Krystal Wright

For many students, high school is the time when they begin to explore different career paths and consider their future in the workforce. Among the most valuable yet often overlooked industries is agriculture. At Benton Community, we offer agriculture education classes to 7th through 12th grade students. All 7th grade students take an Agriculture Exploratory class where they are introduced to different pathways in agriculture and learn what is available to explore at the high school level.

Having an understanding of the critical role the agriculture industry plays in our world is important whether going into an agriculture field or not. With this, there are big changes coming to the agriculture education department next fall! Classes will no longer be the traditional semester long, ag 1, 2, 3, and 4 and will now be single quarter classes with a wide variety of options for students to engage in. Quarter classes will allow more students to explore agriculture as well as pursue other interests that may be outside of agriculture.

Some of the new classes for next year include: Companion Animal Science which will focus on small animal care and production. Natural Resources will focus on soil, water quality, and wildlife management. Ag Processing will focus on meat processing, food preservation and other agriculture processes such as making lotions and soaps. Landscape and Turf Management will include designing landscapes and learning about the turfgrass industry.

Students are encouraged to check out the full descriptions of the classes in the 2025-2026 course book to see what interests them!