On Wednesday, January 10 the Alliance FFA Chapter competed at CDE’S (Career Development Events) in Scottsbluff, NE at the WNCC Campus, and it was a huge success. With two out of the four teams qualifying for state.
The first team that qualified for State FFA was the Agricultural Sales team. In Ag Sales there are 4 members that take an exam, have a 15-minute team meeting, and having an individual sales call where the members attempt to sell an event barn, cabin rentals, fishing, and trail riding in 10 minutes. When I talked to Kaylee Henthorn, a member of the team & FFA Secretary, about how she thought they did she responded with, “I think we did really good, we have been practicing for a long time so hopefully that helped us.” this ended being true as the team got 1st place and are the District Champions.
Another team that compted was our Floriculture team. The Floriculture team has 4 members that take an exam, identify flowers, and create a floral arrangement. I interviewed Macy Brooks, a member of the team & FFA Vice President. When asked about their result she told me, “We are pretty certain we qualified for state but they miscalculated the scores so we have to wait.” I also asked her if she thought this was difficult to which she responded, “I could definitely see people struggling with it but I thought it was pretty easy!” The Floriculture team qualified for state getting 3rd in the district.
Alliance FFA also sent a welding team. Welding members take a written exam, and have a specific welding practicum for each member, these consist of 4 different welds. I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Addison Wittman, A member of the team, about how she thought she did in her first year of welding, She admitted to me that she was quite nervous about how she did but she stated, “At the end of the day, I tried my best.” Overall Alliance’s welding team got 10th with Addison Wittman getting 6th in her event and Kaiden Krebs getting 6th in his event.
The last team Alliance sent was the Livestock Management Team, Livestock Management consists of 5 members that work together to complete 6 different species of livestock exams. The livestock includes the following: beef cattle, dairy cattle, horse, poultry, sheep, and swine (pig). I was lucky enough to get an interview with Josie Sanders, a member of the team & FFA President, about their results and the overall chapters results. Josie told me “Alliance did so good today! three of the four teams made it and the welding team tried as hard as they could!” Josie also stated, “We think we have a huge chance at making it to nationals.” The livestock management team got 2nd and is heading to state. They also placed 2nd in Poultry which is another state qualifier and a separate event.
The Alliance FFA Chapter had an amazing day overall and hope that this is a sign of what they can do at the State convention!
Results Below:
Ag Sales- District Champs- State Qualified Team Members: Kaylee Henthorn-Purple Ribbon Jackson Bailey-Blue Ribbon
Makenna Quick-Red Ribbon
Carson Swenson-White Ribbon
Livestock Management- 2nd Place- State Qualified Poultry Evaluation – 2nd Place – State Qualified
1st in Beef
2nd in Swine,
2nd in Poultry,
3rd in Equine,
4th in Dairy,
5th in Sheep
Team Members: Josie Sanders Rozlyn Wills Ryggin Meyer Sutten Parkison Keera Stanec
Floriculture- Results Pending
Team Members Mandie Ylander Macy Brooks Kayel Lambert Shyla Salcido
Welding Team – 10th place
Members:SMAW-Addison Wittman-6th place GMAW-Carson Thomas
GTAW-Kaiden Krebs-6th Place
O/A-Kail Fickel
