Agriculture is an essential, massive industry, and a Bachelor of Agribusiness preps you to work in any part of it.
There’s a lot to agriculture beyond primary production. Huge amounts of work are involved from well before food is grown, to when it finally hits consumers’ plates.
The Bachelor of Agribusiness at The University of Queensland covers the commerce of this huge industry. Agribusiness professionals drive the commerce and logistics of our food supply chains. They also tackle economic, social and environmental sustainability, and ways to make farming preserve and improve the environment.
At The University of Queensland, students who study an agribusiness program are trained in a suite of business and agricultural skills, preparing them to take on any aspect of the industry they’re interested in.
UQ, ranked #1 in Australia for agriculture, has a dossier of industry connections to help students along their chosen path.
Student story: Reannan Schultz
Growing up on a farm in Pittsworth (near Toowoomba), Reannan always knew she wanted to work in agriculture. But the industry is constantly changing, and she says it’s important to approach it with an open mind.
“I think there’s a narrative around agribusiness and agriculture that it’s purely at the primary producing end,” she says.
In reality, agriculture has a massive supply chain: “There’s input supplies, seeds, fertilisers, equipment, agritech, logistics, and export commodity trading.”
Reannan has worked at multiple points across this supply chain. Her career has taken her from primary producers growing strawberries and mangoes, to sales and business development, and now scientific research.
Her degrees at The University of Queensland – a Bachelor of Agribusiness and Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Agronomy – helped prepare her for each of these roles.
“The agribusiness degree can encompass all of the different facets involved in agriculture.”
She chose to study at The University of Queensland because of its stellar reputation.
“It was just a well-renowned agricultural university.”
These days, Reannan’s working at crop protection company NuFarm, where she’s testing potential new herbicides. She might be found carrying out tests by spraying plants with herbicides, analysing data and compiling reports.
“It’s not only how well it controls these weeds. It’s got to be safe for the applicator, for the environment, for the crop,” says Reannan. “We do it in different states, different soil types, different winter or summer conditions as well.”
The official approval of a new herbicide is a slow process.
“Typically, we say it takes about 10 years from the time that a new molecule is discovered, to when it is in a drum in a grower’s hands,” Reannan says.
Reannan loves working with primary producers.
“Regardless of which role I’ve had in ag, it’s been the work with the growers and the primary producers that I enjoy the most. They’re just down-to-earth people.”
The agriculture industry is broad: whatever sorts of work interest you, there are opportunities to do them in agriculture.
“Every person on earth depends on agriculture – we all need to eat, right?” says Reannan.
Reannan’s pathway
- Bachelor of Applied Science – Agronomy, The University of Queensland
- Bachelor of Agribusiness, The University of Queensland
- Grower liaison officer for mango growers, Pinata Farms
- Sales agronomist, Elders
- Business development manager, NuFarm
- Field R&D specialist, NuFarm
Explore FEAST
FEAST is a 4-day residential program at UQ Gatton where Year 10–12 students explore careers in agriculture, food, animal and plant science through hands-on workshops and industry connections.
This article was produced in partnership with The University of Queensland.
