OFI 1793: How To Win A State Proficiency With A Small Scale Project | FFA SAE Edition | Olivia Rossi | Soroco High School FFA

One thing the FFA is great at is giving all students, regardless of the size or scope of their operation, an equal chance of recognition.  Today’s Guest, Olivia Rossi, really demonstrates that.

Olivia has grown up on her families cattle ranch in the beautiful mountains of Colorado.  She exchanges labor for the feed and housing of her her beef SAE, which consists of two steers.  Even though Olivia lives on an expansive cow/calf operation and could put together a placement SAE with a large scope, she chooses to put together an entrepreneurship SAE consisting of just these two steers.  And, she has taken this project all the way.

Olivia won grand champion with one of her steers, and she won a state proficiency award with her project of raising and showing her two steers.  Two steers, that is all, and now she is entering her project for consideration at the national level!  Olivia never stressed over the size of her project, but she pays close attention to the quality.  And, in her application she focused on explaining how raising two steers could still give her insight into the beef industry and beef business, and she didn’t allow anyone to look at the size of her operation as a limiting factor.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Beef Production

HIGH SCHOOL: Soroco High School, Oak Creek, Colorado

MASCOT: Rams

FFA ADVISOR: Jay Whaley

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR OLIVIA ROSSI:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Soroco High School website

Olivia’s FFA Advisors’ Email Addresses: jwhaley@southrouttk12.org

Soroco High School’s Telephone Number: 970-870-3799

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and ensure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers, and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack 

More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald: