812-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 5,1994
Jon Bish’s FFA work projects are small grains and the market hogs he has raised
and sold for the past two years. His career goal is to become a full-time farmer, pos
sibly with a custom-work operation along with field crops.
York FFA Leader Wins Trip
To Kansas City
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
EAST BERLIN (York Co.)
An eighth-grade introduction to
the vocational agriculture pro
gram set a new direction for Jon
Bish’s high school years and pos
sibly for the rest of his life.
Bish, 18, a senior vo-ag student
at Dover High School, was recent
ly named the winner of the York
Fair’s FFA special award. The
honor includes an expenses-paid
trip to the National FFA Conven
tion and the American Royal
Livestock Show, both being held
in Kansas City, Missouri, during
the week of November 7.
“I like working with my
hands,” explains Bish in relating
why the Dover High School FFA
chapter’s recruiting program to
eighth-grade students immediate
ly captured his interest. “They
went over the different courses
involved, and the mechanics inter
ested me. It sounded like the kind
of thing I wanted to do.”
For his first vo-ag project, Bish
planted wheat on some of the John
Bish family’s owned and rented
ground around their 10-acre East
Berlin R 2 farm. The initial small
grain venture was “an experi
ment” for him and his father and
they were disappointed with
yields on that first crop. After a
few more years of experience,
Bish was pleased with the results
of the most recent crop of wheat.
Dover FFA advisors Larry
Redding and Nick Stollar encour
aged Bish to expand to swine last
year.
“They wanted me to get
involved with swine production,
which would show a faster
turnover of investment,” Bish
says. Two of his three market
hogs were entered in the 1993
York Fair, despite his never hav
ing raised or shown an animal
before.
“l didn’t know much about
showing, like watching the judge
more than my pig,” he relates, a
situation which cost him loweg
placings in the classes.
With that experience behind
him, and advice he sought from
fellow FFA hog producers, Bish
took two of this year’s project
crossbreds to the Fair’s market
classes. Not only did his animal
do better, Bish placed second in
fitting and showing competitions.
FFA York Fair winner Jon Bish tacklbs some of the
paperwork required to apply for achievement awards
through the vocational-agriculture program. His fair
award earned him an expenses-paid trip to the upcoming
National FFA Convention in Kansas City.
Raising hogs has led to some
interesting moments for Bish,
who runs his hogs outside for the
exercise to better develop a lean,
firmly muscled pig.
“They have minds of their own
and short attention spans,” he
admits with a grin. Once he came
home from school earlier this
year to find all four market hogs
out of their pen. After “trashing”
the bam, they had busied them
selves at rooting up the lawn.
How to raise, show, and round
up escaped hogs is just a small
part of the knowledge Jon Bish
has acquired through vo-ag and
FFA participation.
“I’ve learned there is a wide
choice of careers in agriculture,
not just farming, things like ani
mal science and hydroponics,” he
explains. Still, his career focus is
to farm, if not full-time then at
least part time, possibly expand
ing to some custom farm work.
“Farming is a different kind of
career: it’s interesting to me. I
don’t like to follow the crowd.
And as the population grows,
more food will be demanded.
New technology will help farm
ers produce food even better than
they do now.'
Alone with his vo-ag enter
prises, Bish is currently on the
school’s work-study program. He
is employed by Kampel Enter-
prises, Wellsville, working with
maintenance and groundskeeping
on the airstrip the firm operates,
and the various product lines they
manufacture.
Through FFA activities, Jon
Bish has also expanded his own
personal abilities.
“I don’t like getting up in front
of a group of people, but I have
learned to do that,” he says, cred
iting his FFA involvement with
overcoming a familiar fear. Bish
has held numerous leadership
roles in the Dover FFA chapter
before accepting the president’s
gavel, including vice president,
chapter sentinel, and chairman of
numerous committees.
Bish has participated in live
stock judging and agronomy con
tests at the state level, as well as
county competition in meats
identification, tractor driving, and
livestock judging. For his
involvement, he was named Star
Chapter Greenhand and is a recip
ient of the York County FFA
White Rose degree. Along with
his agriculture interest, Jon is a
four-year member of the Dover
High School soccer team.
Bish recently learned that he
will be receiving the state FFA’s
Keystone Fanner degree, which
will be presented at the state FFA
convention, held in Harrisburg
(Turn to Pag* B 14)
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