BY: Julia Barnes
The National FFA Convention is less than a month away and all across the country CDE teams are making their final preparations to compete in Louisville, Kentucky. Livestock Judging, Agriculture Communications, Agricultural Sales, and Parliamentary Procedure, just to name a few. I’m excited to say that I, along with many other hard working members, will be traveling to Louisville in a few weeks with my teammate to compete in the Agriscience CDE.
Agriscience is a competition held for members who are interested in the science and technology aspects of agriculture. There are six categories (we are competing in “Plant Systems”) and four divisions (we are competing in Division IV- team of two in grades 10, 11, and 12). Our project is about discovering if an overhead misting system will produce more pounds of barley fodder than a flood and drain irrigation system. We won our division at the Oregon FFA Convention in May and since then we have been working harder than ever to perfect our project.
With all the preparation and talk about Nationals lately, I can’t help but think back to last year at National Convention where my team and I competed in the Poultry Evaluation CDE. Poultry Judging tests a member’s skills in the production, processing, and marketing of turkeys, chickens, eggs, and other poultry products. We practiced for hours on end; studying tests, giving so many sets of reason I’ve lost count, judging everything from carcasses to live birds, and grading countless eggs and body parts.
Hard work paid off as my team and I took 4th and I was 9th high individual in the nation. Convention was great with the awesome keynote speakers, meeting other FFA members from across the country, and the fun activities, but doing so well in Poultry made the experience even better! For anyone going this year for their first time, I recommend going to as many of the workshops and sessions you can (schedule permitting of course). And for all of the other teams going to compete, good luck and I hope to see you there!
