Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine undergraduate agriculture students’ interest in a professional row-crop farm management academic program, internships on eastern Arkansas row-crop farms, and professional row-crop farm management careers in eastern Arkansas. Of the 283 responding undergraduate agriculture students, 37.1% were interested in the row-crop farm management academic program, 74.3% were interested in completing a full-semester, for-credit internship on an eastern Arkansas row-crop farm, and 35.9% were interested in professional row-crop farm management careers in eastern Arkansas. Two binomial logistic regression models were estimated to predict interest in the proposed academic program and in professional row-crop farm management careers in eastern Arkansas. The first model indicated males (OR=3.04) and students with row-crop experience (OR=5.73) were significantly (P<0.001) more likely to be interested in the professional row-crop farm management program. The second model indicated agricultural business majors (OR=3.26, P<0.001) and students with row-crop experience (OR=1.89, P<0.05) were significantly more likely to be interested in professional row-crop farm management careers in eastern Arkansas. These results indicated sufficient student interest to justify continued discussions about the development of a professional row-crop farm management academic program.