Cochrane-Fountain City graduates Keith Bollinger and Jacob Greshik are among 20 FFA proficiency award finalists from Wisconsin who will compete for national recognition Oct. 21-24 at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

The agricultural proficiency awards program recognizes students at the local, state and national level for outstanding achievements in a supervised agricultural experience program.

Forty-seven award areas allow students to choose a proficiency area that fits their interests.

Four national finalists in each award area will compete for top honors at the national convention.

Chris Jumbeck, Cochrane-Fountain City High School agriculture teacher and FFA co-adviser, encourages all of her FFA members to participate in an SAE.

"They can be either an entrepreneurship where they own the project or it can be a placement where they work or volunteer for someone," she said. "It helps them develop work skills - skills that allow them to grow and develop down the road for career exploration."

The projects are supervised by parents, a community member or teacher and are geared toward developing lifelong work skills, Jumbeck said.

In her 22 years of teaching, several of Jumbeck's students have been proficiency award finalists and two have been national winners, but having two national finalists in one year is a first for the chapter, she said.

Bollinger, the son of Allen and Dorothy Bollinger of Buffalo City, started his SAE when he was a freshman in Jumbeck's wildlife class.

Choosing environmental science and natural resources was an easy choice, Bollinger said, because it's a family tradition.

"At an early age, I was an avid fisherman and hunter and my family has a long line of trappers and hunters and fishermen," said Bollinger, a sophomore majoring in wildlife ecology at UW-Stevens Point.

His interest in conservation and the SAE program took flight after attending a field trip with Jumbeck to count birds for the Annual Midwest Crane Count.

"We gave him some other projects after that, and he just took off with it," Jumbeck said.

Jumbeck said Bollinger was influential in his chapter's efforts to control purple loosestrife, an invasive plant species that reduces waterfowl habitat and plant diversity.

"He raised a couple hundred thousand Galerucella beetles and released them up and down a 30- to 40-mile stretch of the Mississippi River to help control purple loosestrife," she said.

Other projects he's done have included woodpecker counts, wildlife surveys, bird banding, water testing, bluff prairie restoration and monitoring chronic wasting disease.

This spring Bollinger achieved one of his SAE goals by becoming certified in conducting prescribed burns.

This summer he was an intern with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Although the SAE started out as a class project, it evolved into much more, Bollinger said.

"I've gained a lot of experience in the field I want to go into, and I gained invaluable, priceless contacts with people in the natural resources field," he said.

Jacob Greshik started his SAE in eighth grade as a beef production placement project managing a beef herd for his parents, Keith and Rita Greshik of Fountain City.

Participating in the SAE and striving for a proficiency award has pushed him to reach his potential, said Greshik, a freshman majoring in biological systems engineering at UW-Madison.

All of his tasks revolve around managing his family's 50 head of crossbred Angus.

"As I progressed through the years I became more efficient at running our farm," he said.

Greshik aimed to improve herd genetics and design and build pasture paddocks and a farm vaccination system.

In the past few years, Greshik has crossed his Angus cows with Simmentals and Charolais. He carefully selects bulls with beneficial traits such as calving ease and frame.

"Genetics are pretty much the backbone of your herd," Greshik said. "If you don't have quality genetics you're not going to have quality animals, and as a beef farmer, you want to have the highest quality cattle."

Greshik also balances rations, builds and mends fence, feeds and treats the cattle, gives and records immunizations, maintains breeding charts, cleans pens, does fieldwork and equipment maintenance.

He shows some of his family's cattle and helps market their beef as free-range and all-natural.

"Your proficiency is a building block for a future career," Greshik said. "I now have all the skills I need to start my own operation."

Working on his proficiency has helped him build a network of contacts, Greshik said.

"I've met a lot of other beef farmers through FFA. It's kind of nice to talk to them about what they're doing on their farms," he said.

"This is a great start for my future," Greshik said. "It just shows how much you've learned and what you can fall back on."

That's why Jumbeck starts her students on SAE programs as early as possible, she said.

"Their experiences seem to build on top of one another," she said.

"It's helping them to get a good job in the future," Jumbeck said. "A lot of times students end up in the same field their interest area started in."

Danielle Begalke can be reached at 800-236-4004, ext. 3827 or danielle.begalke@ecpc.com.