The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture has a new director as Jim Mintert takes over for the center’s original director when it opened in 2010, Brent Gloy. Mintert says the mission of the center will continue to focus on those who want to derive the majority of their income from production agriculture.
“That really encompasses a broad scope of people,” he told HAT. “In Indiana obviously that’s a lot of people who grow corn, soybeans, raise pigs, raise beef cattle, raise poultry, so just very traditional kinds of things. That’s a group of people that Purdue and Purdue Extension have always worked with. The Center for Commercial Agriculture is a way of establishing that as an area of strength and an area of emphasis for Purdue agriculture and Purdue Extension.”
Producer programs that are offered by the Center for Commercial Agriculture have included a series of timely webinars like the future profit outlook for crop agriculture last December, a beef and pork sector update, and a farm bill and crop insurance webinar presented just before the crop insurance deadline. Those webinars are archived on the center website.
They’re also exploring ways to interact with students and help them learn more about the many careers in agriculture.
“We launched a class last year in the Department of Agricultural Economics that focuses on identifying and interacting with people in the industry talking about what it is that they have been doing, where they see the industry going, and sharing some career advice with those students. We have more of those things planned in the future as well to strengthen student awareness of the opportunities that exist in commercial agriculture, not only in Indiana but around the nation.”
The center is also assisting with the annual Farm Management Tour and the Top Farmer Workshop.
Mintert continues to serve as Assistant Director of Purdue Extension, and Gloy is on leave from Purdue and spending more time with the family farm business in Nebraska.