FFA News

In mid-February, four members of the Zane Trace FFA chapter traveled to Lancaster High School to participate in the District 7 Ag Sales Career Development Event.  As part of the competition, members prepared a sales presentation for an agriculture related product and attempted to complete a mock sale to a panel of judges.  Members also completed a practicum in sales prospecting and answered questions about sales and marketing in an online test.  This year’s team consisted of Nathanael Freeman, Ann Shelby, Kevin Daubenmire and Olivia Pflaumer.  The group placed 9th out of 12 teams in the competition with Nathanael having the highest individual score.… Continue reading

To celebrate National FFA Week, the Ft. Recovery FFA Chapter held a truck and tractor drive in to help promote agriculture and the National FFA Organization.

Twenty FFA members drove in tractors to win the following: Most HP, Least HP, Oldest, Cleanest, Least Hours, Most Hours, Best Restored, and Most American.  Austin Kahlig won 1^st in the Most HP, while Kurt Wendel placed 1^st in the Least HP. The oldest award went to Brian Lennartz and Gabe Grieshop got 1^st in Cleanest tractor. Whereas Rick Knapke won 1^st place in the Least Hours and Adam Schoenlein won Most Hours.  Best Restored went to Isaac Siegrist and Most American went to Jason Hein.

Thirty-five FFA members also drove in trucks to win the following:  Newest, Oldest, Most Miles, Cleanest, Dirtiest, Loudest, Sharpest, and Junkiest.  First place in the Newest truck category was awarded to Nick Link, and the Oldest went to Devon Stephens.… Continue reading

On February 11th, Anthony Wayne FFA students presented a check with proceeds from their holiday sale to the Toledo Seagate Food Bank.

After presenting the check, the students also got to tour the facility. They saw the storage areas and different freezers and also got to see where they grow some of their food, although they couldn’t see much right now because of the snow.

It is a very good program at the Seagate Food Bank, the chapter was happy to support them, and it was very interesting to see their facility. The food bank helps support people who may need food.

They grow some of their food and also are partnered with stores to get more food. They are an independent organization so they get to decide what they want to do with their food and how they want to distribute it. They also have a food cart with fresh food to hand out to people.… Continue reading

The Preble Shawnee FFA recently participated in the district agricultural sales contest. The two teams of Savannah Lynch, Johnathon Cottingim, Sidney Hacker, Wyatt Downard, Sarah Kurtz, Caleb Moore, Kage Worley, and Colton Pugh competed and got fourth place. Cottingim was the second highest individual on the contest. Each participant had to sell a product to the judge and complete a customer service practicum.… Continue reading

The West Holmes FFA Chapter recently sent Chris Sprang and Justin Lorentz to the District Tractor Troubleshooting contest at Kuester Implement in Bloomingdale. The Team placed first in the district and qualified for state at UNOH in Lima.

In tractor troubleshooting, members use diagnostic procedures to determine the problem with the tractor and then fix the problem within a 20 minute time period. A special thanks to Chad Strouse and Ohio Ag Equipment for helping train this year’s team. This is the first time in 20 years a team has qualified for state.… Continue reading

In early February, the Zane Trace FFA, along with the Adult Farmers, held their 37th annual sausage breakfast. There was a huge turn out from the community with over 780 individuals attending the breakfast.  Our chapter would like to thank everyone for coming and supporting the breakfast. The donations collected from the breakfast totaled over $3,500.  These donations will be given to Children’s Hospital, the Ross County Junior Fair and the Zane Trace FCCLA scholarship fund.  The chapter would also like to thank all of the hog donors and adult farmers who make our event possible, Gina Davis and Katrina Smith for helping with the sausage preparation along with Mrs. Jan Ramsey and the FCCLA members who served the many guests who attended the breakfast.

