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Precision Agriculture Technology - Associate in Applied Science
Precision Agriculture defines the use of new technologies to grow, manage, ship, and organize the production of crops and livestock in ways that are more profitable for the producer and better for the environment. OSU-Okmulgee's Precision Agriculture program contains normal agriculture coursework as well as courses that educate students in the uses of new technologies needed to make Precision Agriculture work. Although the A.A.S. degree in Precision Agriculture Technology is designed as a terminal degree, many students will continue their education beyond graduation. In fact, most who will employ graduates would encourage the pursuit of a baccalaureate degree. The OSU-Okmulgee degree program is designed to align with various agriculture baccalaureate degree programs at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater. The OSU-Okmulgee program is designed to meet the needs of students who desire a terminal degree that has a high employment potential with good pay or for any agriculture student who wishes to complete his or her first two years of a baccalaureate degree and then transfer to OSU-Stillwater. OSU-Okmulgee will offer the basic agriculture courses that are common to most agriculture degree programs. 
Precision Agriculture Technology
OSU-Okmulgee's new program in Precision Agriculture is the only one of its kind in the Southwest. A degree program using advanced technologies to maximize profits and helping protect the environment will be a tremendous asset for the future of Oklahoma agriculture. New developments in agricultural technologies and systems over the past decade have created opportunities that our grandfathers could never have imagined. An educational program designed to help students utilize and expand these technologies in agriculture is a valuable addition to OSU-Okmulgee and to Oklahoma's agricultural industry. Precision Agriculture technology brings efficiency to farming by reducing input costs, improving yields and creating greater net profits. The field of Precision Agriculture is a technically demanding field that few people understand. Agronomy, Soil Science, Machine Electronics, Agriculture Economics, and Computer based mapping and farm management systems, are integrated to help farmers grow, manage their crops in ways that are more profitable and helpful for the environment.
Graduates from the new program will be prepared for a higher level of agriculture, in which most new jobs require skills in GIS, GPS, and remote sensing in addition to the familiar disciplines of agronomy, plant science, and agri-business. According to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, one of the state's largest industries is agriculture, contributing $7.1 billion annually to the state's economy. Agriculture represents 10% of the state's gross product and provides one of every six jobs in Oklahoma. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates there are 2.1 million farms in the U.S., using 941 million acres of land, with production worth $200 billion a year. A recent article in Geotimes Magazine notes, "Just a one percent increase in efficiency can yield a $2 billion change. If application of precision agriculture can help farmers better manage their land, all may benefit."
OSU-Okmulgee's program is designed to meet the needs of two types of students: those who want to earn an associate's degree in agriculture with high employment potential; or those who want to complete their first two years of an agriculture degree, then transfer to OSU's Stillwater campus to earn their bachelor's degree. Potential Employment
Employment opportunities range from botanist to environmental compliance assurance manager or pollution prevention/control manager, to agricultural economist, agri-marketing specialist, or farm/ranch manager, farm equipment sales and service, herbicide sales and consulting, field consulting (crops), survey technician, GPS/GIS technician.
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Where farmers once looked up at the skies and hoped for rain, now, using satellites, they look down on the earth to see what their land needs. Farmers can use satellite global positioning technology (GPS) to program farm equipment according to a computer analysis of a section of land, The machinery then delivers specific amounts of seed, chemical or fertilizer to meet the requirements of each individual area within a field.
OSU-Okmulgee students will be learning to use GPS and GIS technologies to provide detailed information to farmers on their crop's health status, irrigation and fertilizer need, plus warn of attacks by insects or weeds.