Agricultural Economics Courses

AEC 2317 - Agricultural Economics
Hours: 3
(AGRI 2317) A study of economic principles, with emphasis on their application to the solution of farm, agribusiness, and agricultural industry problems.

AEC 297 - Special Topics
Hours: 1-4
Organized class. May be repeated when topics vary.

AEC 301 - Trends in the Food Industry
Hours: 1-3
Analysis of current trends in the food industry, including norms, specifications, and standards; trade issues; and policies with national and international scope that affect the U.S. food industry. The focus is on developing an understanding of the causes and consequences of such trends, the various issues involved, and how they affect stakeholders and society. Prerequisites: Junior standing.

AEC 302 - Computer Applications in Agriculture
Hours: 3
An introductory course to computer applications with specific emphasis on applications used in agricultural businesses. Content includes spreadsheet management, word processing, and presentation applications.

AEC 304 - Farm Accounting
Hours: 3
The course covers the application of accounting principles as they apply to the production and marketing of agricultural products to analyze the financial performance and condition of the farm business.

AEC 314 - Farm Management
Hours: 3
Farm Management. Three semester hours. Techniques and procedures used for decision making in the farm business. Determination of optimum enterprise choice, resource combination and techniques of financial management, budgeting, and whole farm/ranch planning.

AEC 316 - Agricultural Marketing
Hours: 3
Agricultural Marketing. Three semester hours. A broad view of marketing; food markets and consumption; marketing functions and institutions. Applications of economic theory to agricultural price estimation, discovery, and determination.

AEC 324 - Farm Management Lab
Hours: 1
Students will be exposed to hands-on farm management problem-solving techniques using technology.

AEC 327 - Agricultural Sales
Hours: 3
This course introduces students to sales and principles of selling techniques for agricultural products and services, real estate, financial, and other industrial and institutional products and services. Students will develop skills to take advantage of career opportunities in the agricultural sales field.

AEC 340 - Agricultural Finance
Hours: 3
Agricultural Finance. Three semester hours. Analysis of capital investments, interpretation of financial statements, capital structure considerations for agricultural firms, farm real estate pricing, and financial intermediation in agriculture.

AEC 347 - Agricultural Price Theory
Hours: 3
Intermediate microeconomic principles with agricultural commodity applications related to market price determination, resource allocations, and government policies.

AEC 350 - Agricultural Finance Laboratory
Hours: 1
Students will be exposed to hands-on agricultural finance problem-solving techniques using technology.

AEC 360 - Agricultural Law
Hours: 3
Agricultural Law. Three semester hours. Survey of law and legal decisions that impact agriculture including farm and preservation, water rights, pollution abatement standards, workers' rights, externalities, pesticide/insecticide regulation, product inspection, development of legislation, mineral rights and employer liability. Prerequisite: Junior standing.

AEC 380 - Agricultural Statistics
Hours: 3
Principles and estimation techniques used in the analysis of agricultural data including measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, correlation coefficient, and regression. Prerequisites: MATH 1314 or MATH 1324.

AEC 389 - Independent Study
Hours: 0-4
Independent Study. One to four semester hours. Individualized instruction/research at an advanced level in a specialized content area under the direction of a faculty member. May be repeated when the topic varies. Prerequisite: Consent of department head.

AEC 390 - Agricultural Statistics Laboratory
Hours: 1
Students will be exposed to hands-on agricultural statistics problem-solving techniques using technology.

AEC 435 - Agricultural Policy I
Hours: 3
Analytical treatment of historical, recent and current economic problems, and governmental policies influencing American agriculture and rural America. The focus is on developing an historical and conceptual understanding of the economics of agriculture and how public policy has and does influence the nature and performance of American agriculture.

AEC 445 - Natural Resource and Environmental Economics
Hours: 3
This course explores the approach that economists take to environmental and resource problems. It examines both the economic roots of environmental problems and the solutions that economists suggest. The course focuses on questions a policymaker must face in deciding how and when to regulate, including issues of efficiency and distribution.

AEC 455 - Commodity Futures and Options
Hours: 3
The objectives of this course are to understand why futures exchanges and commodity futures contracts exist; understand and be able to forecast basis; understand hedging and be able to design hedging strategies for various commodity producers and users; understand both put and call options and their potential use in a commodity risk management program; and understand the usefulness and shortcomings of fundamental and technical analysis.

AEC 489 - Indst Ag Economics
Hours: 1-4
Independent Study. One to four semester hours. Individualized instruction/research at an advanced level in a specialized content area under the direction of a faculty member. May be repeated when the topic varies. Prerequisite: Consent of department head.

AEC 497 - Special Topics
Hours: 1-4
Special Topics. One to four semester hours. Organized class. May be repeated when topics vary.