He’s seen his share of the Midwest by growing up in Arkansas, working at the University of Illinois and studying for his doctorate in Indiana. Now Terry Griffin has joined the Kansas State University Department of Agricultural Economics as an assistant professor and cropping systems economist.
Griffin’s new position entails 80 percent extension work and 20 percent research in cropping systems economics and precision agriculture. With these responsibilities, he is looking forward to working with the Kansas Ag Research and Technology Association, a group that strives to keep up with and share trends in production agriculture. Griffin is interested in technology and is excited to see how it can combat the unique agricultural problems Kansas farmers deal with.
Griffin will also represent the department on the precision agriculture multidisciplinary team.
“K-State is now one of the few, maybe only, universities with a truly interdisciplinary team devoted to precision agriculture,” Griffin said. “There are many issues with precision agriculture and big data that need to be addressed in Kansas as well as across the United States. One enticing aspect of K-State was the existing interdisciplinary precision agriculture team including the Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy departments.”
K-State caught Griffin’s attention because he was looking for a top-ranked department at a university that excels at interacting with agricultural clientele. The balance of research and extension mixed with the opportunity to work with graduate students also contributed to his decision to be a Wildcat. Griffin is excited to be joining the K-State family.
“I’ve been away from the departmental culture for nearly a decade; and look forward to hallway conversations with some of the best minds in agriculture and attending Brown Bag seminars to learn fresh perspectives. Essentially I am excited to be in an ‘iron sharpens iron’ environment again.”
Manhattan has already been a great experience for the Griffin family. Ty, 12; Austin, 9; and Briley, 7; love the KSU Chess Club events. Terry and his wife, Dana, appreciate the accessibility of Manhattan businesses and attractions.
Griffin grew up in Greene County, Arkansas, near Paragould. Both his bachelor’s degree in agronomy and master’s degree in agricultural economics came from the University of Arkansas. Following these degrees, he worked as a regional economist for University of Illinois Extension. He then received a doctorate in agricultural economics, with a specialty in farm management and spatial econometrics, from Purdue University. After his doctorate, Griffin went back home to Arkansas as a cropping extension economist at the University of Arkansas before joining the private sector at Cresco Ag.
