News

Ellsworth Ag Program Excels at National Professional Ag Students Conference

Last week, the Ellsworth Community College Agriculture program took 20 students to the National Professional Ag Students (PAS) Conference in Minneapolis and represented Ellsworth and Iowa very well.

“They truly did all the work to get ready for this conference and this is probably one of best years for ECC at the National PAS Conference. The students are all fired up and ready for next year’s conference in Des Moines,” said Kevin Butt, ECC Agriculture Professor.

Individual results from the National PAS Conference:

  • Ag Sales: Maxwell Wilson received 2nd at Nationals.
    • He was 3rd at state last month and surpassed the other two Iowa students who beat him at the state level.
  • Career Progress – Ag Education: Liliana Hill was 1st and Kennedy Eskildsen was 3rd overall.
    • Liliana also surpassed the person who outperformed her at the state level.
  • Career Progress – Non-Ruminant: Jayda Nehl placed 1st with an almost perfect score.
  • Precision Ag: Blake Haub was 2nd overall
  • Prepared Speaking: John Steffen placed 4th out of 10 participants and missed 3rd place stage by 17 points (out of 320 total points)

Team results from the National PAS Conference:

  • Beef Specialist: Austin Strayer, Kennedy Eskildsen, and Jayda Nehl placed 6th
  • Equine Specialist: Katrina Vogel, Emma Cook, and Bethany Greenfield placed 2nd and outpaced the team that beat them at the state level.
  • Farm Business Management: Bret Stravers, Kael Julseth, and Noah Bandstra placed 2nd at nationals and were beat by the same team that beat them at state.
  • Overall Livestock Specialist: Liliana Hill and Taylor Mason placed 4th and missed the podium by 5 points.
  • Soil Science Specialist: John Steffen, Blake Haub, and Maxwell Wilson placed 5th in another event that had over 15 teams.

Kevin Butt was awarded the Outstanding Advisor Award. For more information, contact Kevin Butt at Kevin.Butt@iavalley.edu.