BYU-Idaho student harvests national FFA award for fruit farming

SANTAQUIN — Brigham Young University-Idaho freshman Diane Rowley may know a thing or two about running a commercial orchard, but her experiences over the last four years also taught her lessons about honesty and hard work.

In addition, they brought her national accolades from the Future Farmers of America where she was named national winner in the Fruit Production — Entrepreneurship/Placement Proficiency award program.

"I learned values to guide my life," said the agricultural business major.

Rowley worked on a four-year fruit farm project from the time she enrolled in Payson High School's Future Farmers of America Chapter until she graduated from high school last May. The daughter of fruit grower Ray and Linda Rowley, Diane Rowley began the venture with an FFA employment agreement with the family farm, Rowley's Cherry Hill Farms, when she was in the ninth grade.

The cooperative farm grows tart cherries, apples and peaches. Several uncles are also involved in the farming operation.

Under the guidance of her FFA counselors, Howard Houston and Nyle Russell, teachers at Payson High and Joshua Evans and Monica Giffing, she kept records detailing what she wanted to learn, when she learned it and when she taught others. She also learned to keep agricultural financial records and spent time in the Rowleys' Southridge Farms' Red Barn store just south of Santaquin off I-15.

The project had to be an outside school effort.

"We checked in on her," Houston said.

Among the management practices she learned are how to test sugar levels to determine proper harvest time, monitor for destructive pests and maintain accurate records of the cherry bins where the crop is collected and held. She managed peach and apple crops and was charged with coordinating the work of other staff during harvest time.

She even learned to operate the tractors and other machinery.

"I've done everything on the farm," she said.

Rowley won top FFA awards at the local and state levels last spring before applying to the national level. The top four finalists around the country went to Indianapolis for the final judging at the 80th National FFA Convention Oct. 24-27. Much of the competition focused on being able to express, orally and in writing, what she had done, Houston said.

After that last hurdle she received the top prize.

Proficiency awards recognize FFA members who excel as agricultural entrepreneurs, employees or volunteers while they gained hands-on career experience. She also received a plaque, $1,000 and an all-expense paid educational trip to Costa Rica.

"I've been working on the farm since I was 8," she said.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com