Grassland FFA students participate in Eastern States Exposition

This past weekend members of the Grassland FFA traveled to Springfield MA to participate in the Eastern States Exposition.  FFA members from 17 states from Maine to Virginia and as far west as        West Virginia /Ohio competed in a variety of competitive events.

Grassland FFA brought home several honors.  Highlights included Zachary Mueller, a 2010 graduate,  was selected as the Eastern Regional Star in Agribusiness for his outstanding Supervised Agricultural Experience project in developing his own back yard nursery and then working for a large wholesale nursery during his junior and senior years. Zach is attending Pennsylvania College of Technology majoring in Nursery Landscape.  The selection process involved an extensive written application, review of SAE Project Record Books and an interview by agricultural and business leaders form throughout the northeast. Zach was Pennsylvania’s representative for this competition by virtue of being selected as Pennsylvania’s Star in Agribusiness during the Pa Farm Show last January. Grassland alumnus Mandy Good also won win this prestigious honor in 2005.

The Poultry Career Development  team won 1st place in the eastern U.S. region.  The winning team included Taylor Martin (1st place) Abbey Martin (6th place) Rachel Weaver (11th place) and Clayton Lehman (23rd place). The Poultry CDE involved a written exam,  placing laying hens, grading ready-to-cook- carcasses and parts, placing a class of four ready to cook broilers,  grading eggs for interior and exterior , identifying broiler parts, an devaluating further processed poultry (wings, tenders patties etc)

Contestants also present two sets of oral reasons justifying their placings  on hens and RTC carcasses to an official judge.  Lastly each team collaborated to solve a series of problems that related to a video scenario related to the poultry industry. The official judges were a University of Connecticut poultry specialist and a Penn State Collegiate Judging Team member.

The Environmental Naturals Resources  placed 3rd. Team members were; Jon Martin (1st place) Paul McFarland (6th place) Conner Martin (12th place) and RJ Davis (18th ). ENR competition involved a written exam, identification of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, stream habitat analysis, water testing, soil testing and interpretation, writing a news release about an environmental issue and completing a team event where the four members worked together to create a presentation including  a visual on a topic given  them during the competition.

Grassland has two team competing at Nationals  in October in Indianapolis.

The floriculture team made up of: Reece Lauffer, Cortney Martin, Zachary Mueller and Regina Sauder. The Ag Sales team made up of : Katelyn Byram,  Jalisa Zimmerman, Katie Mueller, Courtney Huber. Adrianne Huber, a junior at Purdue University, will be receiving  the prestigious  American FFA degree at the convention.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *