices to increase crop yields and protect plants from pests in environmentally sustainable ways.
• Integrating information from business, microbiology, entomology, engineering, and other fields to grow crops sustainably and profitably.

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 as a club or class officer.
• Pay attention to news stories about agriculture.

Your First Year

Your first year, you will hone your communication skills with course work in writing and public speaking. You will also take an overview of the field with the course, Science of Plants in Agriculture.

More advanced major courses include field crop production, soil fertility, pesticides in the environment and plant pathology.

See the four-year plan.

What You Can Do

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

• Grower: Oversee day-to-day farm operations, including planning, pest management, irrigation, equipment maintenance and managing employees.
• Field representative: Work for a company that sells seed or supplies such as machinery, fertilizers and pesticides. Recommend and explain products.
• Weed management specialist: Plan and implement sustainable weed management strategies for a corporate or family farm.
• Agricultural consultant: Give farmers recommendations for pest control and pesticide use, plant variety selection and more.
• Research technician: Assist a university, government or company agronomist in laboratory, greenhouse and field research.
• Field inspector: Inspect seed crops for export certification.

Opportunities

Our graduates get jobs with starting salaries of up to $45,000 in business, government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

You may also want to continue your education. Earn an advanced degree in plant science, environmental science, agricultural economics, agronomy, plant breeding and genetics, or plant pathology.

Current Research

Do research. Make hands-on discoveries.

Assist in a faculty research project or do your own independent study. Test the potential of mustard seed meal to deter weeds, insects and nematodes in soil. Help select rust-resistant wheats from among thousands of plants in a breeding program. Study herbicide resistance in weeds. Paid positions are available.

Our faculty is also working on:

• Growing new varieties of wheat, mustard, canola and beans
• Investigating biological and environmental risks of transgenic crops
• Discovering new approaches to protect crops from pests
• Improving crops for use as biofuels

Activities

Plant and Soil Science Club: Grow plants for sale; take field trips.
Soil Stewards: Work at the on-campus organic farm.
Agribusiness Club: Meet business leaders and potential employers, learn about internships, and get help developing your resume and improving your interviewing skills.

Hands-On Experience

Intern. Get real-world experiences likes these:

• Western Farm Service: Assist company agronomist in research trials on the effects of fertilization on the performance of grapes, hops, mint and other crops.
• Coors Brewing Company: Manage malting barley field trials.
• Syngenta: Help field biologists develop new pest management products.

Study abroad. Deepen your understanding of your major—and the world—in countries like these:

• Taiwan: Study rice production.
• Mexico: Visit mango and coffee plantations.
• India: Learn about 1,000-year-old farming practices on terraced hillsides.

Volunteer. Give back. Grow organic produce at the plant science farm and donate it to a local food bank. Help maintain The Nature Conservancy’s historic ranch on the Snake River.

Facilities

The department’s facilities include two plant science farms and two state-of-the-art greenhouses.