Iowa FFA uses Iowa State Fair to highlight its mission and connect Iowans to agriculture

On the second floor of the Iowa State Fair’s Agriculture Building, steps away from the Butter Cow, fairgoers walk past a wall of iconic FFA blue corduroy jackets.

The hundreds of jackets represent every FFA chapter across the state and serve not only as a display but also as a starting point for thousands of conversations about agriculture education and the work FFA members do throughout the year.

“We really just serve as advocates for the agriculture industry and FFA as a whole,” said Iowa FFA President Nora Pickhinke, a 2025 graduate of Ridge View High School from Early, Iowa. “We answer a lot of questions in the display booth about agriculture as a whole and even specific questions about what FFA is, what we stand for, what we’re working towards and trying to connect people with where their food comes from.”

FFA is one of nine Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs) in Iowa that provide career and technical education activities as an integral part of an instructional program. CTSOs provide opportunities for students to develop and refine the skills they need for their chosen career fields. Conferences, competitions, workshops, community service and other activities encourage leadership development and career exploration.

Last year, FFA counted approximately 20,800 student members across Iowa. This year, FFA leadership is excited to add three new blue jackets to its display as chapters are launching at Storm Lake High School, Bishop Garrigan High School and Mount Vernon High School.

The Iowa State Fair is a natural showcase for FFA’s mission of creating growth and success through agricultural education. It also provides the organization with one of its biggest opportunities to not only advocate for agricultural education and expand its mission, but also ensure that one of the state’s biggest events goes off without a hitch and provides a memorable lifelong learning experience for not only its members, but all State Fair attendees.

“What people see at the Iowa State Fair is the finished product, but FFA members have been working hard for the past year in preparation to exhibit their projects,” said Alan Spencer, state FFA adviser and education consultant for Agriculture, Food and National Resources at the Iowa Department of Education. “A champion ribbon at the Iowa State Fair is the ultimate reward for their dedication. That combination of service, leadership and agricultural education is exactly what FFA is all about.”  

Pickhinke is one of nine state officers who, along with other FFA members, are living at the fairgrounds for 15 days, often working 12-hour shifts on their feet as they eat, sleep and breathe all things Iowa State Fair to make sure everything is executed at the highest level.

While the two weeks at the fairgrounds are intense, the process begins months in advance through meticulous planning and preparation.

“It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You truly only really get one shot at this,” said Iowa FFA Southeast Vice President Isaac Striegel.

Their job goes far beyond the familiar image of students leading animals into the show ring in hopes of earning a blue ribbon. In that crucial first week of the State Fair, the FFA members are everywhere at livestock check-ins, photography competitions and livestock shows, making sure exhibitors and judges have what they need and that the logistics work as smoothly as the show rings themselves.

This year, it is expected that 1,722 FFA members will participate in one or more of the 16 different competitions with 9,373 total entries registered. Those competitions range from the traditional showing of prized livestock to ag mechanics, horticulture, floriculture and photography.

“Every livestock competition and other competition that is here at the State Fair is at the highest caliber,” Striegel said. “This is truly like the best of the best that’s around the state, and with that you have to have a very well-run show.”

Striegel, a 2025 graduate of Keota High School in Delta, Iowa, is familiar with how important these events are to exhibitors, as he regularly shows his pigs at the State Fair and other competitions across the country.

If the display booth and competition rings are the heart of FFA’s public outreach, the grandstand ushers may be its most unexpected ambassadors. Many of the ushers are FFA members who spend long nights helping direct concertgoers, enforce safety rules and staff the entry gates.

“Probably one of the biggest things that I took away as a grandstand usher is seeing all the different kinds of personalities that come to the fairgrounds,” Striegel said. “You have to step back as a kid who came from agriculture and realize that not all fairgoers truly understand what it is and what all happens within agriculture. Meeting them at the fair allows us to talk to the public about agriculture and the food that’s put on their plate.”

These roles also help FFA members develop and refine their interpersonal and leadership skills across diverse populations as they engage with concert attendees, answer questions, direct crowd flow and enforce venue policies. It also provides a platform to educate the fair crowds about the variety of careers, opportunities and pathways within agriculture that aren’t farming and how FFA prepares its members for those careers and develops skills that also translate to career success outside of agriculture.

As competitions tail off during the second week of the State Fair, FFA members remain active and visible by volunteering at the Animal Learning Center, the Iowa Food and Family Project, the Iowa Pork Tent and wherever there is a need.

“We’re just kind of all over the place volunteering as much time as we can,” Pickinke said. “We just really hope that we made an impact by educating the public and that people walk away with a little bit more information in their pockets about agriculture education.”

For both officers, the success of their State Fair experience will be the moments when they’re able to connect FFA’s work to an attendee's dinner plate, watch a first-time FFA exhibitor participate in the Parade of Champions or help someone have a safe and enjoyable experience at the grandstand.

“Something that we kind of live by day-to-day is that it’s always somebody’s first day at the Iowa State Fair,” Pickhinke said. “Maybe it’ll be our 15th day here, but it’s always somebody’s first day. So we need to keep showing up with that same enthusiasm and that same effort that we put in on our first day here.”

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