Mary Steves of Escalon, California, a senior at Escalon High School in Escalon and member of the Escalon FFA Chapter, conducted research comparing the immune responses of Barbados Blackbelly hair sheep and Suffolk crossbred sheep to gastrointestinal nematodes. Her study concluded that hair sheep produce a greater immune response. Now this research has also won her top honors.

Steves was named Agriscience Student of the Year Friday at the 84^th National FFA Convention during an onstage ceremony and was presented with a scholarship.

“Knowing there is a difference in resistance, future studies may include performing the same research on offspring from a cross of hair sheep with typical wool-type sheep breeds European in origin, such as the Suffolk, which would hopefully generate data that might be useful for sheep producers looking to increase parasite resistance and decrease losses from parasite infections by a more practical and more economical means through crossbreeding,” she said.

Steves is currently serving as the 2011-12 California Association FFA state secretary and after high school plans to attend California State University at Chico and major in animal science. She is the daughter of Lisa and Rob Steves, and her FFA advisors are Jennifer Terpstra, Stacy Ingalls and Bruce Campbell.

The National FFA Agriscience Student of the Year program recognizes high school students who, through scientific research and reasoning, find creative solutions to challenges within the field of agriculture. Eight national finalists are selected for the student of the year award. Those competing to win the honor develop hypotheses, conduct research and develop theories pertaining to an agricultural issue and report findings to a panel of judges with a detailed application, written report, display, presentation and an interview.

To qualify for the honor, FFA members must be a junior or senior in high school or a freshman in college majoring in an agriculture-related field and heir research must have been initiated while in high school.

The National FFA Agriscience Student of the year is sponsored by Monsanto as a special project of the National FFA Foundation.

Formerly known as Future Farmers of America, the National FFA Organization provides agricultural education to more than 540,379 student members in grades seven through 12 who belong to one of 7,489 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

This press release is presented without editing for your information. GRIT does not recommend, approve or endorse the products and/or services offered. You should use your own judgment and evaluate products and services carefully before deciding to purchase. 

Rural life. Where else but the Future Farmers of America would you find a fundraiser where the kids are sold as “slaves” for a day?

I went to my first “slave” auction last year. The auctioneer has a great time sort of messing with the kids, in a positive way, of course. He’ll ask the boys if they can sew as their talent for the auction. Some say, “Heck yes!” Messing with him back.

Some of the kids are clearly “bought” by grandparents or parents, and one suspects that they don’t slave at all. However, my husband buys the “slaves,” and I’ll say they definitely work around here!

One young man, who was on the football team, was out here digging post-holes by hand. I asked him which was harder, farming or football, and without any hesitation, he said “farming!” Many of the members of FFA aren’t farmers at all. It seems that FFA is part of the social fabric of the local high school, where Ag classes are offered. When we moved here, and my city son was adapting to the farm, I tried to tell him that being able to drive a tractor would be a real plus, he thought it wouldn’t be so unique. But it is, even in this rural area. However, we have several relatives who are farmers extraordinaire, and you can hear the kids talking about driving the hay wagons, or taking care of hogs or cattle for 4-H or FFA projects, so you get all kinds of kids.

There’s a young woman here today who came prepared with work boots and gloves. Good for her. Once in a while, a kid comes without any gloves. The young woman is, as we speak, out putting up fence. She relayed to me that she told her father she’d be fencing, he said “Does the farmer have any idea you don’t know how to fence?” She said no, but she was game to learn. She came back, reporting excitedly that she got to drive the skid loader. I didn’t have the heart to tell her my 12-year-old granddaughter drives the skid loader.

We’ve had kids come and plant wind-breaks, build the chicken coop, and do various farm chores like the fencing. With rare exceptions, they are willing to work, and cooperative.

I think the slave auction fundraiser goes way back. I’ll have to ask my husband, who was president of the FFA in 1966. What is amazing is that the kids continue to agree to this fundraising. Isn’t rural life wonderful?

A Missouri FFA chapter has won the grand prize worth more than $8,000 in a seven-state competition that encouraged FFA chapters to connect with farmers in their local communities.

West Plains High School’s FFA chapter won the 2011 FFA Chapter Challenge, a pilot competition sponsored by Monsanto. The chapter will be able to send six students and an adult advisor on an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2011 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. The chapter will also receive $1,500 in credit with the National FFA Organization to help pay for FFA-related activities and expenses throughout the year.

West Plains earned 469 votes. Lawrence County High School’s FFA chapter in Moulton, Ala., and John Glenn High School’s FFA chapter in Walkerton, Ind., were the closest competitors, finishing with 416 and 407 votes, respectively.

The top 10 FFA chapters in each state that earned the most votes also received a $1,500 line of credit with FFA. Monsanto is also awarding each of the seven state FFA organizations a $1,500 grant for participating in the competition.

Since March 7, FFA chapters in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Georgia and Alabama sent members into their communities to meet local farmers, learn about their operations and connect with them by sharing what their FFA chapter is doing in their community. Farmers were then asked to visit FFAChapterChallenge.com and vote for their favorite FFA chapter.

“The inaugural FFA Chapter Challenge has been an overwhelming success,” said National FFA Foundation executive director Rob Cooper. “Thousands of FFA members made positive connections with local farmers. The intent of the challenge was to encourage FFA members meet their area farmers, learn about their business and connect with them – and in many cases reconnect with them because students found out that many of their local farmers are former FFA members. We are thrilled with the level of participation among students and farmers and look forward to staging a larger campaign with Monsanto next year, inviting even more FFA chapters to compete.”

Participation in the 2011 FFA Chapter Challenge was high. More than 360 FFA chapters and a combined 22,000 members earned more than 10,385 votes from farmers across the seven-state area. Website traffic was high throughout the competition as more than 10,740 unique users visited the site through May 1.

“Monsanto is committed to youth in agriculture because we know our industry will only be as strong as the next generation of agriculture leaders,” said John Raines, vice president of customer advocacy at Monsanto. “The FFA Chapter Challenge allowed us to increase our valuable partnership with the National FFA organization while helping the local chapters connect with farmers in their communities.”

The National FFA Foundation builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources that fund FFA activities, recognize member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agriculture education. Nearly 82 percent of all funds received by the foundation support FFA and agricultural education opportunities.

Formerly known as Future Farmers of America, the National FFA Organization provides agricultural education to more than 523,000 student members in grades seven through 12 who belong to one of 7,487 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The organization operates under a federal charter granted by the 81st U.S. Congress and it is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. For more, visit http://www.ffa.org.

This press release is presented without editing for your information. GRIT does not recommend, approve or endorse the products and/or services offered. You should use your own judgment and evaluate products and services carefully before deciding to purchase.