Are there any somewhat recent grads with ag economics or ag business degrees? If so, what do you do with it? What company/industry/job are you employed as? Any business owners? We are trying to get a feel for the demand and pay scales for these degrees to help my kids with decisions.

Ag econ c/o 2015 here.

I am a motivational speaker and I live in a van down by the river

Nephew graduated last year with Ag Business degree.

Went to work for Cargill a a kill floor manager in one of their beef plants in PA.

Not sure of salary, but can get you contact info.

I appreciate that. Salary info probably is not necessary. Online salaries give a good range and that will be close enough.

We are just trying to get an idea of what people do with these degrees.

A friend of mine got a degree in Ag Econ or Ag Devel back in the early 2000's and ended up going to work for Fidelity and is still there. He initially interviewed with them just to get some interview experience and evidently the offer and eventual career worked out even though he said when he took the job he thought they were mainly looking for warm bodies.

This isn't recent but I'm Ag Eco and retired from a career in banking.

Not sure if this will be helpful but I'll throw in my 2 cents. Ag Economics C/O 2019. Tried to get work in food sales or food processing, but ended up working as a compliance and safety manager for a moving company in Alabama for about 5 years post grad. I found that job because they were doing temp work in CSTAT at the time and worked my way up.

Now I'm back in Texas working as a Project Manager for a kitchen equipment distributor. Basically managing outfitting new restaurants with all the commercial equipment they need. So I guess I'm Ag/Food adjacent now. Pay is OK, not great, but I'm having to work my way up again so that was to be expected.

One thing I will say is the most valuable thing (outside of connections) I got out of the AGLS dept. was getting the Food Sales minor. Not sure how much has changed since Dr. Litzenberg passed away, but the sales skills I learned through that program have been extremely helpful in being able to sell products and close deals. If they go into AGLS I recommend they try to take that course too.

My wife was Ag Ec. She's now a project manager in Telecom.

AgEco class of '96.
Chief Investment Officer

Wife was also AgEco and runs a division for a commercial construction company

It used to be that AgEco majors tended to be more well-rounded, jack of all trades type kids. I think mainly because they usually came from smaller towns or at least had some agricultural background.

AGEC here. Worked 8 years in the poultry industry after graduating. Current gig for the past 14 years is a plant manager for a construction materials company.

Ag Business here and:



Happy to share more just don't want to do it publicly. Feel free to PM me

My good buddies and cousin that were Ag Econ majors work in every sector you could imagine. Oil and Gas/Real Estate Development/Agricultural sales/commercial banking.

The thing that impressed me the most was that every one of them had a good job lined up well before graduation. Seems like a great major. We all graduated between 2009 and 2012 though. So I am not sure of the current state of the program, but they are all doing very well for themselves these days with the degree they received.

2010 Ag Business here (not so new haha). 10+ years in wholesale distribution and now work in commercial insurance.

My experience- I felt like other majors opened up more doors for entry level roles. It's tough for Ag majors to compete with ID/Mays grads for jobs fresh out of school all things equal. But like anything, it's all about who you know more than what you know and major becomes less relevant after some experience.

Me personally- I'll try to steer my kids towards ID if they're at all interested in sales and construction science if they don't pursue engineering or a specialized route. Most of my peers (myself included) wandered around for a few years before landing in sales or construction.

Happy to talk salary via PM if you'd like more info.

Econ '04 here (not Ag), but I spent almost a decade at a freight forwarder and have been in supply chain at a Fortune 50 company based in Houston for the past 12 years or so.

Me. '01

Been in banking my whole career

I had several friends go through AGEC in the 80s. Several work in commerical real estate, a couple went to law school, others went back to the farm. Some others did general sales, not ag related.

My daughter recently applied to A&M, not in AGEC. We got off on a tangent without admissions counselor about how competitive it is getting into Mays. Ag Econ ends up with a lot of applicants who don't get admitted to Mays.

Ag Eco degree. I worked at a bank for 9 years, and now I manage a team of 16 software developers.

Retired Ag Econ major here. My career was also in banking. Commercial banking 44 years. Ag business option.

Ag business with ag eco minor. Started out as a superintendent in commercial construction. Made the switch to the oilfield 20 years ago. I found you could kinda do anything with the degree. I have a few regrets about it, but way too late now.

Ag Econ.....to Ag Systems..... to Ag Engineering. Class of '97 but graduated '01.

Was self employed till 2007. Went into energy engineering. Got a bunch of certifications from the Association of Energy Engineers. Was District Energy Engineer on the south side of Houston all during hurricane Ike. Did all the electrical/mechanic design for Energy efficiency for schools, hospitals, waste water treatment plants, city buildings, county buildings, the port etc.

