GREENVILLE — The Agriculture Finance class at Edison State Community College’s Darke County Campus recently participated in a national commodity marketing challenge, AgYield Simulation. Two Edison State students, Kayla Seman, of Bradford, and Wyatt King, of Greenville, placed in the top five out of 60 individuals who competed. Seman finished in second place while King placed fourth.

The AgYield Simulator provides competitors the chance to experiment with various marketing tactics through computer-generated growing seasons. Users test production and marketing decisions based on commodity prices, USDA reports, weather, and other everyday variables.

“The Ag Yield Simulation is an excellent tool to take some of the skills and knowledge the students are learning throughout the agriculture program and applying those to a real-life scenario,” said Brad Lentz, Agriculture Program Director at Edison State. “It forces students to think through decisions, calculate their risk, and learn from their mistakes.”

Participants were provided 2,500 acres, 1,300 of corn and 1,200 of soybeans, to market over a 36-week period. Throughout the March 1 to November 7 time frame, users were granted access to AgYield’s Profitability Outlook where they could test decisions across all price and yield situations before completing transactions.

“It has tools that allow the students to try different techniques before making that final deal. It’s a great way to practice on paper before entering the real world and selling their products to the market,” added Lentz.

Students from Edison State Community College, Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Northwest Missouri State University, University of Nebraska, The Ohio State University, Penn State, Upper Iowa University, Virginia Tech, and Wright State University competed in the challenge.

Both King and Seman are working toward completing the Associate of Applied Science degree in Agriculture at Edison State. Upon completion, both students plan to apply the knowledge they have gained from the program to their family farms and are considering transferring to four-year institutions.

For more information about Edison State’s agriculture degree program, visit www.edisonohio.edu/programs.