Former agricultural students from five Southern land-grant universities evaluated the relevance of curriculum competencies and skills to their careers. Using a 4-point scale, 291 respondents from 1862 institutions and 105 respondents from 1890 institutions rated 15 action competencies and 23 agricultural competencies. On action competencies, respondents rated oral communication skills as most needed and computer and statistical skills as least needed. Compared to the 1862 alumni, 1890 alumni gave higher ratings to all skills, and gave significantly higher ratings to written communications, project evaluation, public speaking, cost management, computer use, and basic statistical techniques. This may reflect a feeling by 1890 alumni that their precollege training in action competencies was insufficient, or it may reflect precollege expectations by 1862 alumni of more specialized curricula with less emphasis on basic action competencies. Among agricultural competencies, respondents rated knowledge and use of agricultural chemicals as most needed and awareness of the world food problem as lest needed. However, the highest need score for agricultural competencies was lower than the lowest need score for action competencies. Three animal science skills were the highest rated items for 1890 alumni and among the lowest-rated items for the 1862 alumni. The 1890 alumni also tended to give higher scores to broad general competencies such as awareness of the world food problem. These results may arise from the college major of the respondents and the presence of many foreign students among 1890 alumni. The report includes eight statistical tables and four references. (SV)