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FFA Members Excel in Spring Career Development Events The North Union FFA has continued it’s tradition of excellence in building individuals toward lifelong skills through the FFA’s career development events. Agricultural Education Career Development Events (CDEs) are educational activities that are organized and conducted by the Ohio Department of Education, Office of Career-Technical Adult Education, and Agricultural Education Service. They are designed to assess student competence in business and industry verified occupational skills, as detailed in the Agricultural and Environmental Content Standards. CDEs are a motivating force that stimulates occupational interests in and personal development of high school students enrolled in school-based agricultural education programs. Many of the events are transferred from what they learn in the classroom and the events to apply them to the real world. The past members who have participated in the 49 different sanctioned CDE events have all benefited either educationally or personally with the skills to help them be successful in their chosen career. Often many of the former FFA members go on to use these skills in their career and even major in that field. This year has been no exception to the student’s high level of achievement.
The agronomy contest began with a new group of individuals. The team consisted of Tyler Smith, Adam Conrad, Isaac Oman, Kyle Gravatt, Ben Nauman and Grant Smith. The agronomy contest is designed to assess the student’s knowledge of agronomic practices for the production of field and forage crops. A practical examination requires the student to identify specimens of crop and weed plants and seeds, diseases, and insects or their damage. Two written tests cover the use of soil tests and county soil surveys, current agronomic practices, and fertilizer, pesticide or sprayer calibration problems and their solution. The team excelled and grew as they competed in the invitational judging contests. The team then placed second in the state out of 32 teams with one point separating them from the first place team. The high individuals were Adam Conrad second place, Tyler Smith 4th and Kyle Gravatt 5th.
The Greenhand Quiz team was the third North Union FFA team to place in the top ten in the state. The team consisted of Harley Jerew, Kyle Gravatt, Jill Goddard, Matt Ross, Grant Smith, Will Shields, Kayleen Faine, James Anderson, and Isaac Oman. The contest is open to any first year member and is designed to increase the basic knowledge of students about their organization and its’ operations and to keep FFA members current with the happenings in their organization. The team placed eight out of 129 teams. The high individuals were Harley Jerew who placed 22nd, Kyle Gravatt placed 36th, and Jill Goddard placing 67th. This was quite the accomplishment with 683 FFA members competing in the CDE event.
The fourth team to place in the top ten this year was the Farm Management team of Luke Brill, Tyler Patton, Tara Zasadzinski, Kelsey Smith, Stormy Foos, Jacci Erwin, and Emily Davis. The contest is designed to provide students with the opportunity to make a practical application of the knowledge and skills learned in the production agriculture curriculum in solving typical farm management problems. The contest consisted of 69 teams and 396 individuals. The North Union team placed 6th and individually they were Luke Brill who led the team with a 10th place, Kelsey Smith 32nd and Tyler Patton was 57th.
Five other North Union FFA spring Career Development Event Teams competed this spring. They were Poultry, Meats, Wildlife Management, Horse, and General Livestock. The poultry team consisted of Heather Knisley, Andrea Frey, Laura Bradford, Amber Mathys, and Valerie Matteson. The team placed 22nd out 65 teams. The Wildlife Management team placed 21st out of 47 teams. The team consisted of Zach Beeney, Blake McElroy and Matt Ross. The Meats team consisted of Nikki Erwin, Wesley Mannasmith, Bruce Lookabaugh, and Justin Monroe. They placed 18th out of thirty seven teams. Luke Brill, Jacci Erwin, Stormy Foos, Grant McNamee, Wesley Mannasmith and Seth Spurlock made up the General Livestock team that placed 11th out of 154 teams. The lone member of the Equine Management team was Tara Zasadzinski in which she placed 124th out of 428 participants.
The North Union FFA would like to thank all who helped coach and teach the Career Development teams through out the year. The team from the beginning of the year had a very successful year with 4 teams placing in the top ten. |