What a wonderful week Fillmore FFA had at the Ventura County Fair! It started Monday night with weigh-ins for steers and lambs. Steers needed to be in the weight range of 1000-1400 pounds and lambs needed to be between 110-165 lbs. Early Tuesday morning swine, which needed to be between 210-280 lbs, were weighed-in. I am proud to say all of Fillmore FFA’s animals made market weight. Which means the animals could be shown in market classes and sold at auction.

All Fillmore FFA members did well in their market classes earning the USDA market ready title. Anthony Perez won the title of FFA Reserve Grand Champion Swine with his pig “Tank” who weighed a whopping 278 lbs! Friday was the Junior Livestock Auction, students had their animals looking their best as they showed them off to potential buyers in the auction arena. A special thank you goes out to local businesses and community members that supported the Fillmore FFA by buying animals. Saturday was Showmanship classes for all species. Imelda Lopez placed 4th over all in Advanced lamb showmanship. Fillmore FFA dominated in swine showmanship. Class winners for FFA advanced swine showmanship are as follows: 1st Marc Zavala, 3rd Sierra Blankenship,4th Mandy Wheeler, 5th Ashley Jackson, 6th Hilary Vigil, 7th Kayla Perez. FFA Swine novice showmanship class winners are as followed: 1st Travis Micarelli, 2nd Jenifer Martin, 3rd Christian Peritore, 4th Ryan Calderon, 5th Kaleigh Carpenter, 6th Yasmin Luna, 7th Felicity Zavala. Brittany Gurrola placed 4th over all in FFA advanced steer showmanship. In FFA Novice steer showmanship Robbie Armstrong placed 2nd and Sal Lopez placed 3rd. In FFA advanced bred heifers showmanship Alexus Galassi-Duncan placed 1st over all. Fillmore FFA proudly won the FFA Herdsmanship Award and brought home to Fillmore the perpetual trophy to display until next years fair. This award is given to the chapter that keeps their barns the cleanest, has members readily available to answer question, and represents their chapter best. Congratulations to all the FFA members on their successful completion of their SAE projects. Thank you to all the parents, Booster members, Wayne and Mr. Ricards for all their hard work and support.

Brooke Aguirre is the Fillmore FFA Chapter Reporter