FFA officers visit ag companies throughout Illinois

State FFA President Thaddeus Bergschnider of Franklin, Vice President Eric Wisley of Nashville, Reporter Cooper Nelson of Canton, Secretary Riley Kessler of Staunton and Treasurer Benjamin Bremmer of Pearl City are nine months through their year as state officers.

Though intensive preparation for the 96th Illinois FFA State Convention continues, the team has stayed busy with events such as business and industry visits, National FFA Week, the Golden Owl Award presentations, Women Changing the Face of Agriculture Conference, the Illinois Products Expo and several FFA contests.

From the week of Feb. 12-16, the state officers, along with Riley Wells, Illinois Foundation FFA’s associate director, hit the road to visit various industry friends and sponsors to thank them for their contributions and to learn more about their businesses.

The team kicked off the week at the Illinois Pork Producers Association in Springfield, followed by a tour of the ADM North American Headquarters in Decatur.

On Tuesday, the crew took a gold key tour of John Deere’s Harvester Works in Moline. Wednesday saw the group touring Syngenta’s new location in Malta, before heading up north to Bremmer farms for the evening.

The crew remained up north Thursday morning, visiting Akins Energy in Pearl City and Prairie State Tractor in Freeport before heading south for the night.

The weeklong business and industry tour came to a close in Bloomington on Friday, but not before the team visited Cargill and the Illinois Soybean Association.

Throughout the week, the officers learned about all aspects of Illinois agriculture from the Illinois pork industry to ADM’s carbon capture methods, each officer found something unique about their visits that enlightened them to opportunities available and inspired them to future career paths.

Since 1948, the third week in February has also been celebrated as National FFA Week. This year, the state officers celebrated the week with several social media initiatives and chapter visits. The week began on Saturday, Feb. 17, and concluded on Friday, Feb. 23.

Over that time, the state officers traveled to visit over two dozen FFA chapters, who kept the officers busy. No two FFA Week visits look the same with activities varying from the lockbox activity that this year’s state officers assigned to school-wide assemblies and from auctions to petting zoos.

Toward the end of FFA Week, the state officers surprised the district Golden Owl Award finalists at each of their schools for their accomplishments. The Golden Owl Award was created to honor quality agricultural educators and recognize them for their success.

One winner from each of Illinois’ 25 sections is selected as the section winner and then one winner among the five sections in each district is selected as a state Golden Owl Award finalist.

This year’s District Golden Owls include the following:

• District 1 — Rodney Main, ROWVA.

• District 2 — Joe Steffen, Newark.

• District 3 — Steve Sargeant, Bushnell-Prairie City.

• District 4 — Justin Howard, Georgetown Ridge Farm.

• District 5 — Mark Steber, Olney.

One of these five finalists will be named the Illinois Ag Educator of the Year at the annual Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers Conference in June.

Cooper Nelson from the Canton FFA Chapter is the 2023-2024 Illinois Association FFA state reporter.