Zach Haase, the 2017-2018 Eads Future Farmers of America Chapter Vice President, is always striving for excellence. Zach has been named the state FFA winner for the Grain Production Placement Proficiency Award.

Proficiency Award applications include 15 essays that must be answered about the student's Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). Zach's SAE is working for his family on Liebl Farms as a farm hand. He plans to continue his education at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln so that he can return to the family farm with beneficial knowledge and skills. Zach also plans to purchase and build his own farm. 
Here is a short essay from Zach's application.
"I work year around performing various tasks around the farm and in the field. Being the next generation to take over the farm, I am inclined to learn and develop skills that will lead me to success.

Some of the skills that I have learned throughout my time on the farm include operating the combine, mixing pesticides and herbicides, multiple tillage methods, planting crops, technical and mechanical repair skills, and financial management through keeping up with quality records.

There are many skills required to be able to operate a combine. Being one of the most expensive machines on the farm, a lot can go wrong. There are many moving parts that need daily maintenance and a careful eye to make sure that they don't fail.

To ensure the maximum yield from your crop you have to make adjustments to the machine to help with cleaning quality and loss reduction.

The most crucial part of farming is pesticide and herbicide application. If you don't properly apply on the crop, it will die from the weeds overtaking the field or bugs eating the plants before the plant can produce any grain to harvest.

This previous year I applied for and obtained my Private Pesticide Applicators License. Having this allows me to legally purchase, mix, and apply restricted use pesticides for private use. The knowledge that I gained through this process is very valuable to a farm. It taught me how to safely handle chemicals and properly apply them."