Thirty-one Escalon FFA members participated in seven Career Development Events (CDE) at the Chico and Le Grand Field Days on Saturday, March 11. The Escalon FFA’ers definitely didn’t walk home empty handed.

The FFA Field Days, which are hosted by the agriculture students and professors at colleges as well as industry professionals, gives FFA members the opportunity to compete against other members and earn awards based on their knowledge in an agricultural field. These field days are one of the many ways FFA members are encouraged to fulfill the FFA motto by “Learning to Do” and “Doing to Learn” as they are given the opportunity to learn skills that can be used in a future career in Agriculture.

At Chico, 20 Escalon FFA members participated in five CDE contests: Livestock Judging, Ag Pest, Best Informed Greenhand, Farm Power, and Horse Judging. At the Le Grand Field Day, 11 students participated in two career development events: Veterinary Science and Ag Mechanics.

In Ag Pest, Escalon’s Gold Team, made up of Noah Rast, Jack Fitzgerald, and Isabel Coelho, won fifth place while Escalon’s Purple Team, made up of Jacob Walden, Zack Hearn, and Austin Terra, won first place. Also, at the individual level, Austin Terra won fourth overall, Zack Hearn got third, and Jacob Walden was first high individual.

In Horse Judging, Escalon’s team, made up of Gillian Goodman, Monica Sandoval, Brittyn Rocha, and Emma Santellan, won second high team with Emma Santellan winning first Individual overall.

A similar result was yielded in the Vet Science contest with Julia Orlando, Scott Terpstra, and Mary Valencia taking fourth place as a team and Julia Orlando winning first.

Also, in Farm Power, Jake Kroon won second individual overall.

We are all very proud of everyone who competed and can’t wait to see the continuing success everyone has at the coming field days.