Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, four FFA members are honored with American Star Awards for outstanding accomplishments in FFA and agricultural education.
The American Star Awards, including American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience, are presented to FFA members who demonstrate outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through completion of a supervised agricultural experience (SAE). A required activity in FFA, an SAE allows students to learn by doing, by owning or operating an agricultural business, working or serving an internship at an agriculture-based business, or conducting an agriculture-based scientific experiment and reporting results.
Other requirements to achieve the award include demonstrating top management skills; completing key agricultural education, scholastic and leadership requirements; and earning an American FFA Degree, the organization’s highest level of student accomplishment.
The American Star in Agricultural Placement is awarded to the FFA member with the top agricultural placement SAE in the nation. Here are the 2021 finalists for American Star in Agricultural Placement:
Ethan Buck, Indiana
As part of a multigenerational family farm operation, Ethan Buck credits his parents’ mentorship and FFA advisors’ guidance for his confidence and passion for agriculture.
Buck, from Rossville FFA in Indiana, grew up working on his family’s swine and crop farm, B&J Buck Farms.
“I started out with really simple tasks and worked my way up throughout the years to build responsibility and build the skills I needed to take a larger role on the farm,” he said.
When Buck joined FFA, his work on the farm became his SAE, and his responsibilities grew.
“I became a pivotal part of the swine operation, being tasked with managing and administering vaccinations on the farm, conducting swine inventory during daily animal inspections and basic animal treatment, and then swine record keeping,” he said.
Buck’s experience was put to the test when the farm’s pigs were affected by swine flu — a cycle that lasted a few years.
“It took a lot of time and effort to get that flu cycle under control, networking with our suppliers, weaning the pig farm, networking with our veterinarians, networking with the laboratory that makes our vaccines, and I got to sit in and be a part of that process,” Buck said. “I think just that aspect of being able to sit down with multiple generations of my family … to collectively solve a real problem and come out with an effective solution.”
With help from the vaccine laboratory, they were able to identify the specific swine flu variant affecting the farm’s livestock and create a vaccine that Buck says dramatically decreased deaths among their swine.
Now a sophomore at Purdue University studying agribusiness, Buck wants to pursue a career in agricultural law. But, eventually, he wants to make his way back to the farm.
“It’s amazing what an FFA member can do when they put their mind to something, and they have great support from their FFA program and great family support,” he said. “The outcomes are unlimited. I never thought I was going to get this far.”
Duncan Patton, Georgia
After working for multiple farms and becoming a diesel mechanic, Duncan Patton says his FFA experience and the mentorships he had through his SAEs helped him explore different career opportunities in agriculture.
Patton, from Madison County FFA in Georgia, grew up on his family’s beef cattle farm.
“It all started when I was a kid, being around my grandfather and dad running our family’s cattle operation,” he said. “Just being a kid, getting to be around them, getting to be around the livestock, learning how to do it their way.”
Then, in middle school, Patton became friends with the son of a nearby dairy farmer.
“He’s the one that really started me into the ag mechanics and learning to be a mechanic,” Patton said of his friend’s father.
Patton has worked at five different farms, gaining experience with row cropping, dairy production, poultry production, baling hay and operating mechanical equipment. He acquired more knowledge with each opportunity.
“At Gossard Farms up in Ohio, the thing I took away from there was the attention to detail that they expected from me,” Patton said. “Coming back home, my dad said that he could really tell a difference in how I work on stuff.”
Patton says without FFA and his various SAEs, he likely would have pursued a career in agriculture, given his family’s cattle operation. But, he said, FFA helped expose him to other areas of agriculture beyond cow/calf production.
“I think where FFA really helped me was showing me [how to] go out and be an advocate,” Patton said. “Being able to talk to people better, how to be professional when I speak to others.”
Now that he has an associate’s degree in diesel technology, Patton currently works as a diesel mechanic. Down the road, though, he has his eyes set on returning to the family farm.
“The way Dad’s always worded it to me is that a farm should be able to feed a family of four, and we’re growing the farm right now to the point of me being able to support me not having a secondary job,” Patton said. “In the next 10 years, that’s sort of where I want to be.”
Caleb Peckham, Connecticut
Caleb Peckham was involved in agriculture as soon as he could walk.
Growing up on his parent’s dairy farm in Connecticut, Peckham helped milk cows and fed calves. When he became a high school freshman and joined Killingly FFA, his family farm chores turned into a paid placement SAE, and his responsibilities grew.
“My father will say that when he’s off the farm, I can basically run the farm for him and help with whatever needs doing,” Peckham said.
He had a hand in the farm’s crop production, and by his senior year, he was managing the farm’s calves, feeding them, dehorning them and administering medicine when needed. He even supervises two high school students who feed the calves on the weekends.
“I’m helping them out, and any questions that they have for me, I’m responsible for that,” he said.
Additionally, Peckham’s family runs a farm store where they sell milk. To sell that milk in local supermarkets and the farm store each day, a sample needs to be sent to a local co-op’s lab to be tested.
“I got my certification for pulling samples out of the bulk tank from the state of Connecticut,” he said. “That enables us to bottle milk for the next day.”
Reflecting on his experience, Peckham says FFA helped him better understand and explain to others why he’s passionate about dairy.
“We are always striving for the highest quality milk; it’s very important to us,” he said. “We’re big supporters on educating the public on what we do, and I feel like FFA has taught me how to better communicate to the public.”
Looking to the future, Peckham is in his second year of a two-year dairy production management degree program at SUNY Cobleskill in New York. He sees himself working in dairy production for a long time.
“I knew way back in middle school that I wanted to farm,” he said. “I knew that it was for me, and I love working with the cows. My herd is like my world.”
Jakob Weinheimer, Texas
Farming is all in the family for Jakob Weinheimer, and when he got involved in FFA, he had a goal of becoming an American Star Award winner. Now, he’s a finalist in agricultural placement.
“To actually be a national Star finalist is outstanding,” he said. “It’s truly amazing.”
Weinheimer, from Panhandle FFA in Texas, got an early start in agriculture.
“I’ve been on tractors since I was 18 months old,” he said. “I started driving tractors when I was 8 years old, and then I just kept progressing to doing more and more stuff on the farm.”
For his SAE, Weinheimer continued to work on his family’s 9,000-acre farm with his father and uncles. As he got older, his responsibilities on the farm grew.
“Today, I operate one of our combines, doing wheat, corn and milo harvests,” he said. “I operate a planter during corn, milo and cotton planting, and I maintain all of our equipment, all of the service on the equipment. I also operate the cotton stripper baler during cotton harvest.
“My favorite part would be harvest time, either running a combine or running the stripper baler,” he added.
Off the farm, Weinheimer is very involved in high school athletics and his FFA chapter, competing in the farm and agribusiness management and cotton judging career development events.
He says his father and his uncles are his biggest mentors.
“My dad has taught me everything I know for my SAE,” Weinheimer said.
He is studying general agriculture at West Texas A&M. He plans on returning to Weinheimer Farms.
“I’ll come back to the farm and become a managing partner and, hopefully, acquire land of my own eventually,” he said.
The American Star Awards are sponsored by Case IH, Elanco Animal Health and Syngenta. For more information on the awards, visit FFA.org.
General convention sessions will air live on RFD-TV and The Cowboy Channel. FFA members and supporters can tune in and watch gavel-to-gavel coverage of the event. To learn more, visit Convention.FFA.org.
