County Farm News Merced County Farm Bureau hosts 2nd Annual Agribee

By: Denelle Flake, Farm News Editor

On April 21st, excited, studious local fourth & fifth grade students traveled to Mainzer Theater to compete in Merced County Farm Bureau’s second annual Agribee. The program, developed by Butte County Farm Bureau, is a spelling bee contest focused on the spelling and defining of agriculturally related words. We had nearly 50 students particpate this year, almost double the amount of last year!

We are thrilled to see this program continue to grow each year and are so proud of the students effort put into studying for the contest. The participating elementary schools were Ballico, Plainsburg, El Nido, McSwain and Washington. For the beginning rounds, the students had to either define or spell the word correctly to move on to the next round. After six rounds we determined our top five to be: Delanie Aguilar, Ballico; Selene Rojas, El Nido; Walter Rossow, Plainsburg; Kylee Floriano, Plainsburg; Richard Gomez, McSwain. These five students battled it out for a few more rounds until we determined our top two who would compete in the final round to be: Selene Rojas a fouth-grader from El Nido and Kylee Floriano a fourth-grader from Plainsburg. After a very tough, lengthy final round, Kylee Floriano won the contest by accurately spelling and defining “birthweight” and “pipeline”. Second place was awarded to Selene Rojas. First place received an iPad and second place received a $100 gift card to Barnes & Noble.

The program offers a fun opportunity for students to learn about agriculture and its vast components as they prepare for the contest by studying over 450 words. MCFB would like to thank the following sponsors for their support: Almond Board of California, American AgCredit, Fluetsch & Busby Insurance, Clendenin Orchards, Hilmar Cheese Company, Mainzer, Chance Land & Cattle, Chase Hurley, Ed & Nancy Silva, Heupel Brothers Farming, Lora Lee Cammack & Ann Harvey, and Weaver Ranch. We would also like to thank our two judges for the event: Joe Sansoni and Nita Pedrozo, plus our host Sean Runyon, Merced County Ag Commissioner. Lastly, a very special thank you to the Mainzer Theatre, Kimberly Gardner and her team for the use of the Mainzer facilities and aid in the coordination of the event.

Again, we are so honored to have growing participation in Agribee and we hope to see it expand to more school districts in the coming years!