FFA News

By Meredith Oglesby, OCJ FFA reporter

Each year at the Ohio FFA State Convention 11 students are elected to serve the Ohio FFA Association for the next year. These students travel throughout Ohio to meet FFA members, alumni, and industry professionals to advocate for agriculture and agricultural education.

Since being elected in May, the team has been preparing for their year through training and spending the summer at Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum. The team has also been to Washington, D.C. for the State Officer Summit and the Ag Hall of Fame Breakfast at the Ohio State Fair. They also have a a very busy schedule the week of the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. Keep reading to learn more about the State Officers for the 2019-2020 year.

What are you most looking forward during your year as a state officer?

I am looking forward to the unexpected, yet impactful moments that I encounter.… Continue reading

By Jessica Mozo, National FFA Convention and Expo

Heading to the 92nd National FFA Convention & Expo in October? Make sure you’re aware of the following changes to this year’s events and make the most of your time in Indy.

Arena sessions will move to Lucas Oil Stadium.
One of the major changes for 2019 is that all sessions, including opening sessions, general sessions and the American FFA Degree Ceremony will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium. This move creates even more seating for convention attendees. Two opening sessions will take place on Wednesday afternoon (session 1A) and Thursday morning (session 1B). Find a complete session schedule at convention.ffa.org and on the mobile app.

Concerts will move to Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
In 2019, the National FFA Convention & Expo will include two concerts, which will take place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. You must have your Ticketmaster ticket and your convention name badge to enter the concerts.… Continue reading

By Emma Sutherly, Chapter Reporter.

The Agricultural Advocacy Committee of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter recently sponsored a coloring contest at Miami East Elementary. The event was held to celebrate National Sheep Day on Saturday, October 26.

Members of the Ag Advocacy Committee challenged the students in Kindergarten and were given a sheep picture to color.  FFA members evaluated the pictures and awarded first place to each homeroom. The results are as follows:

Mrs. Amy Gerlach – Harper Addington

Mrs. Stephanie Larson – Grant Davis

Mr. Preston Elifritz – Weston Young

Mr. Justin Roeth – Luke Knoop

Each student participating received a pencil, bookmark and candy treat.  The first place picture in each homeroom was awarded a special prize of a sheep stuffed animal.  Congratulations to the winners!

During the event, the committee members shared that baseballs and tennis balls are both made from sheep wool fiber. Sheep have a fantastic memory and can retain identification of people or places for many years.… Continue reading

Reported by West Liberty-Salem FFA Reporter Alyssa Alford

The West Liberty-Salem FFA chapter along with the four other Champaign county schools hosted this year’s Ag Administrator Dinner on October 7, 2019 at the Dragonfly Vineyard just north of Urbana. WL-S Middle/High School Principal Greg Johnson and treasurer Chelsea Baldwin both attended alongside FFA advisor Trista Havens and FFA officers Adalyn Caudill, Alyssa Alford and Camrin Rice. This event is to show our appreciation to our administrators for their support of our organization and to highlight the importance of agriculture to all of us. At the dinner, WL-S FFA president, Adalyn Caudill gave a speech on how FFA has positively impacted her life. Our guest speaker, Levi Woodruff who spoke about agriculture and agri-entrepreneurism.

 … Continue reading

On October 6, 18 members of the West Holmes FFA Chapter attended the Antique Festival Parade in Millersburg. Members who attended include: Braxton Lint, Jayme Pennell, Nathan Yoder, Dawson Doretich, Pacee Miller, Blaine Winkler, Lexi Ogi, Josh Carter, Rebecca Sprang, Maria Steiner, Cora Crilow, Ethan Feikert, Leah Reining, Drake Mullet, Ally Ogi, Lucas Shaum, Ethan Drzazga, and Abby Waers. Thank you to all members who participated!… Continue reading

On Saturday, September 7, several members of the General Livestock team competed at the Wayne County Fair competition. They judge cattle, swine, and sheep based on general structure and body condition.

There are 8 basic classes and a Keep/Cull class. The Keep/Cull class can be composed of any of one the general species in which they pick the best animals for a breeding operation or a marketing prospect, based on the given scenario. All classes are worth 50 points, and are given cuts based on the difficulty of the placings. They are instructed to take any and all notes on the animals and following the judging, they answer a series of questions pertaining to a specific class.

After everything is done, they listen to reasons from the officials which usually are College student judges.

