By ND FFA Foundation and Amanda Huettl, Max FFA Advisor
The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association sponsored the Beef Production – Entrepreneurship Proficiency Award at the 2019 North Dakota FFA State Convention. The Beef Production – Entrepreneurship Proficiency is awarded to a member who owns the enterprise or business that uses the best management practices available to efficiently produce and market beef.
The 2019 award winner, recognized at the 90th State FFA Convention in June, is Hope Scheresky of the Max FFA Chapter. Hope’s interest in agriculture began at a young age when she grew up on a small grain/oil farm. Hope’s interest in cattle began when her family operation, Scheresky Ag. Service, wanted to expand. As a result of growing the business, the cattle aspect was left to be a project for Hope when her father gave her a cow and became Hope’s supervised agricultural experience (SAE).
Hope grew her cattle operation by getting loans and grants to purchase more cattle, and now owns 20 head. Hope pays for all of the expenses, including land rent, vet supplies, hay, and exchanges labor for facility usage. One of Hope’s main herd goals is improving genetics, and has been using artificial insemination allowing her to select for desirable traits. Along with managing the livestock, Hope also does some maintenance on facilities and fencing on pastures as well as puts up hay with her brother. Hope says that one of the biggest challenges with this project has been learning about the cattle themselves and how to properly manage them. Hope has acquired a wide variety of skills from her SAE, from learning how to properly vaccinate, to fixing fence, to running machinery. She learned on the go and continues to learn more and more with each day that passes. Hope’s SAE provided her a platform to succeed and be recognized for it. Through buying and selling her cattle, Hope has been able to save money and invest it in her education, where she is now a sophomore at NDSU.
Hope is sure to be involved in agriculture going forward, and is proud of the successes she has already had. Amanda Huettl is Hope’s FFA advisor. North Dakota Stockmen’s Association has sponsored the Beef Production Proficiency award since 2009. The award was presented at the 90th State Convention on June 5th in Fargo.
