Beauchamp named FFA State Star Farmer

Holton FFA member Samantha Beauchamp was named a State Star Farmer, one of the state association’s top honors, during the recent Kansas FFA State Convention.

Beauchamp is only the third female in the association’s history to receive the honor, it was noted.

Each year, the Kansas FFA Association recognizes three members who have the top Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) programs with the Star Farmer, Star in Agribusiness and Star in Ag Placement awards. The Star competitions are sponsored by ICM, Inc., United Bank and Trust and Kansas Farm Bureau.

A recent graduate of Holton High School, Beauchamp’s SAE programs are diversified livestock production and swine entrepreneurship and placement in veterinary science.

“My diversified livestock includes my cattle herd, which consists of one cow-calf pair and a heifer,” Beauchamp said. “My swine business is 15 breeding stock, and they were producing about 80 piglets. Most of the piglets go to 4-H members. Any left are sold as feeder pigs.”

Three different boars are bred with her breeding stock of swine, she said. 

Beauchamp, who manages the animals on a family farm in rural Mayetta, has worked with her cattle throughout her four years in FFA, and is responsible for the animals health and feeding them twice a day.

“I am there when a sow is about to farrow or when a gilt needs some help,” she said.

Beauchamp qualified for the Star Farmer Award at the district level earlier this year, and after an application process and interviews, she received the award for the Northeast District.

Winning the award at district automatically qualified her for the state award. Beauchamp said she revamped her application and did another round of interviews in May, competing against five other district winners from Kansas.

Beauchamp said she was “surprised but happy” when her name was called during the 88th Annual FFA State Convention June 3 on the Kansas State University campus.

“I was a little worried because, compared to some of the other students, my herds were a little small,” she said. “But one of my interviewers had said that he could tell that I was doing all of the work with my animals and wasn’t receiving much help.”

The last time a female won the award was in 1995, Beauchamp said. She is also the third Holton High School student to receive the honor. 

Beauchamp joined 4-H when she was seven and was eager to join FFA when she entered high school. She has served both as her FFA chapter president and president of the local 4-H council. She is a junior member of the American Angus Association. 

During her sophomore year, Beauchamp was a member of the HHS horse judging team that took first place at the national competition in Louisville, Ky.

“FFA has definitely taught me about public speaking and learning about time management,” she said. “I’ve learned hard work and about taking responsibility for things.”

She plans to attend Kansas State University next fall and eventually obtain a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She is the daughter of James and Melisa Beauchamp. Her advisors are Jason Larison and Alex Bartel.