Paola FFA earns state championship in Farm Enterprise Administration | Agriculture

The Paola FFA Chapter attended the Kansas FFA Career Developments events during the first week of May and was again honored with state championships.

This event was canceled a year ago due to COVID-19, and club members said they were thrilled that the Kansas Department of Agriculture decided to take on some challenges and host the event this year. The competitions were held virtually and over 1,400 students from across the state participated in the competitions. According to a press release, Paola was present at 12 different events and had 31 FFA members representing the local chapter.

For the sixth time in the last 10 years and for the 13th time in total, Paola has been named State Champion in Farm Business Management. The event assumes that students are able to interpret and use financial documents such as balance sheets, income statements, cash flows, and budgets, and then answer questions about the documents. They also answer questions about basic financial and economic concepts that affect agriculture, including marketing, efficiency, and business organization, according to the press release.

The team members were Rylan Armbruster (the individual national champion), Seth Aistrup (fifth overall), Alea Russell (sixth overall) and Ben Timpe (ninth overall).

John Menefee, FFA consultant and farm business management coach, said he couldn’t be more proud of the work and commitment of the team.

“All four members wanted to win all spring and challenged each other,” said Menefee. “They have won several other district and invitational farm business management competitions and have never been beaten by a Kansas team.”

Team members will compete at the National FFA Convention and Expo this fall.

The poultry evaluation and agricultural mechanics teams also performed strongly in the state, with both taking third place. Both areas have traditionally been strong events for Paola with multiple state champions in the past.

The poultry team evaluates live birds, carcasses, eggs and processed products and conducts a written test. The team members that year were Selah Hade (third overall), Seth Aistrup, Josie Dees and Vanessa Berrey. They were trained by FFA advisor Tom Schull.

This year’s event for agricultural mechanics consisted of written tests on metalworking, electricity, plumbing and math calculations. The team was led by Trevor Hinman, who finished seventh overall. Other team members were Alex Ure, Nick Walker and Steven Yeager.

The meat evaluation team finished sixth and was led by Seth Aistrup who finished fifth overall. Other team members were Ben Timpe, Hayley Hines and Gus Wright.

Two years ago, Paola began competing in kindergarten and landscape management for the first time in several decades. Your hard work paid off this year with a seventh place finish. The team members were Rylan Armbruster, Molly Kane, Luke Elkinton and Gus Wright.

Food Science came in ninth overall with team members Hope Bishop, Natalie Glassel, Makayla Harper and Abi Shore.

The last team to round Paola’s top 10 finishes was the Veterinary Science team, which finished 10th with Katie Cosgrove, Josie Dees, Luke Elkinton and Selah Hadle.

Other teams that started and ended just outside the top 10 were horse rating, livestock rating, dairy cattle rating, agricultural communication and floriculture.

One of the biggest awards Paola won was third overall in the sweepstakes. This award recognizes the most successful chapters in Kansas for placement in the top 5 career development events.

The Paola FFA chapter will be back in action shortly for the government leadership development events.