Our graduate students did it again!

The Graduate Student Case Study team of Brian Lauer, Cooper Morris, and Brady Brewer presented a very professional review of this year’s AAEA case study of Excel Cooperative. The case was historical, requiring the nine competing teams to develop a forward thinking strategy for the four divisions (energy, feed and livestock, agronomy, and grain marketing) of an Indiana Cooperative in light of the impending growth in ethanol production. The analysis was to be based on information available in 2007, and thus could not benefit from knowledge of subsequent twists and turns in the ethanol, corn, and related markets.

The K-State team did a superb job. The team placed second, coming in behind the equally well-prepared team from Oklahoma State.  It is a pleasure to see all of these graduate students from programs around the country call upon their economic training to thoroughly dissect a problem or opportunity faced by an agribusiness firm.   Our future is in good hands.

Elizabeth Canales of K-State was on a team with two other students from the University of Minnesota that also competed in the finals. Mike Boland brought this team together. Elizabeth’s team placed fourth overall in the competition, another outstanding performance by one of our graduate students.

Vincent Amanor-Boadu was the advisor for the K-State team. The team also benefited from comments from Brian Briggeman, David Barton, and Arlo Biere during their practice runs before leaving for Pittsburgh and the annual AAEA meetings.

Congratulations also to another Department award winner. Marc Allison, a KFMA economists in the south central region, earned an honorable mention for his M.S. thesis completed at Texas A&M just before he assumed his K-State/KFMA job in Hutchinson earlier this year. Marc’s research focused on the future of algal biofuel production as an alternative energy source, and was completed under the guidance of James Richardson at A&M.

Congratulations to Marc and to the outstanding performance of Brian, Cooper, Brady, and Elizabeth in the Case Study finals!