Our 2019 Annual Report is here!
Did you know that the Renk Agribusiness Institute actively engages in Research, Outreach, and Teaching activities?
Teaching activities include instruction of 10 undergraduate and graduate courses, co-supervision of 10 graduate students, and providing scholarships for 20 undergraduates majoring in Agricultural Business Management, Agricultural and Applied Economics, or pursuing a certificate in Business Management for Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Research activities from 2019 focused on issues of importance to Wisconsin
agriculture and agribusiness. Paul Mitchell published on public opinion of using gene drives to manage crop pests in Science Advances, and on managing white mold in soybeans in Phytopathology. Sheldon Du published on production function in Agricultural Economics and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society on crop insurance. Sunny Jie Feng received a Renk Agribusiness Institute Graduate Research Assistantship to support her work on the U.S. seed industry. Sunny is using U.S. soybean seed market data to work on how products with correlated demand can impact each other’s markets and using U.S. corn market data to explain how optimal seeding density could change with the evolving market structures and the emergence of new genetic traits.
In 2019, the signature outreach event was a presentation to the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate’s joint committees on agriculture on the current state of the farm economy, plus various outreach materials for prevented plant coverage and sign-up for ARC and PLC in 2020. Overall, Director, Paul Mitchell had more than 40 direct media contacts. 2019 also marked the introduction of a new digital newsletter to keep recipients informed on the latest happenings in Wisconsin agribusiness. To join the mailing list for this newsletter, click here.
