Mitchell Tech Instructor and Alumnus Help Lead New Precision Agriculture Certificate

Mitchell Technical College is helping advance practical agricultural education through a new On-Farm Precision Experimentation (OFPE) certificate designed to help students, growers, and agricultural professionals make better use of field data.

Devon Russell, Mitchell Tech Precision Ag instructor and OFPE Project Director, and Aaron Sundquist, MTC alumnus and Field Trials Supervisor for OFPE/DIFM, helped spearhead the seven-module course.

The course teaches participants to design field trials, evaluate results and use their findings to guide decisions on individual farms. Topics include variable-rate equipment, trial design, harvest data quality, and return on investment.

For students, the certificate offers an opportunity to connect classroom learning with the questions producers face each growing season. Understanding how to test a management practice and explain the results can help prepare students for careers supporting growers, agricultural technology and crop production.

"For our Precision Ag students at Mitchell Tech, this course connects the technology they're learning to use with the decisions they'll help growers make," said Russell. "It gives them a framework for asking a good question, setting up a reliable field trial, and interpreting what the results mean for that operation. Those skills can help students enter the workforce prepared to evaluate practices, explain their findings, and help producers make informed decisions about where to invest their resources."

For the broader agricultural industry, those skills can support more informed decisions about inputs and management practices. By testing approaches under their own field conditions, growers and advisers can build evidence to guide investments and evaluate whether a change makes economic sense.

Mitchell Tech's involvement reflects its emphasis on hands-on education and industry collaboration. The project connects agricultural instruction with practical tools that can benefit both future professionals and those already working in the field.

Fellow instructors Andrew Leggett of Blue Mountain Community College, Jim Uphaus of Rhodes State College, and Charlie Mitsdarfer of Parkland College also contributed to the course. The project is supported by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture award 2023-67038-40104.

To learn more, visit Science Societies' overview of the certificate.