FFA News

On Saturday, December 6 four members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter competed in the State Food Science and Technology Career Development Event hosted at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

Food Science and Technology Team members were Casey Copeland, Cody Reid, Nathan Teeters and Grant Hodge.  The team placed 3rd in the state and earned a banner for the agriculture classroom.  Casey Copeland was the highest placing individual from Miami East, placing 4th overall and earned a $500 scholarship to major in Food Science at Ohio State. Cody Reid placed 10th overall in the contest.

During the contest the team members were asked to complete a product development scenario in which they calculated the nutritional facts for a new food product and design a new package.  Also they completed an aroma identification section, took test on their knowledge of food science, responded to mock customer complaint scenarios, identified sanitation errors in the food industry, and completed a taste sensory test.… Continue reading

In early December, the Preble Shawnee FFA competed in the sub-district parliamentary procedure contest for a chance to make it to districts. The advanced team won first place with their outstanding procedure. Savannah Lynch, Addie Anspaugh, Sarah Kurtz, Aubrey McQuisten, Sidney Hacker, Caleb Moore, Savannah Schnieder, and Colton Pugh will advance to the districts for a chance to go to state. The greenhand parliamentary procedure team placed third in the contest but will not move on to districts. The FFA could not be more excited as they prepare for the next contest.… Continue reading

Nicole McMullen, a freshman FFA member at Anthony Wayne High School, competed in the Ohio FFA Job Interview Career Development Event on Saturday, December 6th, 2014 in Columbus, Ohio. Nicole first competed in the sub-district and district levels, where she placed first in each. This advanced her to the state level where she competed with students from across the state of Ohio, and received 5th place in her division. The job interview contest consists of writing a cover letter and resume with references, completing a job application, interviewing for a position, then writing a follow-up thank you-letter. “This experience will definitely help me in the future when applying for jobs,” says Nicole.… Continue reading

The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to not only attend the National FFA Convention, but for our State Winning Agricultural Issues Forum CDE team to compete and for members to get to experience a multitude of tours.

The members who attended had the phenomenal opportunity to go on multiple tours that were not only fun, but also educational. The first day, members toured the Kentucky Horse Park, where they could watch live dressage shows, learn about and see many horse breeds, and go through their museum. The students also toured the Conrad-Caldwell House, which is a beautiful historic house in old Louisville. The fully restored house not only contained a large collection of Edwardian Period items, but also had educational displays on the top floor, which gave students a deeper knowledge of the history of the area. After the tour of the Conrad-Caldwell House, the chapter visited the Falls of the Ohio State Park, which was in Indiana on the Ohio River.… Continue reading

On November 20, 2014, the West Holmes FFA Chapter sent the Senior Parliamentary Procedure team to the sub district parliamentary Procedure contest at Indian Valley High School.

The team placed 3rd and the team was made up of President: Marris  Hoffee, Vice President: Regina Miller, Secretary:  Juanita Miller, Treasurer: Jaeden Roloff, Reporter: Payten Boring, Sentinel: Alyx Morris, Student Advisor: Cade Patterson,  Member: Jarrett Snow, and alternate, Kara Leadbetter. In the Parliamentary Procedure contest, the team demonstrates their knowledge of basic parliamentary law and how to use it correctly during the course of a business meeting. As well as taking a test over Parliamentary law.… Continue reading

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014, a group of six Anthony Wayne FFA members took a field trip to The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio. Students toured the university campus, then visited three of the college’s farms and land laboratory. The dairy farm highlighted a state of the art parlor system that student workers use to milk the farm’s 130 cows. The beef facility has a handling system designed by Temple Grandin, a well known animal handling expert. And finally, the equine facility owns and boards race horses that students care for. The Anthony Wayne students learned a great deal about equipment, animal care, and the best facilities for livestock. Students also learned about the university and agricultural career opportunities. Cody Perry, a senior at Anthony Wayne, said “I learned a lot about college life and the impressive campus,” and Olivia Behnfeldt said “I enjoyed seeing different barns and animal facilities.”… Continue reading

The Eaton-MVCTC Novice Parliamentary Procedure team competed in the Montgomery/Preble sub district contest on December 3rd at Preble Shawnee High School.  During the Parliamentary Procedure CDE, teams conduct a mock chapter meeting to demonstrate their knowledge of basic parliamentary law and the correct use parliamentary procedures, according to Robert Rules of Order.

