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 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 Farmer is awarded to the FFA member that demonstrates the top production agriculture SAE in the nation. Here are the 2023 winner and finalists for American Star Farmer:
WINNER: Daniel Jossund, Minnesota
Everyone on the border between North Dakota and Minnesota knows that snow is a hassle, but for Daniel Jossund, dealing with snow is one of the many ways he earns a living.
“In the wintertime, I push snow in Fargo at night running a payloader,” Jossund said.
Jossund is no stranger to operating heavy machinery. As a member of Ada-Borup-West FFA in Minnesota, he farms on both his parents’ land and his own land to raise sugar beets, corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa. He’s particularly focused on baling straw and alfalfa, with over 1,000 acres baled in 2022.
“I own all my own machinery for all the haying and the baling, and I have my own semi for trucking,” Jossund said. “Everything to do with the baling is all on my own. I use my parents’ machinery for the crop farming.”
Farming is a family business for Jossund. He began working on his supervised agricultural experience (SAE) when he was a teenager with the help of his parents and his brother Andrew Jossund. However, Jossund said his parents aren’t balers by trade, so he learned a lot about the practice from other local farmers.
“I got started with it when I was 14,” Jossund said. “I bought a small square baler to start baling with my brother Andrew. He’s nine years older than I am and, as we got older, he had other interests and I started baling more — and I bought him out of the baling business.”
Now 20 years old, Jossund said owning 150 acres of land at such a young age is one of the things he’s most proud of. Jossund is currently majoring in agribusiness at North Dakota State University, and he said he’s planning on continuing to expand his current farming operations after he graduates.
“The college degree is pretty much just to have a degree and meet people,” Jossund said. “That’s the best part about it. All the people I’ve met.”
Jossund’s advice for FFA members starting their own SAE is to persevere — you might not like your job every day, but it’s a good job if you’d still rather be doing it than anything else.
“That’s what I always tell myself when I’m out in the field and stuff’s not going right or I have hay that gets rained on or whatever. ‘Oh, I hate this.’ But then I think there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing than this,” Jossund said.
FINALIST: Tanner Mickey, Illinois
If you ask Tanner Mickey of Taylorville FFA in Illinois what he’s most proud of about his supervised agricultural experience (SAE), he’d have a lot of things to choose from.
“I have a very diverse SAE,” Mickey said. “In terms of livestock, I’m raising Angus cattle and I’ve also raised market lambs and pigs in the past as well. And then for the crops, I raise corn and soybeans as well as wheat.”
Mickey comes from a farming family, so renting land for crops was relatively simple — but he said he started his cattle herd from scratch when he was just a freshman in high school.
“Back in 2016 … I was lucky to be able to pick up some pasture close to home,” Mickey said. “It started with eight head of Angus-bred heifers … [But] my operation’s taken off.”
As of now, Mickey is responsible for tending to dozens of animals and hundreds of acres of crops. His parents and younger brother help, and Mickey also said his three FFA advisors were instrumental in helping his SAE succeed — especially when it came time to do paperwork.
“When my records are accurate and I know my expenses and incomes and things like that, [it] certainly helps me to be able to expand,” Mickey said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without all their guidance and assistance.”
Mickey said the expansion of his farming operation is what he’s most proud of. He is currently majoring in agribusiness at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and after he graduates, he plans to go back home and keep expanding his operation some more.
Despite growing up on a farm himself, Mickey’s advice for FFA members who want to start an SAE is to remember that farms are not required to succeed in FFA.
“In terms of my FFA chapter, there’s only a select handful of kids that came from a farm and had a farm-based SAE,” Mickey said. “There’s certainly many different opportunities that FFA provides for students looking to get an SAE started.”
FINALIST: Luke Jennings, Ohio
Fresh food can sometimes be hard to come by in rural areas due to their isolation. That’s one reason why Luke Jennings of Felicity-Franklin FFA in Ohio is focused on supplying meat to his local community.
“The aspect that I’m most proud of in my [supervised agricultural experience] SAE is being able to raise beef and pork and sell directly to consumers,” Jennings said. “[I] supply local consumers with fresh, locally raised beef and pork.”
Whenever he makes a sale, Jennings sends his livestock to local meat processing facilities. These processers then turn the meat into individual retail packages that are ready for Jennings’s customers to eat, whether it’s a juicy steak, savory pork chops or otherwise.
Like many farmers, Jennings got his start raising cattle and swine by following in his family’s footsteps.
“Right before I started at FFA, I purchased half of my family’s cow-calf herd,” Jennings said. “And then I’ve slowly expanded my operation to the status it is today.”
Currently, Jennings is responsible for raising at least two dozen animals with the help of his parents and younger sister. Jennings and his sister are co-owners of the livestock operation, but it’s strictly a family business with no other employees, he said.
“Both my younger sister and my two parents have been absolutely instrumental in getting me to where I am today with my SAE and raising livestock,” Jennings said. “I truly would not be able to do it without them.”
Jennings is taking a gap year in college, but he said he plans to finish his agriscience education degree at Ohio State University and become an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. He’d still like to keep raising his livestock on the side, though.
“Earning money from raising beef cattle and pigs, it’s definitely been very useful in helping to raise money to buy my first truck, to pay for college, [and] to become more independent as I’ve gotten older,” Jennings said.
For FFA members starting their own SAE, Jennings’s advice is this: don’t be afraid to fail.
“There’s been a lot of times where I’ve failed or I’ve been knocked down, but I think what matters more is our ability to get back up,” Jennings said. “That’s truly the only way you’re going to learn and get better.”
FINALIST: Callie Welty, Texas
While most people tend to say that dogs or cats are their favorite animals, Callie Welty knew from a young age that her favorite animals are Brahman cattle.
“I fell in love with Brahman cattle when I was little, and so I just kind of built on that love as I grew up,” Welty said. “Brahman cattle are very intelligent and they definitely have a personality. … When I was in third grade, I had one that actually played hide and seek with me.”
Welty was born into a cattle ranching family, and she said her mother and aunt introduced her to the Brahman — a breed known for distinctive humpbacks and long, floppy ears.
Before she was a member of Grandview FFA in Texas, Welty began raising a Brahman herd when she was in third grade. Welty said she has been maintaining her herd with the help of her family for over a decade, and she has no plans to stop.
But Welty has a second passion that forms the other half of her supervised agricultural experience (SAE): public speaking.
“When I started doing 4-H and FFA, I kind of decided I don’t get nervous talking to people,” Welty said. “Being in front of a crowd actually excites me.”
In addition to raising her own Brahman cattle, Welty also does social media management, livestock photography, marketing and other public-facing services for fellow Brahman breeders around the world. Her media and industry outreach work has taken her to Asia, South America, Europe and various parts of the U.S. She also does interviews for the Cowboy Channel as a summer job.
“As an only child, I love to have my fingers in everything and I like to try everything,” Welty said.
Welty is currently majoring in agricultural communications and journalism at Texas A&M University. She said she’d like to get a job in agricultural media or public relations someday, but she’ll always want to maintain her Brahman herd on the side.
For FFA members wanting to start an SAE, Welty said her best advice is to keep an open mind and turn whatever you’re passionate about into an SAE.
“I’ve seen lots of people start their own SAEs through raising dogs or raising cats,” Welty said. “I think there’s an opportunity for every FFA member no matter where you live or where you are.”
The American Star Awards are sponsored by Case IH, Elanco Animal Health and Syngenta. For more information on the awards, visit FFA.org.
