FFA honors Stars over Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — The Stars over Indiana finalists were honored during the Hoosier Degree session at the 92nd Indiana FFA State Convention.

Star In Agricultural Placement

There were four finalists in the agricultural placement category with Brent Studebaker named Star in Agricultural Placement:

• Emily Brewer from Jennings County FFA worked for Brewer Livestock as a cashier, where she worked closely with others because she had to call each one of the customers on a weekly basis to take their order.

• Luke Harker from Hope FFA loves working with beef cattle and works on his family farm, Harker Simmentals, where he helps raise and care for more than 150 beef cattle.

• Jack McIntire, who hails from the Argos FFA Chapter, worked for his dad’s company, McIntire Mulch, where he quickly loved being around equipment and learned to operate it.

• Brent Studebaker, from the Whitko FFA Chapter, worked for three different family-owned operations — Studebaker Farms, Randy Studebaker Farms and South View Farms.

Star In Agriscience

There were three finalists in the agriscience category with Rowan Tinker from Eastside FFA named Star in Agriscience:

• Blake Peterson from the Tri-County FFA Chapter did a lot of testing on a local creek in his community where he monitored water quality.

• Marcus Robinson, who hails from the South Putnam FFA Chapter, helped manage and do research projects on his chapter’s aquaponics system.

• Rowan Tinker’s Supervised Agricultural Experience program was based in her passion for ethanol and studying its makeup.

Star Farmer

There were four finalists in the farmer category with Carson Kretzmeier named Star Farmer:

• Jayden Brown, who is from Rossville FFA, focused his SAE on both conventional and organic production to help achieve a more modern approach to farming.

• Evan Cohagen from the Argos FFA Chapter centered his SAE around goats and raising his own flock of Boer goats.

• Carson Kretzmeier, who hails from the Benton Central FFA Chapter, raised and cared for her own flock of Southdown sheep. She plans to continue growing her flock in the future after graduating from college.

• Bella Witte hails from the Eastern Hancock FFA Chapter and her SAE involved raising turkeys for the Feast of Plenty in her local community. Witte purchases the pullets and raises them for four months until she sends them to be processed and donated.