The team placed second and is advancing to the district contest at New Bremen High School.  Team members are:  Braden Schmidt, Blake Whitesell, Kate Bulach, Katelyn Niehaus, Mariah Brewer, Bonwyn Duffie, Chelsea Cruze, Cole Whitesell, and Wyatt Burgess.… Continue reading

The Urbana FFA held its annual Greenhand Ceremony on November 11, 2014. The purpose of this meeting is to honor the students who earned their degree. There were 19 FFA members who received this award they were Katrina Allison, Lukas Bishop, Ally Brookover, Austin Colvin, Lillian Daniels, Katie Ethridge, Cheyenne Gunsaulies, Olivia Maurice, JD Nelson, Magdaline Perry, Joe Preston, Berkeley Pyle, Kelsey Quickle, Bailey Ramsey, Addison Ropp, Sierra Ross, Michaela Sparks, Levi Brandyberry and Jerry Springer. In order to receive the greenhand degree they have to be enrolled in an agriculture class, have learned and explained the FFA motto, Creed, and salute, also know the history and guidelines and the official dress, and have an SAE (supervised agricultural experience) plan. There were special guests present such as members from the board of education, members of  Mechanicsburg FFA, and Sidney Snyder. Sidney is the Ohio FFA’s president, and while she was at the ceremony she gave a speech about how important it is to try new things because you never know you may love it and it may be what you wanna do with your life.… Continue reading

Four agriculture classes at Southeastern High School recently completed an 8-week long feeding research project as part of their animal and livestock science classes. Students were given the task of planning and preparing a feeding and nutritional plan by researching the variety of poultry feeds and supplements and composing a plan to feed and raise fast-growing, high quality market chickens. Students were also given the task to plan and design pens and enclosures to house their chickens during the term of the project.

Each class was given twelve baby chicks at two days old and grew them to full term market weight. Each day, students in the class fed, watered, cleaned and weighed their chickens. Students kept track of weight records and calculated items such as feed conversion ratios and rate of gain. Students also had to select three of their twelve chickens to represent their class in a poultry show held during the school day.… Continue reading

The December 2014 Miami East-MVCTC FFA Member of the Month is Katie Bodenmiller of Casstown. She is the daughter of Mark and Brenda Bodenmiller.

Katie recently competed in the District Job Interview Career Development Event. During the contest she completed a job application, conducted a mock job interview, and composed a business thank you letter. She placed eighth in the district. Katie has attended the National FFA Convention, exhibited items at the County Fair Shop and Crop building, and competed in the chapter’s corn growing challenge.

Every month of the school year the Miami East FFA will select a student to be the FFA Member of the Month.  The officer team will nominate one student that has been actively involved in the FFA chapter, school and community activities.  If selected, the member will be recognized at the monthly FFA meeting, have their picture displayed in the Miami East Ag Room, and will receive a special accolade in celebration of their accomplishment.… Continue reading

The West Holmes FFA Chapter had 3 American Degree recipients at the 2014 National FFA Convention. Those who received their American Degrees were Gretchen Straits, Elizabeth Overholt, and Matt Schlegel. In order to be eligible for the American FFA Degree, members must have the following qualifications: have obtained the State FFA Degree, been an active member for 3 years, have participated in activities on the chapter and state levels, have graduated at least 12 months before the National FFA Convention, have maintained records that express an outstanding supervised agricultural experience program, have earned and productively invested at least $7,500 or have earned and productively invested at least $1,500 and have worked 2,250 in excess of class time,  and have expressed outstanding leadership abilities and have maintained a high school  scholastic record of “C” or better.

Gretchen Straits has been involved by working at Straits Cattle Farms and Paint Valley farms, as well as being involved with chapter activities and showing animals at the fair.… Continue reading

Seven members of the Southeastern FFA recently competed in the sub-district food science and technology career development event held at Urbana High School. Team members had to use nutritional and budget information for ingredients to develop a food product prior to completing four other activities. Individually, students had to identify five different food aromas, three food flavors, identify differing food products in a series of triangle tests, respond to and identify problems and solutions posed in a customer complaint letter and identify up to six different food safety and sanitation violations given ten photographs of food preparation areas. Southeastern placed sixth in the event. Those competing were; Colleen Smith, Stephanie Whetstone, Rachel Malone, Emma Parker, Logan Glispie, Sarah McAfee and Dylan Elliott.… Continue reading

Fort Loramie FFA members competed in the Job Interview Career Development Event recently. In the contest, students’ skills are tested through submitting a cover letter and resume, completing a job application, participating in a 15 minute interview and writing a follow-up thank you letter.

