WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The Big E’s annual FFA Star Awards were distributed to four hardworking students on Saturday, September 14, under The Big Top at The Big E. National FFA Western Region Vice President Emily Gossett served as emcee.
The event was well-attended by a prestigious guest list that included Eastern States Exposition President and CEO Gene Cassidy; ESE Chairman David Henry; Chris Laughton, director of knowledge exchange at Farm Credit East, ACA, the primary sponsor for ESE’s Star Program, and Harrison Griffin, superintendent of the Stars Program at ESE.
Candidates receive a participation stipend of $250. Winners are given $500 from Farm Credit East in addition to their stipend, as well as a testimonial from The Big E.
This contest recognizes youth in the Eastern Regional FFA who have achieved the 2024 Star Award in their respective states. Applicants must have received the Star Award in their state in the applied category. The goal is to emphasize the importance of agriculture and agribusiness to the fair going public and promote the work of agriculturists in the Eastern Region.
This year’s Star in Agribusiness award was given to Uilleam Harper of Norfolk, Mass. In 2020, as a sophomore at Norfolk County Agricultural High School, Harper began raising chickens and selling their eggs to local farmstands. He invested his profit back into the farm to allow for greater long-term income.
Additionally, he began restoring broken farming equipment, which he then both resold and used for his landscaping initiative, LWJ Property Maintenance. By his senior year of high school, Harper’s business had grown to encompass excavation and property maintenance in addition to landscaping.
He now attends SUNY Cobleskill in pursuit of an associate’s degree in Agricultural Business. Harper aspires to be a livestock farmer in the future, and he is well on his way there.
Natalie Holdren of Townsend, Del., is the recipient of the Star in Ag Placement award. She attended Odessa High School in Del. and began working at Bohemia Creek Stables of Warick, Mary., in 2020. Here she learned about wound treatment, interpreting Body Condition Scores (BCS) and medicines.
The knowledge that she accumulated while working at Bohemia Creek Stables led her to the Cecil County Horse Bowl team, where she was taught thorough equine maintenance: the evolutionary stages of a horse, illnesses, symptoms to monitor, etc.
Holdren later secured a job at Selective Breeders Services, which is an equine reproduction business. She tended to the horses at this site, assisted veterinarians, cleaned and reset stalls, and learned about specialty services for horses such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), semen collection, embryo transfers, and foaling. In a short length of time, Holdren excelled and advanced in her field at a record rate.
Grayson Long, of Rockingham County, Virg., is ESE’s 2024 Star Farmer. Her mother’s coworker, Jim Mumaw, asked her if she had interest in raising lambs on his farm to show at Rockingham County Fair and State Fair of Virginia. Long both bought and was gifted the sheep in her flock, and Mumaw allowed her shelter and equipment for them. She paid him for vet costs, medication, feed and other fees annually through both fiscal means and labor exchange.
In support of Long’s dream to grow as a sheep farmer, her mother left her place of work and became a full-time farmer with her daughter. The family moved nearer to Mumaw’s to allow Long more consistent access to her sheep, and she began to assist with the rest of her family’s 60 head flock, too. Her own flock presently consists of more than 50 heads, primarily of Dorset sheep.
Long’s career goals for this project were to raise and market 70% of her lambs as show animals and breeding stock, achieve 80% survival rate amongst her flock and establish a strong customer basis and returning customer rate of 60% or better, all by 2024.
Kara Stephan, of Covington, Ohio, is this year’s Star in Agriscience. When Stephan’s local FFA chapter announced a science fair project, she jumped at the opportunity to put four of her theories to the test.
These experiments included: tracking the breeding habits of various Netherland Dwarf rabbits to prove the Agouti phenotype is dominant; observing protein levels within the meat of various rabbits; monitoring how particular pellet diets affect rabbit weight gain and surveying a group of volunteers to confirm whether a consumer could switch to alternative meats in their diet without telling a difference.
Throughout her self-pioneered research projects, Stephan mastered the scientific method, closely monitored her family’s rabbitry and petitioned her town to make an ordinance amendment that allowed 4-H and FFA members more than five pets to a household.
Each of these students, and the other candidates, is a high achieving, independent agricultural hero. ESE and their partners are proud to recognize and support the next generation of farmers, and to sponsor their FFA Star Awards contest annually.
The Big E, brought to you by Eastern States Exposition, takes place September 13-29 in West Springfield, Mass. The Big E is the seventh largest fair in North America and is recognized as the largest event on the East Coast by attendance numbers. Advance discount tickets are now available at TheBigE.com and select Rocky’s Ace Hardware locations. Visit the website for a full schedule of events and check out the fairtime excitement on social media!
–The Big E
Eastern States Exposition
