Illinois FFA member develops national award-winning research projects

LANARK, Ill. — Seeing a fistulated cow at a young age triggered Delana Erbsen’s interest in research that has led her to develop FFA award-winning projects.

Erbsen is one of four finalists for the American Star in Agriscience award that will be presented during the 98th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis on Oct. 31, during the Sixth General Session of the four-day event.

In addition to Erbsen, American Star in Agriscience finalists include: Joanna Hamilton from the Felicity-Franklin Chapter in Ohio, Matthias David Hefty from the DeKalb Chapter in Indiana and Madison Perkins from the Gilmer Chapter in Texas.

“When I was young, we took a cow to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Vet School and I thought the fistulated cow was so cool,” Erbsen recalled. “My mom worked at Furst-McNess, she found out they had a fistulated cow, so I went there because I wanted to learn more about it and that got the ball rolling.”

During her freshman year in high school, the Eastland FFA member received a grant from the feed mill company for her research project, where she collected samples from the fistulated cow.

“I created an environment to simulate the rumen and test the digestibility of different feedstuffs,” she said.

Erbsen continued to work with Furst-McNess the next year to test which type of silage inoculate worked best at preserving different silages.

“I also did a project working with Profresh, which is a powder propionic acid, to determine what amount was the most economically beneficial to keeping feed palatable for cattle,” she said.

During her sophomore year, Erbsen’s family decided to grow hemp on their farm since it was the COVID year and milk prices were low.

“I worked with Furst-McNess to determine if field corn or sweet corn fields grew better hemp,” she said.

“My junior year I worked with Lena Vet Clinic and a dairy farm to test if the presence of gram negative or gram positive bacteria at freshening in dairy cows would increase their risk of getting mastitis during the first 30 to 60 days in milk,” said the daughter of Kevin and Wendy Erbsen.

During her last year of high school, Erbsen continued to work with milk culturing and Lena Vet Clinic along with Derek Noland from the University of Illinois.

“I brought it home to my farm where I tested what strain of bacteria was causing high cell counts and chronic mastitis in my cattle,” she said.

The Erbsen herd has about 50 registered Holstein cows and the family competes in local, state and national dairy shows.

“We are a little different than the average dairy farm. We breed for high classification scores and high genetics,” the Star finalist said. “So, we can market them as well as be successful in the show ring and my dad really loves to milk pretty cows.”

As a result of her research projects, Erbsen said, changes have been made at her family’s farm.

“My dad changed the ration and started top dressing with cottonseed,” she noted.

“We changed how much propionic acid we were putting on our hay and the milk culturing helped us lower or chronic mastitis, as well as our high cell counts,” she said. “The most beneficial part of all these projects was bringing it home to my family dairy to make improvements.”

While in high school, Erbsen’s favorite FFA activities were dairy judging and dairy handling.

As a senior, she was a member of the national winning dairy judging team, which gave the team the opportunity to travel to Scotland and Ireland.

“My cousin, Nevin Erbsen, was on the same judging team and I was the top individual and Nevin was No. 2,” said the FFA member who is advised by Cindy Feltmeyer.

In addition, Nevin is also a finalist this year for the American Star in Agricultural Placement award.

“As soon as I found out I was a finalist, I texted Nevin,” she said.

Currently, Erbsen is a senior at Iowa State University where she is studying dairy science with a minor in genetics.

“This is my last semester and then I’ll be starting a full-time position with Select Sires Member Cooperative as a dairy program specialist in northeast Iowa,” she said. “And I will be able to be involved with my home farm, so it was a perfect fit.”

Erbsen did not think she would be named an American Star finalist.

“But it is really cool to see all my hard work pay off,” she said. “My advice to other FFA members is stay on top of your record books, get out there, try new things and just be you.”