Each year, thousands of students from throughout the state come to Cal Poly’s campus for the annual State FFA Finals, thanks to a longstanding partnership with the California FFA Association. This year’s competition on May 3 welcomed more than 2,000 students from 170 high schools for the culminating event which sends top teams to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana this November.

CAFES students, faculty and staff facilitate every aspect of the event, where competitions range from agricultural communication media plans to livestock judging, land evaluation, vegetable crop judging and more. Third-year agricultural science major Annika Wharton served as general chair for the event, overseeing student sub chairs for each competition. Awards were organized by fourth-year agricultural communication major David Lopez and fourth-year agricultural science major Audrey Herrera. Numerous faculty served as contest advisors and students worked with committee chairs to ensure the event ran smoothly.