I travel a lot by air and I’ve always been amazed and somewhat entranced by the beauty of farmland when seen from far above. It can look like a Morris code message, an old quilt, pixels of a much larger digital image, a pie chart, or even that old video game packman. I also find that the variations in crop colors and land colors are fun to try to interpret. What crop is being grown? Was that field planted too late or too early? What made that huge patch of different colored soil, and is it better or worse than the rest?
Different people are inspired in different ways. Some might look at the picture above and think it merely beautiful. (I would agree with that person) Others might say it inspires confidence in our country as a representation of our world class farming ability. (that too is true) Still others will look at the picture as a problem, or better yet, an opportunity. After view the image above, Mikee said,
“A square field with sides = 2000 feet is 100 acres in size. A circular irrigated area in that field has area = 85.25 acres in size. So every irrigated square represents a "wasted" area almost 15% of the total arable land.
The cost (in capital equipment, maintenance, or labor) of linear rolling irrigation versus circular rotating irrigation must therefore be greater than the cost of the potential production on the "lost" arable land.
This is a business opportunity, to develop cheaper and reliable irrigation for square or rectangular fields.
Either that, or arrange with the farmers to "close pack" their square irrigation into one central circle surrounded closely by 6 circles of the same size. A hexagonal pattern would allow much less waste of arable land (reducing unplanted land to about 8.2% of the area used).”
-I know Mikee’s idea is easier said than done, but I like the thought process. By the way, here is an example of a hexagonal pattern with less loss.
Entrepreneurship takes on many forms, and we need more entrepreneurs to take an interest in agribusiness and agriculture. We need more agropreneurs.
That got me thinking. What educational programs are available to develop agribusiness and agriculture entrepreneurship? I did a little research, and this is some of what I found.
School/College/University: Johnson County Community College
Course/Program: Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship Certificate
Link: http://www.jccc.edu/home/depts/1205/site/sustainableag
School/College/University: Penn State Cooperative Extension Offices in the Southeast Region
Course/ Program: Exploring Your Small Farm Dream
Link: http://elk.extension.psu.edu/family/09/SmallFarmBrochure2009.pdf
Program/School/College/University: University of Hawaii
Course/Program: The Business of Agriculture, Agri-entrepreneurship Topics
Link: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/newfarmer/AgBusiness.asp
School/College/University: Iowa State University
Course/Program: Agriculture Entrepreneurship Imitative
Link: http://www.entrepreneurship.ag.iastate.edu
Program/School/College/University: University of Vermont
Course/Program: Rural Agriculture Entrepreneurship
Link: http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/206793.html
Program/School/College/University: Washington State University
Course/Program: Agriculture Entrepreneurship & Business Planning
Link: http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/206793.html
Please use the comments field below to share programs that I failed to include.
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