The ag department is busy this time of year. With some of the biggest competitions coming up, many students are spending their free time in the ag room to study all they can. FFA is a National Organization that hosts many contests and has many career paths. These contests that the Lewis Cass FFA competes in can help build skills such as the ability to judge and care for livestock, how to identify soil properties, meat and dairy quality, and much more. FFA has a wide range of possible activities that can adapt to anyone’s desire to compete in doing what they enjoy.
As many of you know, last year Lewis Cass gained a new ag teacher, Taylor Plank. Plank has done many positive things for the Lewis Cass Agriculture Department. One of these positives is the new competitions he has introduced to the students and more ways to study, to make the competition better. With the amount of studying going on in the ag department, there are high hopes for the upcoming results of the competitions and FFA in general. Plank states, “I hope that we continue to grow in the number of active members mainly through participation in contests and events. Additionally, I hope we remain successful at Livestock and Soils, earning National trips in both of those last year was awesome and hopefully we will do that again this year and possibly even move on from state in another contest as well.” There are many upcoming competitions that the Lewis Cass FFA is participating in. When asked what competitions the Lewis Cass FFA is participating in, Plank mentioned, “In September alone, we will compete in Livestock Skill-a-thon, Milk Products Quality Assurance, County Soils, Area Soils, and we will take our National Livestock Judging Trip, that we earned last Spring, to the Aksarben Livestock Show.” With the national trips the Lewis Cass Ag Department has been able to attend in Skillathon and Soils, they hold themselves to a higher standard in these competitions. Plank talked about how he believes the Lewis Cass FFA will be the most successful in the Soils and Livestock Judging/Skillathon competitions this year. To become successful enough to go National in these competitions, students must practice as much as they can. When asked about the study technique, Plank says, “We study during Mentor and also hold practices before school. Students are also encouraged to study on their own. We also go to some invitational contests that serve as “Practice Contests” for us, even though awards are still given out.” The schedule will continue to stay full with many upcoming competitions, and many students will be studying the materials as much as they can.
With all of the recent studying and hard work to get the materials memorized, there have been some other activities that the FFA has been helping out with. Mike Appleton, the head of the Ag Department and the ag department cooked one thousand hot dogs for the elementary school block party. On August 28, the Lewis Cass FFA held their annual August meeting, hosted at Alyssa and Wyatt O’Neil’s house. The 6:00 meeting started with opening ceremonies, then the FFA ate hot dogs, swam in the pond, had the annual cornhole tournament, and went fishing. District 5 kickoff is September 11, at Hamilton Heights. The Lewis Cass FFA has some busy months ahead.
The FFA officers have also been very busy, preparing for contests, signing other members up on the FFA website, and getting things ready for future meetings. President, Michael Myer, is participating in the Livestock Skill-a-Thon and the Soils competitions in the upcoming month. When Myers was asked about how he feels about the outcomes for these competitions, his response was, “I think we will dominate in soils like always, the gift of an Oklahoma trip is always a huge incentive for our members.” Oklahoma is where the national soil competition is held every year. Students get to stay a week in Oklahoma and compete against some of the best teams in the United States. To be able to attend these competitions, students must study and continue to work hard towards that reward. “I prepare for these contests by attending our many practices and spending many hours studying our resources,” Myers stated.
As many students continue to attend morning practice and study in all of their free time, the Lewis Cass FFA members are working towards a state or national contest. While all of this studying continues, the FFA bonds with one another. When students compete in these contests they are put in teams of four students. Bonding is very important when competing as a team. Myers was asked for his opinion on how team bonding events, like meetings and practice, could help the team contests be more successful. His response was, “Our meetings help boost fellowship among members which does help us when we need to band together in these competitions. Our increased fellowship has allowed us to recruit more members.” As the bond grows in FFA, so does the skill, and readiness to compete in the coming weeks.
As these major competitions creep up, the Lewis Cass ag teachers will continue to assist in studying, and the students will continue to push themselves for a victory in their contest. The Lewis Cass FFA hopes to see themselves in the national contests this year. The Lewis Cass FFA will continue to stay optimistic and keep their hopes high for this competition season. Best of luck to the Lewis Cass FFA in their upcoming competitions!
