Fairbury FFA members participated in the District Proficiency Award competition held last Wednesday at Milford High School. Out of some 46 applications submitted to the District level, Fairbury had almost 1/3 of the applications. More importantly, ten applications qualified for state competition. Nine of these applications took first place gold honors. Thirteen members submitted applications at this level. Proficiency applications are based on the student’s Supervised Agricultural Experience Program, which includes projects they complete to develop skills in their area of interest. Those qualifying for state earning gold awards and first place included Landon Schmidt for Oil Crop, Diversified Crop, Vegetable Production, and Crop Placement, Shaylse Ahl in Veterinary Medicine , Ali Umland in Agricultural Education, and Mitchell Husa in Specialty Crops. Others earning top honors were Tera Kapke in Beef Production and Brandon Katz in Agricultural Service. Earning second gold and qualifying for state was Trevor Weise in Dairy Production. Earning third gold was Colton Stone in Diversified Ag. Production. Ethan Schroeder received Silver in Diversified Ag. Production and Justin Sasse received Bronze in Diversified Crop Production.

The Chapter also had six members apply for the State FFA Degree. Members applying for the degree included: Trevor Schlake, Landon Schmidt, Ali Umland, Trevor Weise, Mitchell Husa, and Justin Sasse.
FFA Advisor Dennis Kenning said, “I’m proud of the kids, they all did a really nice job and it shows the quality of their project. It’s nice to have so many applications go on to state and have so many kids involved in our chapter and their SAE.”