College Majors???

I am trying to finalize my major before I pick my classes for next semester! I am currently an Animal Science major, but I am really considering switching to Ag Communications! The end goal is to have a job when I graduate, preferably within the cattle industry! Possibly working at a breed assn or a livestock marketing company, maybe even a breed publication! What should I do?? Any input is greatly appreciated!!

call people in those fields.  ask them what the salary range is, what the turnover is, what do people do after 5 years, what other majors may help more.  animal science is one of the most transferred out of majors.

knabe said:

call people in those fields.  ask them what the salary range is, what the turnover is, what do people do after 5 years, what other majors may help more.  animal science is one of the most transferred out of majors.

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yes it is...

I started on that route- ended up getting a forestry major, and natural resource/ conservation minor-- and now work for the USDA/ NRCS and have almost zero things to do involving my A.S. major..  ( I guess the only good side of it, is personal, but with work I do some grazing mgmt and consult.

I have a job lined up already for post graduation but my major is animal science with a beef industry specialization with minors in agronomy and ag comm.  I'll be working with a University research station, possibly lobbying for the industry, and eventually taking over the family farm.  I would definitely look at salaries, turnover of positions, and accessibility into the field you want to go into, for instance in most places you wouldn't be able to get a job as an extension agent or ag teacher until one of the few in a geographic area retires.

Have you taken any journalism or photography classes?  If not I would recommend both.

Oh, and marketing or advertising classes!

flacowman said:

I would definitely look at salaries, turnover of positions, and accessibility into the field you want to go into,

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you'd be better off looking at benefits instead of salaries. 

quick question!! if i want to be a ag educator but i also want to learn how to do embryo transfer or artifical insementaion for a living what kind of major would that be?

Ag Ed and go to AI school and maybe take ANSCI classes as electives.  I'm pretty sure you have to be a vet to do embryo transfer for money but AI work is a 2-4 day school that you can do any time

I think there are many reasons we see so many leave the Animal Science major.  1) I see a lot of universities hiring really, really young professors lately that have NO practical experience in the field they are teaching.  Not having any practical experience other than their coursework, they dont know how to effectively teach students and prepare them for careers after graduating.  I know the school I am currently at has that issue with a professor. I feel that before someone becomes a professor they need to spend some time out in the industry working, so that they are better able to know what the industry expects out of their students. And by the way, I dont feel that having 20-30 cows growing up, or feeding a pig every yr for the county show or to put in the freezer counts as practical experience.  I am talking about really being involved in the industry. A college professors job is not only to teach a course matter, but also ensure that when those students graduate they are prepared and capable to work in that industry. 2) With so many different beliefs, points of view, ways of doing things, I have found that many places, especially livestock production oriented, would rather hire someone with no educational background in production so that they can train and teach them in the beliefs of the company.  They seem to be much more happy to just hire someone with Farm Management type background without a lot of production oriented coursework. 3) Even in the biggest production oriented companies, they dont need all their employees to have degrees.  Most of the work to do there is general labor, maintenance type stuff that they can hire non-degreed persons to do.  The industry just doesnt have a great need for Animal Science majors alone.  I personally just added a minor in Marketing, my major is Animal Science and I plan to pursue graduate work focusing in Repro, but for any company their greatest needs are marketing their product, it doesnt matter how great of a product they develop or produce, it is a dead end deal if their product isnt marketed appropriately. 
I guess in summary I can say that I feel that the Animal Science Courses are very beneficial, but you really need some other types of courses in there, Management, Marketing, Leadership, Communications, Human Resources, etc.
As far as AI and ET, I would agree major in Ag Leadership if you want to teach, and take those animal science/repro courses as electives. Get certified in both.  Not all states are requiring that you be a vet to do AI work for pay yet, some are, but all require you to at least be certified as an ET tech to do it for pay.  Also, most companies that are selling embryos will not guarantee any pregnancy if the embryos are not put in buy a certified person.

at least get a minor in Ag-Business on an Animal science degree, most places you can get the teaching endorsement in Ag with almost all ag majors, ask you college counsellor for help on this and essentially all the ag majors take the same classes the first semster no matter what major it is.


what college are you going to go to?


