Star in Agricultural Production (Farmer)
Outstanding achievement in a production agriculture SAE and active participation in the FFA is recognized with the State Star Farmer award. Each year, our association selects one winner from the top applicants for the State FFA Degree. This award focuses on students who own an enterprise and whose primary purpose is producing animals or crops. Most commonly this is done for commercial purposes. Some examples of production agriculture SAE’s include (but are not limited to):

Raising animals for show
Owning and growing crops
Owning a cow-calf operation

Star in Agribusiness
The top applicant for the State FFA Degree in agribusiness in our association is recognized as the State Star in Agribusiness. Only the entrepreneurship or ownership portion of the member’s Supervised Agricultural Experience will be considered for this area. The student will most likely have “customers” for which he/she exchanges labor for money. Some examples of SAEs which qualify for State Star in Agribusiness include (but are not limited to:

Owning and managing a livestock brokerage
Owning and managing a wildlife trapping business
Owning a share of a business partnership to provide ditching and drainage services
Owing a custom harvesting business
Hunting/fishing guide

Star in Agricultural Placement
Star in Agricultural Placement
The State FFA Degree recipient who has excelled in an agricultural placement SAE, either at an agribusiness or production enterprise, will be awarded the State Star in Agricultural Placement. Placement enterprises are not owned by the student. The student receives either paid or unpaid hours in exchange for working for a company or individual. Some examples of SAEs which qualify for State Star in Agricultural Placement include (but are not limited to):

Working for a landscaping company
Being employed as a farm worker
Directed lab experience
Working at a feed store

Star in Agriscience
The State FFA Degree recipient who has excelled in an agriscience-based SAE (natural resources, research/experimentation, or science-based directed lab) will be awarded the State Star in Agriscience. The intent of this award category is to recognize the efforts of students whose SAE’s demonstrate knowledge and use of “high sciences”. Although most curriculum taught in high school Agricultural Education can be classified as Agriscience, this award focuses on a specific project that uses the scientific method required to draw a conclusion to a predetermined question. Use of controls, isolating variables, data collection, research questions/purposes and record of a longitudinal study are required indicators which will determine qualification.

Some SAEs which qualify for State Star in Agriscience include (but are not limited to):
Studying the effect of effluent water on a specific plant species
Conducting research on the most effective method of cloning cacti
Studying the heat cycles of sow

Star Greenhand
The Star Greenhand award will be presented annually to the first year (greenhand) FFA member with outstanding SAE's in any area.