Working on two dairy farms earns National FFA recognition

LANARK, Ill. — Working on two dairy farms has resulted in national recognition for Nevin Erbsen as a finalist for the American Star in Agricultural Placement award.

“My project relates to working at our home farm, Erbacres Holsteins, along with working for a neighboring farm, Gunderson Family Dairy, where we utilize four robots to milk about 240 Holstein cows,” Erbsen said.

The award presentation is set for the Sixth General Session during the 98th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.

Along with Erbsen, finalists for Star in Agricultural Placement include: Braden Compton from the Meade County FFA Chapter in Kentucky, Caldyn David Huper from the United South Central FFA Chapter in Minnesota, and Amanda Osmundson from the Oakdale FFA Chapter in California.

“On our farm, a lot of what I do with my record book revolves around equipment repair and maintenance, and I do a lot of feeding,” the Eastland FFA member said.

“I am involved with forage, too. We produce about 100 acres of forage products every year, including six crops of hay a year,” he said. “I’m involved in every stage of the growth and harvest of that.”

Erbsen did not expect to receive the Star finalist honor.

“I was pretty shocked,” he said. “I didn’t think it was actually going to happen because there are a lot of hard-working people.”

“It is awesome, especially being recognized with my cousin, Delana,” he added. “We grew up together and we’ve always been really close, so it is super cool to be recognized together.”

Delana Erbsen is a finalist for the American Star in Agriscience award. In addition, a third Illinois FFA member, Blake Twenhafel, is a finalist for the American Star in Agribusiness.

“It is pretty cool that Illinois is getting recognized like this,” said the son of Carl and Becky Erbsen.

Interviewing for the American Star award, Erbsen said, was stressful.

“I tried to prepare myself the best I could,” the finalist said.

“I’m very passionate about agriculture and I love to talk about it, so I think interviewing is one of my strongest suits,” he said. “If you’re passionate about what you do, you should be pretty good at talking about it.”

Erbsen’s favorite FFA activity was dairy judging.

“We were the national winners of the dairy judging contest my junior year,” he said about the team that also included Delana Erbsen. “We went to Ireland to experience what it was like to farm there and that was definitely inspiring to me.”

Advised by Cindy Feltmeyer, Erbsen was the chapter vice president and he competed in agronomy and soil contests.

“And that sparked an interest to obtain a minor in agronomy,” he said.

Erbsen is a junior at Iowa State University where his major is agricultural systems technology with a minor in agronomy.

“I work for local farmers in Iowa and I also work for a consulting group that specializes in precision planting implementation,” he said.

After completing his college degree, Erbsen is leaning toward working at a John Deere dealership or working for the John Deere company in Moline.

“I am interested in working with automation systems and autonomous tractors,” he said. “I feel like if you start now you should be pretty well set for the future because that is the future of agriculture.”