Ethan Smith grew up with production agriculture in his blood and, through involvement with groups like 4-H, FFA, scholarship applications and internships in college, he discovered an interest in farm and ranch management. A native Nebraskan, he gets to be the liaison between landowners and tenants on a variety of farm and ranch lands as a Farm and Ranch Manager with Farmers National Company.

Some careers have slow downs - times where an employee can be on autopilot and work without much cognitive thinking. This is not the case for Lucas Fuess, the Director of Market Intelligence for HighGround Dairy of Chicago, Illinois. Lucas’ day-to-day job includes crunching numbers, reading reports, analyzing data, and synthesizing all of that information into a direct market opinion on the dairy industry that is, in turn, shared with customers in an articulated report.

It may come as a surprise that as a Senior Business Analyst for The Context Network, Seth Pratt isn’t found in an office building crunching numbers day in and day out; he will be found working in his home office in the beautiful ranchlands of southeastern Idaho. His knowledge and skills of sustainability and economics, while also being able to stay connected to his work virtually, has helped build him into an educated, informed, and socio-economically aware rancher and consultant.

As the Marketing Specialist at Cargill Animal Nutrition, Meg wears multiple hats that all focus on working with their team on marketing initiatives. This can include anything from internal newsletters, assisting the sales team with marketing material, and communication through the rest of the company. More than manage all of these responsibilities and team members, Meg also works in two offices; her business office and her home office.

Karoline Rose took the bold leap of entrepreneurship straight from college graduation in the spring of 2015. Within six months she had made the daring venture to hire her first employee and, since that time, she has used her gut to help her make decisions in hiring five more employees and six contract workers. KRose shares tips for buying, selling and marketing cattle with KRose Cattle Company as well as marketing courses for small businesses with KRose Marketing!

Coming from a conservative, middle-class family in India, Bharath Sudharsan never considered a career world outside of the standard that he grew up in. Then he came to North America and all of that changed and changed in a way that could forever alter the way dairy farmers and manufacturers of milk-based products will forever analyze data and create business decisions.

Andrew Lauvner shares what it means to be a Manager of Industry Relations with Syngenta. He describes cultivating relationships between Syngenta, growers and commodity associations as well as facilitating policy change for the industry. To achieve a job like this Andrew recommends gaining experience "in the field" with growers and with policy makers in the government at a state or national level.

Jackie Mundt comes from a long line of national champions. They train, practice, live and breath the passion and the lifestyle that results in the amazing opportunity to bring home a National Championship. However, Jackie’s National Championship is more than just a sporting event, it’s the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Discussion Meet, and, instead of a ring or a medal, she came home with a brand new pick-up truck!

It may seem like a small thing, but investing in relationships in any opportunity can prove beneficial in the building of your career. First connected with AgGrad in 2016 by taking over the Snapchat, Elizabeth Galbreath has been able to capitalize on seemingly normal encounters to improve her skill set and career path. A part of the Agriculture Sales and Marketing Professional Development program at BASF, it's been a wild ride for Elizabeth but she wouldn’t change a thing.

As a formal agriculture teacher from Kentucky, it’s no surprise that while Kirby Green no longer works in the classroom, she is continuously working every day to maximize the productivity and knowledge of herself and others. A former district sales manager for Monsanto, Kirby fulfills the same position now at Bayer Crop Science in Indiana, but how did she move from being a teacher to a district sales manager? She managed her time efficiently while also finding ways to continue to grow.