The team was 4th place overall, and Chloe Shumaker was 5th overall! Other participants were Cora Crilow, Alysa Pringle, and Jess Miller.… Continue reading

Ohio FFA has partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio (RMHC) to create a statewide Community Clunker Clean Up. Ohio FFA chapters, including West Holmes FFA, are working to clean up their communities by removing and donating used farm equipment and vehicles to benefit RMHC. The Ohio FFA chapter that secures the most donations, of at least five vehicles, will receive a $10,000 prize, generously donated by Telhio Credit Union.

To support West Holmes FFA, community members should call 800-332-8201 to schedule a convenient pick up of the used vehicle or equipment and use the promotional code OH0017 to ensure the donation is associated with the local FFA chapter. Funds raised through auction of the donated item will directly support RMHC families. Donations may qualify for tax deductions.

Each vehicle donated on average provides enough funding to allow a family with an ill or injured child to stay for a week at the Columbus Ronald McDonald House.… Continue reading

By Meredith Oglesby, OCJ FFA reporter

Each year, six individuals are chosen to serve the National FFA Organization for the coming year. The process of becoming a national officer is rigorous and the preparation begins months before. Koleson McCoy, of the Global Impact STEM Academy and past State President will represent Ohio as the national officer candidate at the 92^nd National FFA Convention and Expo, Oct. 30- Nov. 2.

Reflecting on the memories of his FFA experiences, McCoy is thankful for his decision to attend the STEM academy when it opened in Clark County, which gave him the opportunity to be involved in an agricultural education program.

“Initially, being in the Clark Shawnee District, I was going to attend a high school that did not have an agriculture program,” McCoy said. “However, my freshman year there was a brand-new school that had opened and was focused on bioscience curriculum and applying agriculture to STEM based curriculum.”… Continue reading

Recently, Ohio FFA State Reporter Mackenzie Hoog came to visit the members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter. She spent the day in the two Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources classes sharing with them about how to thrive in the FFA organization by having a positive attitude towards challenges in life. Her message was about the quote, “True success is overcoming the fear of failure.”

Mackenzie is a senior at Valley View High School and is currently serving as a State FFA Officer. Her duties require her to travel throughout the state conducting chapter visits, presenting speeches on behalf of Ohio’s FFA members, and facilitating conferences and conventions.

The FFA members at Miami East greatly appreciate that Mackenzie could take time out of her busy schedule to come and visit with the newest FFA members at Miami East High School.

 … Continue reading

On Saturday, October 12, the Miami Trace/Great Oaks FFA Chapter conducted their annual Paint the Town Pink Walk. This year over 150 members and community supporters participated in the 3 mile walk from the Women’s Wellness Center (Medical Arts Building 2) to Kroger and back.  This walk and the Paint the Town Pink campaign help raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer in our local community.

The crucial component to this annual campaign is the sale of ‘Paint the Town Pink’ t-shirts.  This year the Miami Trace FFA members sold over 1400 shirts. Through the support of community businesses, the FFA covers the costs of the shirts so that all sales are donated to the Fayette County Memorial Hospital Partners in Pink Program.  In the near future, MT FFA will present a check to the Fayette County Mammography Program totalling over $14,000.  The FCMH Partners in Pink Program provides local support services to breast cancer patients and survivors.… Continue reading

On Monday, September 23, the West Holmes FFA chapter held its annual meeting at Acres of Fun in Wooster. The meeting was called to order by President, Jayme Pennell. After conducting opening ceremonies and officer reports, they went on to new business. After the meeting adjourned members got pizza and pop for dinner. The members were allowed to play mini golf, laser tag, and go kart racing.… Continue reading

On September 24 and 25 the West Holmes FFA chapter helped carve 700 pumpkins to use at the first ever Harvest Glow, held at the Harvest Ridge Fairgrounds. This event was held September 27 to September 28.

On the Sept. 28,  West Holmes FFA chapter and the Triway FFA chapter got together to compete in the Ag Olympics. Events held during this were: bale toss, pumpkin toss, pie eating, apple bobbing, shucking and husking corn, milk the cow, sack race, and finally an obstacle course.