There’s a lot of work to do before the big morning can even happen. FFA members spend two days preparing the sausage from eight hogs. Not only is there work to do with preparing the sausage, but students from the Leadership class taught lessons to elementary students about feeding pigs, the anatomy of pigs, and more.… Continue reading

February 19, 2015, the West Holmes FFA Chapter sent members to the District Speaking contest at Harrison Central. Individually, Marris Hoffee was 5th in Beginning Prepared, Jillian Gurley was 7th in Prepared, and Cade Patterson was 7th in Creed Speaking. In Prepared Speaking, members have to write and present a 6-8 minute speech and answer questions about their topic. In Beginning Prepared, members have to have to write and present a 5-7 minute speech and answer questions about their topic. And in Creed Speaking, members have to present the Creed and answer questions about it.… Continue reading

On Wednesday the 19th, nine of our chapter’s students, along with students from other FFA chapters from Ohio and Indiana visited Huntington University on an agricultural field trip. While there, students embarked on a journey of modern agriculture in today’s society.  Students had the wonderful opportunity hear from a panel of guest speakers and successful industry professionals.  The key speaker for the event was Dr. David Kohl, a retired business professor at Virginia Tech, he talked about the future of agriculture and economics, not only in the United States, but on a global scale. His passionate and enthusiasm about the industry in both the past and the future were evident. Dr. Kohl’s past linked him so closely with Agriculture and helped to fuel his passion for the industry. Serving as a New York state officer, he later went on to teach agricultural finance and small business management.  It was obvious that he was trying to ignite the same flame within the students present at the event.… Continue reading

The State FFA Evaluations were recently held at the Ohio FFA Center in Columbus, Ohio.  Several members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter competed in various competitions.  Members became eligible for State Evaluations by placing at District Evaluations in February.

American FFA Degree – Kolin Bendickson and Daniel Bodenmiller, graduates of Miami East High School, submitted an application to receive the American FFA Degree. Their applications were approved and will be submitted to the National FFA Organization for review.  They will receive their degree at the National FFA Convention in November in Louisville, Ky.

State FFA Degrees – Juniors Emily Beal, Stephanie Millhouse, Levi Reid, and Hunter Sharp and Seniors Olivia Edgell, Riann Kingrey, Miranda Maggart, and Allyson Supinger submitted applications to receive the State FFA Degree.  Their applications were approved, and they will receive their Degrees in May at the State FFA Convention in Columbus.

Star State FFA Degree – Senior Madeline Davis is a Top 4 Star State Candidate in Agribusiness.… Continue reading

The Preble Shawnee FFA took four students to compete in the sub-district public speaking contest.

Johnathon Cottingim, Kaitlyn McGarvey, Sidney Hacker, and Dylan StJohn did well in the contest. StJohn placed fourth.

Cottingim and Hacker moved on the districts where Hacker placed third and Cottingim placed second and moved onto state.

Cottingim’s speech was titled The Farm Bill or Is It.… Continue reading

The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter recently awarded 58 members with their Greenhand and Chapter FFA Degrees at a recent FFA meeting.

The Greenhand FFA Degree is the first degree that a chapter can bestow upon its members. Members who obtained this degree this year were: Cassie Brewer, Shalyn Brown, Delaney Chester, Hailey Clark, Emma Dearth, Chandler Doersam, Sarah Doner, Garret Drake, Jalynn Fausnaugh, Jacob Green, Mattie Grace Hamilton, Chrystal Harvey, Mikayla Hicks, Trent Holbrook, Jacob Hudson, Triston Hutchinson, Eryn Jones, Cole Kleinline, Maya Knox, Lydia Lafferty, Riley McClure, Maggie Mettler, Michael Montoney, Elinor Paskins, Tyler Perkins, Carle Pieratt, Megan Porter, Kris Ryan, Vance Sharp, Avery Smith, Noah Smith, Tierra Tooill, Seth Turner, Katie Vickroy, Ashlynne Wells, Becca Woida and Dominick Zuck.

The Chapter FFA Degree is the highest degree that a chapter can give to its members. This is an excellent step towards students gaining their State FFA Degree, and then possibly the American FFA Degree.… Continue reading

Grant Hodge and Cody Reid recently competed in the District Agricultural and Industrial Diagnostics (formerly known as Tractor Trouble Shooting) Career Development Event at the Koenig Equipment in Anna. Grant and Cody are both members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter at Miami East High School.

