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.
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