The East Clinton FFA chapter has participated in several spring judging competitions in the past few months. The students who compete have put in a lot of hard work and dedication, and have succeeded in many ways throughout these contests.
The Dairy Team placed first in state this year; the top four members got to judge last Friday at dairy finals, where they had to judge more cattle and give reasons to the judges.
The top four on the team consisted of Jenna Stanley, Lydia Kessler, Teddy Murphy, and Kale Boeckmann. Jenna was 5th and 2nd in reasons, Lydia was 10th, Teddy was 14th and Kale was 15th.
The team will go on to the National FFA competition in the fall, and will also get the chance to go to Wisconsin to compete and advance their skills.
The entire team is being featured in the National Hoard’s Dairymen for placing 2nd in the worldwide contest for the FFA division.
In the summer edition, East Clinton will be featured for the team placing 2nd with a short write up on the program and the school. This magazine is fairly popular in most agriculture schools all across the U.S., Canada, China and Japan.
The team also placed in the top five in five other contest this year. The entire team was Jenna Stanley, Lydia Kessler, Teddy Murphy, Kale Boeckmann, Madi Frazer, Timmi Mahanes, Zach Vest, Sydney Bosier, Owen Roberts, Ethan Shepard, Sydney Beiting, Owen Zurface, Maddix Crowe, Max Crowe, Emma Riddle, Liz Schiff, Kailyn Mason, Anna Lopez, Elizabeth Seba Mixtega, Payton Spurlock, and Natilee Anderson.
Many of our other teams competed well at the state competition too, including Milk Quality, Livestock Judging, Agronomy, Equine, and Poultry.
Milk Quality competitors have to evaluate different types of milk, cheese, and other dairy products. They competed at several invitationals and placed 7th in the state competition. Makayla Thomason led the team by placing 15th individually.
The Agronomy Team consisting of eight members placed 10th in the state competition this year. Karah Anteck, Myah Anteck, and Evan Stewart all did extremely well — each placed among the top 50 in the state.
The Livestock Judging and Evaluation Team judges animals like beef cattle, sheep, and swine. The team had 10 members and placed 36th in state with Jordan Collom placing the highest on our team.
Our Equine Management and Evaluation Team members had to judge several classes of horses and participate in other activities. There were five team members with Anna Malone and Brody Fisher leading the team placing 25th and 44th individually. The team ended up placing 25th in the state.
Our Poultry Team consisted of Teddy Murphy, who had to judge several classes of birds and carcasses as well as meats, and placed 54th as a team in the contest and placed in the top half of the contest individually.
Our chapter is extremely proud of all of our teams for placing well in the state contest. These individuals and teams study and practice rigorously for these events, and we are extremely happy that we have done so well this year.
Our teams would like to thank all coaches, farms, and other people who contributed to our chapter’s success in spring judging events this year.
