Ag Skills Day

Some 270 high school students from 13
local and regional school systems participated in the 22^nd annual
Agricultural Skills Day held at Alfred State College in October.  Students from Alfred-Almond; Cassadaga Valley;
CG May (Mt. Morris); Cuba-Rushford; Fillmore; Genesee Valley; Hewes Educational
Center (Erie CCB); Letchworth; LoGuidice Educational Center (Fredonia); Olean
BOCES; Pine Valley; Prattsburg; and Randolph participated in one of five
different skills competitions. 

Landscape/Nursery competition: 
more than 40 contestants participated in this contest which involved
identifying trees, plants, weeds, insects, and solving a problem as a team
station.  Cuba-Rushford captured the top
three team spots with Torrey Hoxie, Katie Santangelo, Joe Blakeslee taking
first place; Drew Schmidt, Nolan Searl, and Jacob Janus taking second; and
Rachel Wall, Aaron Bean, Desi Burdick, and Brittany Walters taking third.

The top
five individual competitors were also from Cuba-Rushford:  Hoxie, Blakeslee, Schmidt, Wall, and Janus.

Showmanship competition:  new
this year, the showmanship competition was open to the first 20
registrants.  Contestants were judged on
their ability to show and answer questions on dairy cattle, horses, and
alpacas.  Judges for this competition
included Professor Emeritus Pete MacDonald and Alumnus Lynn Sick.

The top
five showmanship contestants, in order, were Dane Dechow, Randolph; Amanda
Elsholz, Pine Valley; Luck Johnson, Fillmore; Nicole
Parnell, CG May; and Hayley Scharbach, CG May.

Tractor Driving competition: 
an individual contest limited to the first 20 registrants age 14 and older
with experience in the safe operation of modern agricultural tractors, this
contest included a two-wheel trailer event, a written examination related to tractor
safety, and identification of tractor parts. 
Adam Dobbins, ASC ag instructor, assisted James Carrabba, agricultural safety specialist at the New York Center
for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH) in judging this competition.  Each judge chose a "top five"

            1^st
- Derrick Freeman, Alfred-Almond                       1^st - Cole Booth,
Randolph

            2^nd
- Zach Williams, Hewes                                        2^nd
- Chris Koerner, Letchworth

            3^rd
- Nick Wall, Genesee Valley BOCES                   3^rd
-Nick Herman, Pine
Valley

            4^th
- Dan Stein, Genesee Valley BOCES                    4^th
-Chad
Voss, Fillmore

            5^th
-Glenn Moss, Pine
Valley                                      5^th - Dustin Drake,
Prattsburg

Stockman's contest:  More than 160 contestants participated on 55
teams.  Contest stations included two
classes of dairy cow judging, dairy product identification, forage, weed,
insect identification, dairy and livestock equipment and management questions,
equine equipment and breed questions, and farm tool identification.  Assisting the ASC Ag Program faculty members
in delivering this portion of the contest was ASC Professor Emeritus John
Bartell, who provided the expertise in setting up and judging the dairy
products identification station.

The top six teams were:

            1^st
- CG May: Amber Milhollen, Stephanie Spence, Andy Marusarz

            2^nd
- Fillmore:  Marshall Hinz, Duncan
Bailey, Cody Voss

            3^rd
- Fillmore:  Stephanie Hinz, Matt Lates,
Liz Cockle

            4^th
- Letchworth: Pat Vonder Ploeg, Jeff Holly, Jake Bauer

            5^th
-Randolph: Dalton
Brown, Aaron Finch, Tim Sheldon

            6^th
- Cassadaga Valley: Jon Gibson, Joe Reed, Jae
Carlstrom

The top five individuals for each division were:

            Livestock and Judging                                     Identification
Stations

            1^st
-  Amber Milhollen                                     1^st
- Pat Vonder Ploeg

            2^nd
-  Matt Harrington                                     2^nd - Marshall Hinz

            3^rd
-  Stephanie Spence                                    3^rd
- Cody Voss

            4^th
-  Andy Marusarz                                       4^th - Andy Marusarz

            5^th
-  Marshall Hinz                                         5^th - Kat Bailey

Companion and Small Animal
contest:  More than 60 contestants
identified parasites, surgical instruments and equipment, breeds, anatomical
parts, and performed restraint techniques on animals. The top three teams were:

1^st Place- Fillmore -
Steven Benedict, Timberlee Salamone, Felisha Welninski
2^nd Place- Olean BOCES -
Alexandra Edwards, Kathryn Sletten, Kala Foster       
3^rd Place- Fillmore -
Alyssa Ricketts, Jenn Stephens, Clinton
Hodnett

The top five individuals were: Timberlee
Salamone, Steven Benedict, Alyssa Ricketts, all from Fillmore; and Alexandra
Edwards and Kala Foster from Olean BOCES.

Faculty, staff, and over 80
students from the Agriculture and Horticulture Department at Alfred State
College conducted and scored the competition.  
Special guest for the day was Terry Hughes the NYS director, Agricultural
Tech Prep.

An awards ceremony followed at the Pioneer Lounge
on the Alfred campus, following the various ag-related contests which were
staged at the College Farm, Alfred State's bus garage parking lot (tractor
driving), Horticulture Center and in the facilities of the Veterinary
Technology Program, on the third floor of the Agriculture Science Building on
campus. Allegany County Dairy Princess Casey Arlig presented
ribbons at the Awards Ceremony.  She is
pictured here with one of the ASC dairy herd cows.

Alfred State College offers
outstanding educational opportunities for students in its nearly 60 associate
degree, 15 bachelor degrees, and several certificate programs.  Numerous vocational-technical offerings
stressing hands-on learning are available at the Applied Technology Campus in
nearby Wellsville.

The College is fully accredited by
the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and several programs are
also accredited or approved by curriculum-specific professional
organizations.  While stressing technical
education, the College continues to pride itself on maintaining close personal
ties among students and faculty.  Alfred State's
reputation for excellence attracts students and faculty from throughout New York, neighboring
states, and several foreign countries.