Judged on an in-depth series of interviews, FFA record books and detailed information about the Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) activities performed outside of scheduled classroom and shop time, Wessington Springs High School (WSHS) senior Austin Schimke has qualified as one of the four Star Agricultural Placement Finalists in South Dakota.
“Certain students rise to the top as Star finalists, having excelled in their SAEs by spending countless hours working on their projects and gaining hands-on experience. Austin took the initiative and got everything going. He wanted to apply for Star Placement and kept moving forward from there,” explained WSHS Ag Food and Natural Resources (AFNR) Teacher Brady Duxbury. 'He had to dive in, sort through his project and find what was best.”
After a review of the students SAE and records, four finalists are selected in each category prior to state convention. Finalists for these awards have mastered skills within the four Star Categories: Agriscience, AgriBusiness, Farmer and Agricultural Placement.
“The biggest thing on rubric is the growth of the student — this is why Austin is here. He has shown incredible growth for his SAE,” said Duxbury. “You can grow in hours and dollars but growth is a lot of things. Austin has demonstrated that growth through rising to the challenges during Covid, taking the reins when his employers experienced health emergencies, and also making the decision to switch gears to gain sales and business experience. There are lots of people who apply for this and they only choose four in the entire state.”
Schimke’s SAE included employment within the agriculture industry beginning at the age of 14 at Christensen Simmental north of Wessington Springs, owned by Chris and Sheila Christensen.
“Working for Chris and Sheila, my job was doing everything that needs to be done on a farm. If you work on a farm you need to be a very versatile worker. It’s hard to say what I did, because I did everything,” he explained. “In the winter time on weekends, I’d check water tanks. In the summertime when I started as a freshman I did lots of raking and ran the baler.”
Right before the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the Christensen’s son-inlaw, Alex Anson had a triple bypass and was in the hospital for two weeks. The operation was calving out its heifers at that time and Austin would help Christensen Simmental’s hired man feed in the morning and do yard chores.
“Alex couldn’t work for two to three months after that. Then their hired man had Covid and had to quarantine. Everything seems to happen right when calving is taking place,” he recalled. “But in the face of challenges, we rose to the test and did a lot of things we didn’t think we could do. If something goes wrong, you have to come up with a new way to fix it all on your own and all the responsibility lands on you. When someone gets sick, you still had to be there to feed cows in the morning. And when you’re working on a project, if your equipment quits you need to figure out how to fix it for the rest of the day or fix it to at least get you to the end of the field.”
Duxbury explained that the two Star categories that get the most applicants are Star Farmer and Star Placement. He points out that those two categories are the most prestigious and the two oldest within the program’s history. In his time teaching, Duxbury has had three students selected for the Star program.
“I’ve had three — two finalists and one became a Star in Agribusiness,” he recalled. “You never forget them.”
Schimke’s project also includes work experience for other ag producers in the area, building fence and helping with the overall day-to-day duties required at various farms and ranches.
“Another thing I’ve learned is that when people hear or see that you work well for others, your phone will keep ringing. It really helped me grow as a person, realizing I could work with anyone,” Schimke said. “It was interesting to see how different people run their operations, and was also very helpful. Working for one person, you know what they like, then working for others, you learn the way they like to do things. A lot of kids work for their family and then go out to work for others. I did the reverse.
Schimke took his work experience to his family’s businesses, lending a hand to his Grandpas Randy Shultz and Dale Schimke’s farms and dad Chris Schimke’s pheasant business.
As his skill knowledge and responsibilities grew, so did his awareness that there are other aspects of a business he needed to learn, leading him to an opportunity to work for local businessman Jerry Caffee, owner of L Double J Implement and Seed Barn.
“It was tough quitting something I really enjoyed. I can learn how to be a hired man but if I want to have my own farm or business, I need to learn how to sell, how everything works together in a business,” Schimke said. “I could talk for an hour about the things I learned out at Chris and Sheilas. My overall experience of working there I wouldn’t trade for anything. The fun days outweighed the bad days.”
With Caffee, Schimke is charged with keeping track of inventory moving in and out and helping evaluate the state of equipment as it arrives on site.
“At Jerry’s, he sells a lot on the Internet -- I help take pictures and wash equipment. I’ve sold a skidloader and a snow blower so far,” Schimke said. “When we get something in, if it needs to get fixed, maybe it’s something I can fix like a new hood or a door on a payloader. If it needs engine work, I take it to the mechanic.”
When it comes to moving from a finalist to being named the Star Agricultural Placement award recipient for the state, Schimke said he feels it would be a way to demonstrate his gratitude to those who helped him grow throughout his budding career.
“It would mean a lot to me and would make a lot of people proud to see what I’ve done at such a young age,” Schimke explained. “I feel like it would show a lot of people that helped me out. I could say, thank you, you gave me an opportunity and I want to give you back this award.”
At state, Schimke and the other three finalists who hail from West Central, Melette and Beresford will interview with judges on the first day of convention Sunday, April 16 and Star awards will be presented Monday night.
Schimke’s honor as a Star finalist carries on a decorated tradition in Wessington Springs. Looking back to the past decade, in 2020, Landon Wolter was named Star Farmer of the Year. Riley Larson was one of the four finalists for Star Farmer and Wolter was also a finalist for Star in Placement. In 2019, Isaac Kolousek was one of four Star Farmer finalists to cross the stage with his parents. In 2016, Collin Anson was a Star Farmer finalist and won Star Farmer of the Year. In 2014, Taylor Sinkie was a finalist for Star Farmer and Collin Anson was a finalist for Star Greenhand.
“To get to this level, it has been all paper and the interview at the district level. Applications still matter but much more weight is given to the interview. When you get to the top four, you know everyone has a good SAE,” Duxbury shared. “There is a part of this contest that is what you do and also a part of how well you are portrayed in the application. Austin’s project is outstanding.”