Agronomist

Agronomist?  What is that?  People ask me this question all the time. It is surprising how many people have no clue what an Agronomist is, or even how to even spell it. When I tell people that I help farmers maintain their fields, they look at me with confusion. With this blog, I hope to clear up any of the confusion any others might have.

Agronomists are plant and soil scientists who work to improve crops and agricultural productivity while effectively managing pests and weeds. Farmers hire Agronomist to maintain their fields. The goals of an Agronomist are to provide healthy fields that produce high yields and to be sustainable. Agronomist make weekly checkups on every field they are assigned to. This is called scouting. Scouting can be either done by walking a field or driving an ATV. When scouting a field, Agronomist looks at many things. They check to see what growth stage the crop is at. This is important because crops need to be at a certain growth stage in order to apply certain pesticides. As the plants mature, many other factors start to come into the equation like insects, disease, and plant nutrient deficiency. Agronomists also have to determine which crop variety will perform the best with the soil conditions of the field. If an Agronomist notices any of these problems, they will report back to the farmer and make a recommendation on how to control the problem. A recommendation usually consists of the time of month the field should be sprayed and how many ounces per acre each pesticide should be applied. As an Agronomist, it is important to them to make a good relationship with your clients. It is hard to make recommendations for your clients that second guess you.

With the population growing, the demand for Agronomist is increasing as well. To become an Agronomist you can attend universities, or even Ag schools specialized for it. Companies are hiring students for internships left and right to possibly hire them after college. Companies will even pay for you to get your pesticide applicator licenses. This allows you to sell and apply restricted pesticides for pay.  An average salary for students coming out of school is 35K.

As I said before, the population of the world is increasing quickly. As populations increase the demand for food and fuel increases and the amount of farm land decreases. This puts pressure on Ag scientist to produce new hybrid crops to produce higher yielding crops. With new hybrid crops coming out, it is also the agronomist job to sell the new products to the farmers.

I hope you enjoyed the information and learned what an Agronomist is. This will ease my frustration on the same question I’ve heard a hundred times. The world needs more motivated young Agronomists. Agriculture is becoming more of an important aspect each day. If you enjoy working outside during the summer and having your winters pretty much off, I highly recommend switching your majors to crop and weed science.