During the contest the team troubleshot two bugs in each of five tractors. They had to identify the problems and fix them in less than fifteen minutes. Prior to the contest they took a test over tractor maintenance and repair.

A special appreciate goes to coaches and helpers for the training of the team. The lead coach was Denny Zirkle. The team also had practice sessions with Dave Wagner at Wagner Farm Service, Jeff Elsner at Apple Farm Service in Covington, and Kevin Selhorst at North Star Hardware and Implement.

The team placed 9th in the district.… Continue reading

Lisa Gehret, marketing director of the Kenn Feld Group, recently gave a drone presentation to Fort Recovery FFA sophomore students enrolled in the Ag Leadership course.  Gehret explained how drones are being used in agriculture and how the pictures, videos, and maps the drone creates can benefit farmers.  Students in the Ag Leadership course have been studying various technologies used by US farmers and the drone presentation fit in well.  Students loved seeing the drone up close too. The Fort Recovery Agricultural Education department and FFA Chapter would like to thank Lisa Gehret for coming in a talking to the students.

Pictured: Far right is Lisa Gehret, marketing director of the Kenn Feld Group, who recently have a drone presentation to Fort Recovery agricultural students. Pictured L to R are FFA students Jamie Westgerdes, Grace Gehl, Jocelyn Kaiser, Madelyn Roessner, Sydney Alig, Logan Ranly, Chassity Hemmelgarn, and Andrew Homan… Continue reading

The Urbana FFA chapter has been honored to have Mr. Nathan Birkhimer, a student at The Ohio State University, join them this year as their student teacher.

Birkhimer grew up on a sheep farm in Columbiana, Ohio while attending Southern Local High School. In January he officially started his student teaching at Urbana. Before then, he participated in some out of school activities such as Cardboard City, National Convention, and the Pork Loin dinner.

When Nathan was asked why he chose to travel to National Convention in October with the chapter, he stated, ” Not only did I want to see how much had changed since I graduated, but I wanted to meet some of the students that I would be seeing on a daily basis as a student teacher.”

Mr. Birkhimer has also attended urban/rural night, the pancake breakfast, and coaches the livestock judging team.

While talking to students at Urbana about Mr.… Continue reading

The March 2015 Miami East-MVCTC FFA Member of the Month is Grant Hodge. He is the son of Steve and Jenny Hodge of Tipp City. Grant is a senior and fourth year member of the FFA Chapter.

Grant’s involvement in Career Development Events for this school year has been a major asset to his teams and chapter. Recently, he participated in the District Agricultural and Industrial Diagnostics (formally Tractor Trouble Shooting) competition. Grant coordinated many practices for the team. He was also a member of the third in the state Food Science and Technology team and on the seventh in the state in the Agricultural Technical and Mechanical Systems (formally Agricultural Engineering) team. Grant earned the State FFA Degree in 2014.

Grant’s Supervised Agricultural Experience program consists of job placement at S.E. Hodge Farms where is responsible for farming grain and forage crops and raising a herd of beef cattle. Grant participates in the Agricultural Education Department’s Capstone Early Work Release program where he is able to learn employability skills through hands-on learning in the agriculture industry.… Continue reading

Rick Ellerbrock of the Central Ohio Breeding Association (COBA) visited Anna High school recently to share his knowledge of artificial insemination with the Animal Science and Technology class.

The Animal Science and Technology class has been learning about livestock reproduction. They have studied the male and female reproductive tracts as well as many types of breeding that have included natural breeding, embryo transfer, cloning, and artificial insemination (AI).

Ellerbrock came in to teach the class more on artificial insemination in cattle and what it entails from the breeder’s point of view.  He demonstrated the proper techniques for large animals. COBA provided female reproductive tracts for students to practice AI technique. Ellerbrock also informed the students of some of the AI classes he gives and some of the jobs he does which provided the students with additional knowledge of reproduction.

