Tue, 27 Sep 2022 17:24:25 CDT
The OSU Agricultural Economics Department is hosting the Rural Economic Outlook Conference at the ConocoPhillips Alumni Center located on the OSU campus, Wednesday, October 12, 2022. KC Sheperd, Farm Director, visited with Brent Ladd, Assistant Extension Specialist at Oklahoma State University, talking about the Rural Economic Outlook Conference and what to expect.
This annual one-day conference, Ladd said, starts with breakfast and registration at 8 a.m., then ends around 3:30 in the afternoon.
“We have a variety of speakers,” Ladd said. “We always have some of faculty and staff here from the agricultural economics department at OSU speak and then we try to bring in outside speakers.”
This year, Ladd said, Jim Mintert from Purdue University will be talking about challenges facing agricultural producers.
“Then, we are going to have an industry speaker discuss supply chain issues, which has been kind of a hot topic lately,” Ladd said. “We are still finalizing that person, so we can’t say for certain the name yet, but we are working on that.”
This conference has historically been targeted toward producers, ag lenders and policymakers, Ladd said, and they also invite extension educators because they work closely with producers across the state.
“We have some agency people, we often have some people from USDA and the Oklahoma Bankers Association as well as regular ag lenders,” Ladd said.
Ladd said they usually invite legislators to attend as well.
“We will have lunch, we will have an afternoon break and a morning break,” Ladd said. “We will have a departmental research update, we will hear from the student ag econ organizations, Aggie-X, and then the graduate student organization- a short bit from them. The rest of the speakers will be faculty from our department.”
There will be some broader marketing updates, Ladd said, given by Dr. Derrell Peel and Dr. Kim Anderson from OSU, and Dr. Rodney Jones will be giving a general ag finance update. More specific topics, he said, come from the keynote speakers.
“The research update gives all the conference participants an idea of what the faculty at the department are currently working on,” Ladd said.
Ladd said undergrads and graduate students are also invited to the conference to give an update. It is a great opportunity for the students to meet people and network with producers, lenders, and people whom they may work for in the future, he added.
“Registration is 50 dollars until October 5, and then after October 5 it will go up to 75 dollars,” Ladd said. “We will take registration at the door if people are not able to register in advance. We always have a number of people who register the day of and that is perfectly fine.”
To learn more about the Rural Economic Outlook Conference and Register, click here.