JWW

I think the biggest reason people switch out of Animal Science majors is because they started out pre-vet, decided they don't want to go to vet school, and then aren't told there are plenty of other options with an an sci degree. 

I don't think hiring young professors is a problem, but I do think that hiring young professors that a. can't teach and/or b. don't know squat about what they are teaching is a problem.  But then again, we also so older professors that fall into both of these categories.  As a young professor you should be exploring your field from a research stand point, an industry standpoint and an education standpoint.  Twistedh, I agree with what you are saying about a professors job is to prepare the students to work in the industry, but they can do that while starting out their teaching career, especially at land grant schools.  Those professors generally have some form of an extension appointment, and even if they don't they're still up to date with what's going on in the commercial beef world (just as an example, insert any field lol).  If they aren't, they aren't doing their job. 

Blue Intentions, before you switch out, talk to your an sci advisor and see where your past goals and your present goals have diverged.  Make sure you have a goal or a reason for switching, and it's not something like you don't like your classes this semester.  A wise friend of mine told me to picture my life and identify where I want to be, what kind of life I want to live and what I want to be doing.  This really helped me decide some goals.  I was almost an ansci to ag comm switch, but ended up staying.  Now I'm in grad school and thanking God every day I stuck with it.  I love what I do.  Hopefully some day soon I'll be one of those young professors that doesn't fall into either of those above categories.  ;D

I dont have an issue with young professors, sorry if it came off that way.  I have seen plenty of good young professors out there, just like I have seen plenty of older professors who dont give a rip.  I was getting more to the point of a professor needs practical experience in their field before they become a professor.  I agree most of these young professors, many are actually only listed as instructors when first hired, have gained some practical experience through research or are hired in research positions where they just happen to be teaching a course or 2 as well.  What I am talking about is that person who started college at 18 went straight through and got a PhD with no internship, completed it in 6 or 7 yrs with not a lot of research experience and their first job is as a professor at some smaller type university.  That would be the same as having someone who just graduated vet school being hired to come back and teach at the vet school, they dont have the experience in the field that they need to be able to teach succesfully.  I agree you can teach a few courses and be successful while starting your research career, but before they become a major profesor they need practical experience in a field.  And I feel there is a difference in being up to date on an industry and being involved in an industry.  Who do you think you would learn more from? A person who spent 5or 6 years sitting in a classroom, reading about it in a book, rading a memo or news article once a week or so about what was going on in the industry.  Or someone who spent 5-6 yrs in a classroom doing all that and then spent 4 or 5 yrs or more actually out in the industry working, seeing all those things they read about in the book first hand and having to learn how to problem solve and seeing it when things didnt go the way the book said they were supposed to?

I would stay away from "Ag" Business and "Ag" Communications. Switch to Communications, and take ag classes for your electives. That's pretty much what an Ag Comm degree is anyways. The reason I say that is because you'll give yourself more opportunities that way. The agriculture industry makes up roughly 1% of America's GDP. Working for a livestock marketing company, breed assn, publication, etc... would be great but what if their not hiring? With an Ag Comm degree you've limited yourself mainly to the agriculture industry. With a Comm degree you can work in any industry. A strong background in agriculture will look just as good with a Comm degree as it would an Ag Comm degree, and I think most employers would respect the fact that you didn't get an Ag Comm degree because you didn't want to limit yourself. It shows that you think ahead and pay attention to what's happening with the economy.

Seeing way to many AS&D and ANSC majors still looking for a job, guess what there are only so many AG teacher jobs and whatever it is ANCS majors do with that degree. I myself went the  AG Economics route with a minor in Business MGMT. Best decision by far.

I am an agribusiness major with an emphasis in animal science. I have really enjoyed all of my agriculture classes. Actually the only classes I've taken for this major have been chemistry and accounting but I made it though them. I am graduating this December and have really enjoyed my college experience. However, there are no real good jobs (where I live anyway). A lot of the recent graduates are working on possessions with an agribusiness: animal science that they probably could have got without going to college. I don't think it's the major-- it's just that nobody is hiring right now! I don't want to scare you- it's just how things are right now. But if you love animal science as much as I do, I would encourage you to go for. That's just my advice. Good luck in the future!