Robert Wisner, an ISU Extension agricultural economist, ended his 40-year career at Iowa State on Monday with a reception in honor of his retirement.

Wisner said he has enjoyed working at Iowa State, especially collaborating with other world-renowned agricultural economists, ISU Extension faculty and staff, farmers and agricultural businesses.

“It’s been a great opportunity over the years,” Wisner said.

He described Iowa State as “extremely supportive” of his work.

While Wisner worked primarily with ISU Extension performing research and communicating his results with many audiences, he also taught one course in grain economics at Iowa State.

“[Teaching] has been a good opportunity to work with a lot of undergraduate and graduate students over the years,” he said.

Wisner, born on a farm in southeastern Michigan, attended Michigan State from 1957 to 1963, earning his undergraduate and bachelor’s degrees there.

He then went to the University of Tennessee, receiving his Ph.D. from them in 1967.

Wisner began working at Iowa State directly afterward, in February 1967, he said.

He said he’s seen many interesting changes in Iowa State over the years, such as the Iowa State Center taking the place of an old agronomy research farm, and the Farm House Museum no longer being the home of the dean of agriculture.

He specializes in grain economics, a research area that spans corn, soybean and wheat markets, also taking into account the other crops’ markets affecting these.

“Grain markets are very much global markets,” Wisner said. “They are influenced by [government] policies, and influenced heavily now by biofuels because of much higher energy or crude oil prices.”

Chad Hart, economist with Iowa State’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, said Wisner is “probably the preeminent grain marketing extension economist in the country.”

“When you think about agricultural marketing and intelligent discussion of that, he has put Iowa State on the map,” Hart said.

John Lawrence, professor of economics, has worked with Wisner for the past 16 years. Lawrence described his colleague as a passionate person, “dead serious” about his work.

“He’s very knowledgeable,” Lawrence said.

He said Wisner is a shy, soft-spoken person in general, but when he is giving speeches or presentations about grain marketing, “his voice picks up and he really gets into his work.”

Lawrence also described Wisner as very attuned to details, which makes his research thorough and his predictions about grain markets accurate.

Wisner’s consistently accurate forecasts concerning grain markets have earned him acclaim, Lawrence said.

For example, he said the American Agricultural Economics Association holds annual “forecasting contests” in which grain economics specialists predict corn, soybeans and wheat prices.

“[Wisner] has won more of those competitions in the last 15 years than anyone else,” Lawrence said.

Both Lawrence and Hart said they’d miss having Wisner as a resource at Iowa State.

“There’s an incredible amount of knowledge getting ready to leave the university with his amount of knowledge,” Hart said.

Lawrence said he has mixed emotions about his colleague’s retirement.

“I’ve come to depend, as a lot of people, on his advice,” Lawrence said. “But at the same time, it’s a bit of an inspiration for someone who’s looking forward to retiring. I’m wishing him well.”