AMBOY – The Amboy FFA Agricultural Sales Team won the Section 2 sales contest on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon.

For the contest, the Amboy students on the team, Anna Carlson, Grace Althaus, Tanner Welch, and Jake Dinges, mocked being Kubota skid steer salespeople. The foursome had to take a test, make a team plan to sell their equipment, and hold a sales meeting with a potential customer.

They will now compete at the district level in October.

“The team was coached by our new agriculture teacher and my Co-FFA Advisor Lexi Hilliker. Every year for the Ag sales contest in the FFA, a new product is chosen, and students have to learn about the selected product,” said Amboy Co-FFA Advisor Joe Heavner. “Last year the product was pioneer corn and soybean seeds, the year before it was cattle feed products, and this year the product was Kubota skid steers. There are several skid steer options, and students must learn about all the features for each, and then assume the role of a salesperson.

“The judges assume the role of customers, and they work through a sales call scenario as a team of four, and then as individuals.”

The top two teams from each section qualify for the district contest. There are 25 sections in the state and five districts, giving each district five sections each.

At the district competitions, the top two teams will advance to the state competition.

“I think it is fair to compare winning the section event to winning a regional for a sport and winning a district event is equal to winning a super sectional to advance to state.” 

The achieving didn’t start or end with the sales accomplishment for the Amboy FFA.

In the Section 2 Land Use Career Development Event (CDE) hosted by the Sterling FFA, the Amboy team won as the students evaluated four pits and answered questions related to what could be done with the land for either agricultural practices or home site practices.

Henry Klein, Tyler Mahar, Aden Spinelli, and Chuck Wilson were the four Amboy FFA members who made the team score.

“The event requires FFA members to enter pits of soil that are dug approximately 5-6 feet deep, and complete soil site evaluation forms,” Heavner said. “The evaluation forms were developed by Purdue University, and they are tailored specifically for Illinois soils. FFA members must determine soil characteristics like the texture of the soil, the drainage properties, the color, and how that location’s soil profile formed. They they answer questions.

“Examples of the questions are, how much fertilizer should a farmer use, what types of tillage practices could be used, how to prevent soil erosion, is the location suitable, what type of septic field could be used at the location, does a homeowner need to alter the pH of the soil to bring it within an acceptable range for a lawn?

“We covered a lot of this information in a soil’s unit in the introduction to agriculture class I teach, so I was responsible for bringing Amboy students to the event. It was a lot of fun.”

At the event, Amboy received individual achievements such as Klein winning, Carlson placing fifth, Westin Wittenauer taking ninth, and Mahar securing 10^th.

There were 16 Amboy FFA members in attendance at the event including Jason Dickinson, Maddie Althaus, Lili Leffelman, Grady McLaughlin, Tyler Huggins, Abel Valdez, Natalie Pratt, Clements, Carlson, Mahar, Wittenauer, Dinges, Welch, Spinelli, Wilson, and Klein.