“I learned a lot from Mr. Ellerbrock about Artificial Insemination. It was really neat to see a real female reproductive tract and to practice AI myself,” stated sophomore member Brianna Fanaff.… Continue reading

Three Southeastern FFA students recently competed in FFA public speaking competitions this past month in an effort to develop and improve skills in researching, organizing and delivering a speech on an agricultural topic. In extemporaneous speaking, students draw one of more than 75 topics at the competition before using a 30-minute preparation session to research and compose a speech between four and six minutes in length. Speeches are unprepared in advance of the competition and students must utilize the preparation time to carefully and quickly research topics they have drawn and compile notes and information to be used during the presentation in front of a panel of judges. Judges pose questions to the presenter on the topic after the conclusion of the speech. Lea Kimley placed first at the county competition and then went on to place third at the sub-district and district competitions. Also competing at the county event were Dylan Elliott, who placed third and Madison Carter, who placed fifth.… Continue reading

On February 10th, members of the West Holmes FFA Chapter sent officer books, State and American Degree applications, and proficiency applications to be judged at the district level.

Jason Jenkins (Reporter), Elise Neville (Secretary), and Terry Medley (Treasurer) each received a gold rating on their officer books. They will receive an award at State Convention in May.

10 State and 5 American Degrees were sent to state to be evaluated as well as 16 proficiencies.

State Degrees were: Carter Smith, Will Hughes, Jillian Gurley, Justin Lorentz, Gabe Armstrong, Morgan Hoxworth, Elise Neville, Paige Miller, Jason Jenkins, and Tyler Grassbaugh. American Degrees were: Grayson Miller, Dustin Niehaus, Clay Armstrong, Mandy Taylor, and Beth Klein.

Members who sent proficiency applications were: Carter Smith Beef Entrepreneurship, William Hughes Dairy Entrepreneurship and Star State Farmer, Shyann Kick  Organic Production, Racheal Yerian Small Animal Production, Jillian Gurley Small Animal Production, Tristan Ramseyer Dairy Placement, Chris Sprang Dairy Placeement, Beth Klein Ag Services and Star State Placement, Justin Lorentz Turgrass Management, Dustin Niehaus Agricultural Mechanics Design and Fabrication, Chris Vansickle Diversified Livestock Production, Erik Hanna Diversified Agriculture Production, Gabe Armstrong Forage Production, Michael Klein Grain Production, Morgan Hoxworth Veterinary Medicine, and Elise Neville Nursery Operations.… Continue reading

In a special project during FFA week, Southeastern students and staff participated in a fundraising event called Penny Wars. This event was a competition between all homeroom teachers’ classes where students bring in pennies to credit their own class with points. However, students in other classes could cancel out those points from pennies by depositing silver change and bills. Mrs. DeLong’s class had the most points and received donuts and all the proceeds raised will benefit Children’s Hospital of Dayton. This year, we raised $280 from the event and are looking at opportunities to continue our support in the future. Children’s Hospital is an official charity of the Ohio FFA Association.… Continue reading

On Tuesday, February 24th, Buckeye Central held the District 2 FFA Public Speaking Contest.

The Public Speaking Contest is spread into several sections including extemporaneous, beginning prepared, advanced prepared, creed, and advanced creed.

In the extemporaneous section, FFA students are asked to give a speech on a topic they had received 30 minutes prior.  Kelsey Fife of Lucas received first place in this category.

The next section was beginning prepared. In this contest, the students memorized a previously prepared speech. Morgan Vogt of Shelby won 1st in this category.

The next contest was advanced prepared. In this contest, the students are asked to give a speech on a topic they have already prepared and memorized. This contest is for the upperclassmen. The winner of this contest was Sarah Hunker of Bellevue.

In the creed speaking contest, the students memorize and recite the FFA creed with as much enthusiasm and as little mistakes as possible the presentation of the creed is then followed with questions about the creed and it’s meaning to each contestant. … Continue reading