Choosing a Major - Agricultural Economics

As I worked my way through my sophomore year at Utah State, the need to choose a major became pressing.  I really wanted to be a farmer, but I had decided at the time that for economic reasons that was implausible.  I had briefly considered landscape architecture as I initially entered college, but determined that it was much more art than I had in my brain, hands, and body.  When I went back to college for my sophomore year, I had considered dairy science, but I wasn't sure where it might lead me since I didn't think I could ever afford to be a dairy farmer.  What could I do?  It weighed heavily on my mind.

During the Fall quarter, I took Econ 200, an introductory Macro Economics class.  It was one of those general requirement classes that looked like it might not be too boring.  Little did I know, that Michelle was in that class of about 150 people.  She sat in left front of the class and I sat in the right rear of the class.  I don't recall our paths ever having crossed, as we entered and exited through different doors.  At any rate, as I moved through the quarter, I became fascinated, intrigued, and even excited by the content of the materials.  The explanatory power of the models and theoretical constructs was intellectually stimulating.  I thirsted for more.  As I came to the close of that quarter and it became time to register for the next quarter, I wondered what might be next in the Econ series.  That would be Econ 201, Micro Economics.  It looked interesting.

In Econ 201, I not only met my wonderful wife, I also found that Micro Economics was even more interesting than Macro Economics to me.  It applied to individuals, firms, and businesses directly, whereas Macro Economics was more about the general economy of a society, country, or even the world.  I learned about how people made decisions, how companies made decisions, the impact of pricing decisions, product differentiation, commodity products, different business structures, etc.  As I was working at the USU dairy at the time, I started seeing farming applications to the concepts of Micro Economics.  I started to explore the idea of majoring in Economics.

To my surprise, as I looked through college majors, I found Agricultural Economics.  Could this be a way to meld my interest in both agriculture and economics?  I signed up for my first Ag Econ class in the Spring of my sophomore year.  The first class was basically Micro Economics for farms.  I was in love...  It was intriguing.  It was fascinating.  It gave me hope as I saw myself helping farmers figure out farming problems in a rational, logical, sensible way.  I saw myself helping myself, to someday, just maybe, find a way to profitably farm in a business-like way.  I was sold.  I finally selected Ag Econ as my major.

I enjoyed Ag Econ very much.  I did well in my classes.  In my junior year, I had two of my professors take me aside and start to coach me towards going to graduate school in Ag Econ.  I had not seriously considered graduate school to that point.  This would become something that I would think much about over the next year to 18 months.


As I studied Ag Econ, I turned the theoretical lessons into practical decision making in my mind at every turn.  Where would I use this concept?  How could this help me make a better decision than I might have otherwise?  How do you actually collect, gather, and analyze data to make meaningful decisions?  How does one capture value through the utility chain of the product to maximize profitability?  Where does farming start and end in the production and marketing of a product, or does it have to end?  How do you optimize fixed costs and automation vs. variable costs?  Very importantly, why commodity farming is difficult to do profitably and how and why to move away from commodities toward differentiated products.  I could go on and write a whole thesis on what I learned and how I changed my thinking about many things, but I will leave it at that for now.  I was at peace and happy with my choice of majors.  It fit.  It felt like me.

Meeting Michelle - The Confession of Being a Farmer at Heart

At the start of the Winter Term after I returned to Utah State University, I ran into a former co-worker in my Microeconomics class.  She, Julianne (sp?) just happened to be in the class that I was taking.  She introduced me to her room mate, Michelle.  As we got into the class, the three of us decided to form a study group.  We would meet once or twice a week, particularly before tests, to review materials, and study for exams.

After two or three weeks, Julianne started missing our study sessions, except for right before exams.  That left Michelle and me alone, wondering whether or not Julianne was going to show up.  Not wanting to start studying without Julianne, we found ourselves talking and talking and talking.  It didn't take too many of those sessions before I decided that I really wanted to get to know her better. I got up the best courage I could muster, and in a light-hearted sort of way, asked her if she had ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Amazingly to me, she had never seen it.  I had noted that it was at the midnight movie on the upcoming weekend and asked her if she would like to see it with me.  Always hopeful of a "yes," but prepared to deal with a no, I had asked.  She accepted! 

I don't recall all of the details of the evening.  I had worked that night at the dairy farm, so I had to get cleaned up before picking her up for the movie.  The fact that I had to work is one of the things that pushed me to the midnight movie.  I do recall we had a very good time and we had both agreed, that "we would have to do something together again the next week."  And as they say, the rest is history....  We were married about seven months later, not uncommon by Utah standards at that place and time.

I remember in one of our very first conversations, I had mentioned that I worked at the USU dairy farm.  Michelle had half-seriously asked me if I could get her a job there.  Being a poor college student, she was looking for a way to possibly earn additional income.  From there we talked about my history working for Rawl, and my desire to be a farmer.  We discussed that I didn't think it was in the cards for me to be a full-time commercial farmer due to economic constraints and my view of the world at that point in time.  We had discussed my hopes and dreams that I had had from the time I was a little child to be self-sufficient and raise as much of my own food as possible.   We discussed many of the ideas that I had developed over time.  To my happy amazement, she did not reject me or my pursuit of her, even with full-disclosure, sort of a confession if you will, about my farming hopes and dreams.

Michelle mentioned that her granparents had a farm where they grew beef and a big garden every year.  She mentioned how she had loved to go there during the summer and eat the fresh food, and look out over the pasture from the deck and the backyard.  She enjoyed her experiences there and seemed to be okay with my eccentric interests.  

I became increasingly comfortable with my time with Michelle.  She accepted me, warts and all, with my odd interests, and personality quirks.  It wasn't too long before we noted how much we enjoyed spending time with each other.  We also noted those "sparks" that were there between us.  I soon found myself wanting to spend forever with her.  At a moment of conversation, she had mentioned something to the effect that there were different things that we wanted to do together.  In response, I said, "Well, then you will just have to marry me."  She said something to the effect of, "I guess so..."  Not wanting to unwind the moment, we moved on in conversation.  It would take just a little more time for us to formalize our arrangement, but that was the beginning of the formalization.

I continued to want to be able to raise high quality food for the health of Michelle and the rest of our family as part of my core driver towards wanting to farm.  Over time, I would learn more about why I would want to do that.  

I consider myself to be supremely lucky and honored that Michelle would choose to spend her life with me.  I am thankful she accepted me and continues to accept me today.  I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.