PHOTOS COURTESY OF HHS FFA CHAPTER
Two of Hermiston High School’s FFA teams won their state competitions in Corvallis last week and will move on to compete in the national FFA competition in November.
The FFA’s agriculture communications team and meats evaluation team took first in the state competition at Oregon State University on May 5-6.
After each student competed in one of the practicum areas, he or she prepared and presented a 15-minute, memorized agriculture communications media presentation on a local event.
The HHS ag communications team presented the Full Moon Market, a spin-off activity Hermiston holds in conjunction with the farmers market. Each team member took a 25-question editing quiz and 25-question communications content quiz; then, three days prior to the state contest, the team sent in a 12-page Media Communications proposal on the Full Moon Market.
After all the scores were tabulated, Barron was the third-high individual in the contest and Vandehey was fourth-highest. Three of the four teammates achieved perfect scores on their communications quiz.
HHS had two meats evaluation teams competing in the CDE. Team A consisted of Taylor Katsel, Brady Linnell, Jessica Smelser, Savanna Diaz, and Halie Kennicott. Students competing in this CDE memorized over 100 retail cuts and 20 primals for three different species: swine, lamb and beef. The second component consisted of utilizing math skills to determine yield and quality grades of beef carcasses. The third component was judging classes of retail and primal cuts and finally answering questions regarding the beef industry.
The five members of A Team will move on to compete at the National FFA Convention, to be held in November at the University of Kentucky meat science center.
The B Team, consisting of White, Wizner-Hall and Shasta Jundt, completed the same tasks as A Team. They also earned a first-place banner.
In the horse evaluation CDE, the team, consisting of Shandie Britt, Sydnee Miller, Lainey Anderson and Tanna Osmin, evaluated confirmation and performance classes of horses at the OSU equine center. The students judged eight classes of horse and gave two sets of oral reasons. Overall they placed fifth in the sState out of 20 horse evaluation teams.
In the dairy foods CDE, the team, consisting of Ashely Love, Wyatt Paschal, Emily Vandehey, Shasta Jundt and Kalee Walchli, evaluated milk quality, dairy product identification, milking equipment and takes an exam over the dairy industry. Overall it placed fifth in the state out of 14 teams.
In the poultry evaluation CDE, the team, consisting of Chase Carlson, Johnny Pederson, Wyatt Paschal and Bob Coleman, evaluated poultry carcasses, candles eggs, anatomy ID and took an exam over the poultry industry.
In the livestock evaluation CDE, the team, consisting of Lainey Anderson, Makayla Loper and Jessica Smelser, judged eight classes of livestock including utilizing EPD’s and three set of oral reasons.
In all, the Hermiston FFA chapter took 23 students to the state competition.
“We are super excited for all the different kids that participated in different events at the state level and we will now continue to prepare for the national contest in the fall,” said Hermiston High School FFA Instructor Leah Smith.
