Short Biography

    Professor Walburger grew up on a small farm in southern Alberta, Canada.   He completed a BA in Economics at the University of Lethbridge in 1991, after which he pursued graduate studies at Purdue University. He graduated with a PhD in Agricultural Economics in 1994. Upon completion of his graduate work, Professor Walburger accepted a post-doctoral position at the University of Lethbridge that was completed in June 1996. At that time, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics; and in April 1997 he took on the responsibilities of coordinating the Agricultural Studies Program that was launched in 1996. He was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2002. Professor Walburger has been a Visiting Professor,Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University (Fall 2002) and a Visiting Scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre (Spring 2003).
    Professor Walburger’s graduate fields were production economics and industrial organization and as a result his teaching focus has been in microeconomics, agricultural economics and industrial organization. However, he also has experience teaching principles of macroeconomics, international economics, environmental economics and quantitative methods.
    Professor Walburger’s primary research interest is in livestock production and marketing, particularly in beef marketing. His PhD dissertation concerned the evaluation of market efficiency of US fed cattle markets. He also has worked on research related to the selection of swine breeding stock and hog marketing in Canada. He has published research on the value of breeding stock attributes in range bulls and the use of real-time ultrasound (RTU) and relations’ data to optimally market fed beef cattle.
     Professor Walburger also has applied his training to a diverse set of research problems that broadly include farm-level decision-making and regional economic analysis. His interest in farm-level decision-making has been an important part of his research agenda.
    On a more personal note, while Professor Walburger was pursuing his undergraduate degree, he met and married Eva Klvacek. They have 4 children: two girls and two boys. His family is really the highlight of his life. He enjoys time spent camping, hiking and playing with them.