The average age of an American farmer is 57, and has risen for the past several years. An innovative program led by Professor Randy Westgren and Peter Hofherr, assistant director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, works to change that trend by leading new farmers and ranchers to entrepreneurial success.
Agricultural and Applied Economics ⋅ Page 12
Elite Students
CAFNR seniors, faculty part of Mizzou '39 recognition
Six seniors in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources were honored with the prestigious Mizzou ’39 award this spring for their academic achievement, leadership and service to the University and community. In the spirit of service modeled by those who made possible the 1839 founding of the University of Missouri, the Mizzou Alumni Association Student Board annually recognizes…
Seeds of Entrepreneurship
Innovative farming program fuels entrepreneurial spark
The program, led by Randy Westgren, professor of agricultural and applied economics and the McQuinn Chair for Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Division of Applied Social Sciences, and Peter Hofherr, CEO of St. James Winery, takes beginning farmers and ranchers through a four-module course that helps them transform their ideas into profitable ventures in production agriculture.
There’ll Be an App for That
Handling heat stress in livestock will soon be as close as your smartphone
A CAFNR team spanning multiple disciplines is collaborating with journalism and computer science students to develop a simple smartphone app to help producers reduce heat stress in production animals.
Training program jumpstarts entrepreneurship in Missouri
They came all over Missouri–from Humansville, Fayette and Villa Ridge. Some, like Ana Boatman and her daughter Natalie from Independence, are growing vegetables and raising chickens on just 1.5 acres of land, while others, such as Cathy Johnmeyer of Fayette, are raising cattle on 225 acres. Whether their operations are small, medium or somewhere in between, all of the participants came to CAFNR’s Entrepreneurship Project to learn how to transform their ideas into entrepreneurial successes.
A Question of Revenue
States should treat tax policy as an investment portfolio
Judith Stallmann, a professor of community development extension, agricultural and applied economics and rural sociology in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, said that state governments should treat tax policy as they would an investment portfolio.
No Gobbling the Profit
Efficient turkey feed means better margins in a price-sensitive industry
Jeff Firman, a CAFNR professor of poultry production and nutrition, has developed a new turkey diet that can save producers $13-25 per ton. That’s a lot of scratch – almost 15 billion pounds of chow go to fatten the birds each year.
Frequent Flyer
CAFNR alum travels the world for work and play
CAFNR alum Andrea Woolverton has travelled the globe pursuing both her profession and her passion.
Rural Sociological Society and Community Development Society Joint Meetings in Boise, ID
Faustine Williams and Steve Jeanetta’s poster entitled “Spatial Cluster of Female Breast Cancer in Missouri” won second place in the poster competition.
Christine Cochran to top position at Commodity Markets Council
Christine Cochran, who graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources with a bachelor’s of science degree in agricultural economics, has been named president of the Commodity Markets Council in Washington, D.C.