FFA students drive tractors to school

Members of Fairfield High School’s chapter of FFA drove their tractors to school on April 2.

“Tractor Day” is normally in February during National FFA Week, but the school postponed it because it fell on a frigid day this year. It was still snowing on the school’s makeup date in March, but the weather in early April proved to be just right.

After school, the students who drove tractors took them for a spin past the elementary schools and middle schools. Fairfield High Principal Brian Stone joined in the fun this year, driving a tractor to school that morning.

Fairfield’s FFA Chapter is busy preparing for the Iowa FFA Leadership Conference in Des Moines April 18-20. Five members will be competing in Experience the Action, which they competed in at the district level as well. Four members will participate in team ag sales, two in poultry judging and two will serve as delegates.

Fairfield High School’s FFA Adviser Courtney Burkhalter said her students are excited to attend the event.

FFA MEMBERS

Freshman Sterling Spees was among those who drove a tractor to school on April 2. He said he wanted to drive his grandpa’s tractor and get a taste of what it was like to drive it just as he had done.

Spees lives on a farm, and helps his parents tend to the cattle and horses, as well as the crops such as corn, soybeans and hay. Spees wanted to join FFA because his older brother Stetson was in it, and because he wanted another opportunity to be outside and participate in something fun.

At the state FFA convention, Spees will compete in the Experience the Action event. He’s been practicing for this each week since January.

Emma Clubb is a junior who drove a tractor to school she had repainted. She wanted to show off her hard work for all to see. Clubb lives on a farm and has been driving tractors since she was little.

Clubb has been in FFA ever since her freshman year, and just like Spees, she joined because she saw an older sibling (her sister) having fun and experiencing new things.

Daniel Baldosier is a senior at Fairfield who drove a tractor to school to show “community history as well our state’s history.” He said he lives on a farm where his family grows mainly forage products such as hay silage and silage bales. He and his sisters help out extensively with the chores, including operating the tractor all day in the field.

Baldosier said he’s been driving tractors since he was a young boy.

“I remember sitting on grandpa's knee and steering and pulling the hand clutch on his WD Allis Chalmers,” he said. “When you drive something like that at a young age, and you have watched your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, it has a big impact, and makes you want to keep driving tractors and farming.”

Baldosier will participate in the poultry judging contest at the state convention, so he and the other member of the team have been studying up on all things poultry.