After all the events were done the scores were tallied up. Winning the 2019 Ag Olympics was the West Holmes FFA chapter! The chapter was given $300 and were given a rotating trophy that they would get their chapters name engraved on.… Continue reading

By Abigail Paxton Utica FFA Reporter 2019-2020

On September 25, some of the Utica FFA Chapter officers took a trip to the Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference or OLLC. The 5 officers that went were; Rachel Dickson(President), Emily Hill(Vice President), Amanda Annett(Treasurer), Hadley Ramirez-George(Secretary), and Abby Paxton(Reporter). The officers traveled to the Ohio State House for the Conference.

Throughout the Conference, the officers  learned and did several actives on leadership during the day. During the first session, the officers learned about lobbyist and representatives. They learned what they are, what they do, and how anyone can do it. Then, they did an activity on the two topics. All the FFA members that went were divided into 22 groups, 11 were lobbyist trying to get a certain chosen topic changed by law and the other 11 were representatives, half of the groups were republican and half were democratic. The lobbyist would go around to the representative groups and try and get the law changed on their topic.… Continue reading

By Abigail Paxton Utica FFA Reporter 2019-2020

On Wednesday October 2, the Utica FFA chapter participated in the 2019 Utica Homecoming Parade. After school on the 2^nd the students stayed after and help decorate the float. There were 35 students that participated. Then all the students went up to Utica Elementary where they made slime with the SAC kids teaching them that everything made comes somehow  from agriculture. After that, everyone loaded up on the float, driven by Emily Hill(Utica Vice President 2019-2020) and headed out in the parade. The students threw candy and had an awesome time during the parade! Thank you to Duane Hill for supplying the tractor and Brad and Diana Warner for the wagon for our float!… Continue reading

By Abby Paxton 2019-2020 Utica FFA Chapter Reporter  

On September 17^th, The Utica FFA Chapter took both middle school members and high school members to the annual Farm Science Review in London, Ohio. There we traveled around all the different booths and experienced new aspects of agriculture. We were tasked with playing bingo to visit various booths, organizations, government agencies and businesses. We learned about new farming technology to help solve current problems. Everyone had a great time!  

 … Continue reading

By Abigail Paxton 2019-2020 Utica FFA Reporter

On September 24, 14 high school students took a trip to Infirmary Mound Park for  the Licking and Franklin County sub-district soils Career Development Event (CDE). There they competed individually in several components of the Ag soils CDE. The components were 2 pits to judge, a general knowledge exam, and a soil survey test, based on using the land for ag purposes. They judged the pits by structure, texture, water tables, slope, landform, and living organisms and how those properties would affect soil erosion, water quality, compaction, and soil health.  The general knowledge exam is based on the Ohio FFA Ag Soils Manual, while the soil survey exams asked questions about the test site, based from the Web Soil Survey.  Our team was 1st place out 4 teams and Amanda Annett placed 1^st, Emily Hill 2^nd, and Kenneth Davenport 3^rd  and were the top 3 individuals at the contest^.… Continue reading

On September 24 the West Holmes FFA had 7 members take the online forestry exam. The team was 19th out of 39 teams. Individually placing, Jayme Pennell 79th, Addison Yates 79th, Drake Mullet 128th, Lucas Shaum 165th, Nathan Yoder 199th, Clay Shepler 296th, and Dawson Doretich 371st out of 382 individuals. The participants had to answer a series of questions about forestry on a computer.

Then on September 28 the chapter sent 4 members to Hocking College. The team was 19th out of 34 teams. Individually placing, Jayme Pennell 76th, Addison Yates 80th, Drake Mullet 97th, and Nathan Yoder 148th out of 204 individuals. During the contest members had to diagnose forest disorders, make decisions about managing forests, identify trees and cruise them for timber, and complete a chainsaw safety and identification practicum.… Continue reading

By Anthony Wayne FFA Reporter, Maggie Burkett

On Wednesday, October 2, the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, or AFNR, 1 and 2 classes went and collected water samples. The AW schools are lucky to have Swan Creek run through the property! The AFNR 1 and 2 students have been studying water quality in their classes and went down to Swan Creek to take water samples. They also identified other things they found in the water, as well as measured the phosphate levels, performed turbidity tests, and a couple of other tests.

The classes did the data collection for Toledo Metropolitan Area Council Of Governments, Student Watershed Watch program. Maddi Follas, a student in AFNR 2 who went out and collected some of the data said, “It was one of the most fun things we’ve done this year because we got to do research outside of the classroom. We also got to see how researchers collect samples and test for bacteria and unwanted substances in the water we drink!”… Continue reading