Agricultural sciences students rose to a class challenge in their fertility management class by producing a magazine, The Growers Classic.

A collective effort from second-year students in the crop technology and agribusiness majors, the magazine challenged them to set their own editorial direction and deadlines. 

“It was quite a deal to organize it and get all of the content groups together. We came up with 10 ideas that they could use and gave them an option to choose their own. Each group had to produce three articles,” says Anthony Crooymans, a crop technology student who successfully applied to be editor of The Growers Classic. 

“Everyone was pretty pumped to see it when it was done and their name inside the magazine.”

The Growers Classic features articles on fertility application, cover crops, micronutrients, canary seed, hayfield management and other topics of interest and trends. “The assignment was to keep it revolved around soil fertility, but there were a couple of articles that stuck out to us to feature, including an article about women in agriculture and Peter Walsh (an agricultural sciences instructor),” says Rebecca Kitzul, a crop technology student.

Kitzul was successful in applying to be the magazine's publisher. She was responsible for working with the class's content teams and the overall concept of the magazine. “It's been a great opportunity to try something new and expand our skills. Why not learn another aspect of the industry?” says Kitzul, who completed the environmental sciences wildlife and fisheries conservation major program earlier at Lakeland. “I didn't expect as many people in the class to want a copy of it, but they did.”

To date, The Growers Classics has been shared beyond the classroom with attendees of the mid-year presentations and other industry connections.

The brainchild of instructor Kyle Kipps, the class challenge may become an annual one for future students. “What was neat about this project as an instructor was how proud the students were of the work they had done and their realization that together they had produced something they couldn't on their own,” says Kipps. “The collection of these issues could be a useful reference for students to see which topics are fads, which are recycled and which are timeless.”

The Growers Classic is available to read online.

Photos: Anthony Crooymans (left) and Rebecca Kitzul (right) are excited to share The Growers Classic with their classmates, industry representatives and the college.