Then went into consulting for the power companies in Texas such as Centerpoint, Entergy, AEP, Texas New Mexico Power, Oncor etc teaching all of their big customers how to do what I was doing and designing electrical mechanical systems for energy efficient design and operational best practices.

Walked away from that engineering career in 2016 add started guiding fishing charters and duck hunts full time.

AgEco c/o 84, most every close friend I went to school with or know were AgEco. Was going back to the ranch to continue family business but this was the 80's, so we sold and I got a job.
Have spent the last 40 yrs. In Agriculture marketing and sales, always in either crop or livestock related. Always lived in Texas but covered US coast to coast for a few years. Ended up finishing (in the short rows anyway) in Ag banking.
Oldest son was AgEco c/o17, he is area manager for home builder, youngest son has Communications degree. You can see him daily on this website and hear him calling a lot of football, basketball & baseball games for a lot of local high schools and an occasional Aggie baseball game.

AGEC '21 here. Been in commercial banking since graduating. My boss was AGEC '08 and has been in commercial banking since graduating as well.

In fact, lots of Aggies I know in this industry had AGEC degrees. Even have a couple customers that did AGEC.

This is fantastic information. Thank you all. What I like seeing is there is a plenty of career diversity with self employment going on in the thread. This all aligns with how we run things and teach our kids. They are used to the background in farm and ranch, business ownership, and "just doing what it takes to make a living". The posts on this thread seem to support that mindset. Thank you all. Theyll be spending their time reading through all of this.

My son was Ag Systems, graduated class of '11. Walked in '13 (most of 2010 was spent in hospitals getting chemo for testicular cancer)

His oncologist got him an interview with a VP of Seadrill and he worked offshore for 5 years. Was laid off but got a job with an O&G Auditing Firm. He is now co-owner of said firm.

AGEC '13 with the food marketing systems track. I do commodity marketing, selling crops for farmers/ranchers.

If you're wanting them to learn self employment type skills while in college, have them take Dr Rister's rural entrepreneurship class in the AGEC department. It's a two semester class where students build their own business from the ground up and learn all the ins and out of running a business.

It has mentors that help guide and critique their ideas throughout the process and provides tons of feedback for the students. It's not an easy class, with lots of homework and outside of classroom time commitment, but almost everyone that goes through it speaks very highly of the experience.

ALED 2010. Spent a decade in oil/gas stuff and now a VP in Commercial (transportation) Insurance. I know very few people who are actually in a field they went to college for - excluding veterinarians, doctors, etc.

My best friend from A&M is AgEco 2009. He is a third generation water well business owner.

My advice: network all you can as undergrad. Those friends will become colleagues, business leads, and referrals. Get a degree, get out, find an opportunity and start building a resume. Don't sweat which major. We are Aggies and they Aggie degree is the value IMO

Ag business '08 here. Went that route because my 3.3 GPA from Texas State wouldn't get me into Mays. Worked in personal finance for 6 years and then back to law school at A&M and am now an attorney. I think I've been asked "what is Agribusiness?" in every interview I've had since I graduated undergrad.

'98 AgEco. Went from B2B telecom sales to office equipment to Pharma to Medical Device. It was a tough road in the beginning and pay was not great until I got into Pharma.

AGEC '04 - Finance and Real Estate specialty. Spent 10 years as a construction PM and doing outside sales in the construction industry. Then went to law school and am now a director in the legal group at an energy company managing a team of lawyers doing real estate development and financing work.

1990Hullaballoo said:

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Nephew graduated last year with Ag Business degree.

Went to work for Cargill a a kill floor manager in one of their beef plants in PA.

Not sure of salary, but can get you contact info.

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It's not really a floor. It's more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported. <Troy McClure>

You'll find a lot of Ag Eco and Ag Business people in banking, especially in more rural areas. US Customs also hires some - I know one Ag Development grad now making well into 6 figures doing that.

AgEco c/o 07 - Finance and Real Estate

MAI appraiser (commercial & farm/ranch), broker, investor, tax consultant. Absolutely love my degree.

Worked for ConAgra for 2 years. Realized there is no money in Ag unless you are born into it. Been working in heavy manufacturing ever since. Haven't once used information from my degrees (yah, I got two) in my 27 years since.

Class of '04 AgBusiness here. Worked my way from home builder to multi-family to commercial construction. Then I jumped into midstream O&G construction and services for 10 years.

Now I'm the Director of Pipeline Construction for an LDC.

One of the VP's I worked for said that he doesn't care what your degree is, that fact that you graduated proves that you're a problem solver.

Agribusiness 2010 here. I've worked in coal mining, sugar production, automotive fluid sales and delivery, and now a service writer for a trailer company.

I have been mostly underemployed in my career and now looking to pivot into something else in my early forties. I served four years in the Army before college and I honestly think that was a smarter decision.