Saturday, April 12 saw Escalon FFA Chapter members participate in the FFA Field Day hosted by CSU, Fresno. Several teams competed, with some of the contests actually being the state finals for that area of competition.

Such was the case for the Ag Pest Control Team. Brand Nicolay, Khyle Delucchi, Colten Watson, and Cody Franks made up the foursome who won the title of 2014 State Champions in the Ag Pest Control career development event. In the contest, students had to identify 25 of the 80 common agricultural pests in California, as well as their scientific order, destructive stage, mouthparts, and all of their possible hosts. They also had to give presentations on beneficial, quarantine, and vertebrate pests. All of them juniors, the members of this team have competed and have continued learning the material for the contest since their freshman year. Co-coached by Jennifer Terpstra and Matthew Terra, the team has had great success these past three years, and was genuinely excited to win the State title this year. Placing as individuals, Nicolay was second, Delucchi was third, and Watson was fifth.

The success for that day, however, continued. The Farm Records team placed first which included Abby Liv, Melissa Orosco, Edin Ochoa, Samantha Nicholas, and Lori Kroon, who also placed as first high individual. The Computer Applications team placed as third high team, and included Cassidy Pehl, Cameron Reed, Chase Borba, and Miguel Gomez. Mykayla Spurgeon, Kylie Burriss, Katelyn Donelli, and Logan LaRossa placed as fifth high team in the Floriculture competition, with Spurgeon placing as fourth high individual. The Agronomy team placed fourth which included: Megan Mullins, Mary Valencia, Nick Russell, Cassidy Ley-Han, and Joey Texeira.

This field day was a success for Escalon FFA and the students are looking forward to competing in the State FFA Judging Finals on May 2-4 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.