Four Pierce FFA Members Qualify for State
Launch the media gallery 1 playerThe Pierce High FFA proficiency applications for their Supervised Agricultural Experiences were sent to Crofton for judging at the Nebraska FFA District IV Proficiency Evaluation on the morning of Saturday, February 4. Four Pierce High FFA members scored highly enough to advance to state competition: Amy Fleer, Haley Oestreich, Brandon Freeman, and Lexy Nuesch. FFA sponsor Mrs. Jodi Borchers said, “The FFA members represented the Pierce community extremely well in various areas ranging from agricultural service to vegetable production.”
Amy Fleer qualified for state competition with two applications. Fleer is district champion in Agricultural Communications and received the third place gold in Equine Science. State qualifier in three events, Haley Oestreich, is district champion in Agricultural Education and was awarded the second place gold in Poultry Production. Brandon Freeman will move on to state competition as district champion in Beef Production-Placement. Lexy Nuesch was awarded second gold and will move on to state judging with an Equine Science-Placement application.
Earning gold places but not qualifying for state were Shane Thayer in Diversified Livestock and Michael Fleer in Equine Science–Placement. Thayer was the Pierce FFA member with the most applications submitted with a total of three. Shane was also awarded silver in Agricultural Mechanics Fabrication and Design and in Diversified Agricultural Production.
Several other members were awarded silver awards: Colby Krueger for Agricultural Service and Diversified Agricultural Production; Clayton Lienemann for Outdoor Recreation; Kristen Albrecht in Small Animal Production; Dalton Polt in Diversified Agricultural Production, Ray Fleer in beef production, and Tyler Tinker for Goat Production.
Bronze awards were earned by Tyler Carlson in Turf Management, Clayton Lienemann for Diversified Livestock, and Morgan Siedschlag with Vegetable Production.
The Agricultural Proficiency Awards honor FFA members who, through their Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE), have developed specialized skills that they can apply toward their future careers. Placement proficiency awards are given to those whose SAEs are related to employment, apprenticeships, or internships at an agribusiness or agriculture-related organization. Entrepreneurship proficiency awards are given to those whose SAEs are related to ownership of an agribusiness or agriculture-related organization. The proficiency application is a lengthy process in which members have to document skills, verify experiences with pictures, provide record keeping numbers, and correlate all the hours put into work or projects in their specific categories of agriculture-related enterprise. The proficiencies are extremely thorough.
