Agricultural Sciences

Each year, more than 150 scholarships are available for agricultural science majors, including the William Dows Blake Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Conservation Science scholarship, the Daniel W. and Theadocia Hodges Richey Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Agricultural Sciences, the Calcasieu Kennel Club scholarship, and the Golden Saddle Rodeo scholarship. Contact the Office of Financial Aid to find out more.

As an agricultural sciences major, you’ll have the opportunity to build on what you’ve learned in the classroom and gain real-world experience in your chosen field through internships with local and national organizations. In the past, students have acted as vegetation technicians for the Gulf Coast Soil and Water District, ecologists for the U.S. Army at Ft. Polk, alligator interns for the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife, and as ranch hands for private ranches across the United States.

The Harold and Pearl Dripps School of Agricultural Sciences is the home of the state-of-the-art 7,350-square-foot CAMPP meat processing and production facility, which is the only federally inspected red meat harvest facility in the state. There, students learn the skills needed for a wide variety of jobs in food safety, meat processing and product preparation. McNeese is also one of just a handful of four-year universities with three working farms covering a combined 1,000 acres, where students can gain practical experience with livestock and equine research and development, native plants and biomass, and crop production.

Agricultural science majors have the opportunity travel to national and international academic and food industry conventions to present on their research. Previously, students have traveled to and presented at the American Society of Animal Science’s National Animal Science Annual Meeting, the Institute of Food Technologist’s Food Expo, the Louisiana Academy of Science’s Annual Meeting, and the American Meat Science Association’s RMC Annual Meeting.