FFA students selected as national finalists for outstanding projects

SYCAMORE, Ill. — Outstanding work by three members of the Sycamore FFA Chapter earned them the honor of national finalists in the Agriscience Fair at the 95th National FFA Convention.

National winners of the Agriscience Fair will be honored during the convention set for Oct. 26-29 in Indianapolis.

Allyson Yoakam and Lorelei Darlak worked on a project together.

“We’re very excited that we made it this far,” Yoakam said. “When we won state, we thought it was a good run. Then when we found out we were national finalists, it was crazy.”

The FFA members completed a social systems project.

“We did a survey on the Fair Oaks Farms scandal and how it impacted people’s lives,” Darlak said.

“We had people in our classes and from the community take the survey and we analyzed the data and revenue loss,” Yoakam added.

“We found a lot of people didn’t know about the animal abuse scandal and they really didn’t lose much revenue from the milk,” she said. “They lost a little money in the beginning, but it didn’t affect them much and they went back to regular sales.”

Darlak was surprised with the mixed results from the survey.

“We thought more people would know about it,” she said. “It was a big problem when the video first came out because people were shocked by it.”

This is the first time Darlak has completed an agriscience project.

“At first I thought the agriscience project sounded boring, but when I got into the process of it, it was actually fun,” she said.

During her sophomore year, Yoakam’s agriscience project experimented with the growth of vegetable plants.

“I compared water to watering them with Gatorade,” she said. “They plants actually grew with Gatorade, but they didn’t grow as much and they molded.”

Yoakam will attend the convention and she will be on stage with the other finalists.

“They will announce the winners when we are on stage, which is terrifying,” said the high school senior. “I wish we found out before that, but I don’t care if we get 10th place, I’m happy we made it this far.”

Darlak will not be able to participate in award presentation.

“The day we walk stage is the day of my brother’s wedding and family comes first,” she said.

After graduating from Sycamore High School earlier this year, Darlak is now studying for her associate’s degree in art at Kishwaukee College.

“I hope to go into interior design,” she said.

Drake Slutz’s agriscience project focused on his 56 Shropshire ewes. He used artificial insemination to breed the ewes and ewes that didn’t get pregnant on the first round were rebred with artificial insemination a second time.

“I kept data on the artificially bred and naturally bred ewes,” Slutz said.

“I found that natural breeding is more effective than artificially insemination,” he said.

The high school freshman is considering another agriscience project with his sheep.

“I just used fresh semen for this project,” he said. “I will probably do another project with fresh and frozen semen to see the impact of the different qualities.”

Slutz is interested in a career in the livestock industry.

“I want to be a reproductive specialist and work with artificial insemination for a job,” he said.