Seven members competed at the sub-district event hosted by the Botkins FFA chapter for a spot at the district competition. Austin Meyer and Nicole Allen competed in first year members’ division. Emily Knouff competed in second year members’ division. In the fourth year members’ division, Elizabeth Kunkler and Racheal Marchal competed. And Cortney Norris and Aubree Middendorf competed in the fifth division, a division reserved for first year junior members.

At the district competition in Brookville on November 19th, Allen, Knouff and Norris competed against other FFA members in District 5. Before competing, Knouff claims she felt well prepared for the contest and the overall experience helped her strengthen her public speaking abilities. … Continue reading

In recent weeks the Animal Science classes of the Anna Agricultural Education Department have been learning to raise broiler chickens.  Students conducted feed and pen size trials over a seven week period to determine how various feed rations and pen sizes affected growth of meat chickens.  After the trials students brought the chickens they had been raising to King and Sons Poultry for slaughtering. The group toured the facility to experience poultry processing and packaging.  Following the tour of Kings and Sons, students travelled to Keller Feed.  Students learned about feed rations and toured the mill. After having the 53 chickens processed, the chapter donated all of the chicken meat to the school to be used in the Veteran’s Day luncheon held on November 11th.… Continue reading

The National Trail-MVCTC FFA Chapter selected a member from each grade to participate in the Sub-District Job Interview Contest on November 12th. The Job Interview Contest is a career development event (CDE) that prepares members for interviews they might have in the future. The members who participated were, freshman: Erica Gallaher, sophomore: Weston Haws, junior: Kerstian Casteel and senior: Sam Eyler. Both Erica Gallaher and Kerstian Casteel placed second in their division and are moving on to the District competition.… Continue reading

The November 2014 Miami East-MVCTC FFA Member of the Month is Lance Reynolds. He is the son of Melinda Caron and Chad Reynolds. He is a sophomore and second year member of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter.

Reynolds recently completed in the county and district Rural Soils Career Development Event. At the county contest he was the high individual in the contest. Reynolds has also participated in the Parliamentary Procedures Career Development Event, fruit sales, and State Greenhand Conference.

Reynolds’s Supervised Agricultural Experience program consists of restoring a trailer. He has learned skills of welding, painting, and woodworking during his remodeling project. Reynolds is mentor for his peers.

Every month of the school year the Miami East-MVCTC FFA will select a student to be the FFA Member of the Month.  The officer team will nominate one student that has been actively involved in the FFA chapter, school and community activities.  If selected, the member will be recognized at the monthly FFA meeting, have their picture displayed in the Miami East Ag Room, and will receive a special accolade in celebration of their accomplishment.… Continue reading

The 2014 National FFA Convention had record numbers with 64,409 FFA members, advisors and other visitors at the event with an estimated economic impact of $40 million. Visitors stayed in 136 hotels for a combined 39,247 nights within a 60-mile radius of Louisville.

Even with bigger-than-ever numbers at the event, Ohio had a noteworthy presence at this 87^th National FFA Convention.

“Ohio had an excellent turnout with our proficiency awards,” said Katy Endsley, with the Ohio FFA. “We had 25 national finalists and seven who actually won first place in their respective areas, which is the most Ohio had for a long time.”

Ohio’s National proficiency winners were: Audrey Hoey, Zane Trace, in Agriscience Research-Integrated Systems; Tyler Parcell, Fayetteville, in Emerging Agricultural Technology – Entrepreneurship/Placement; Blake Campbell, Waterford, in Swine Production – Entrepreneurship; Ross Andre, Wauseon, in Environmental Science and Natural Resources Management – Entrepreneurship/Placement; Derek Hoffman, Ridgewood, in Food Science and Technology; Charlie Miller, Miami Trace, in Forest Management and Products; and Garett Leeds, Fairbanks, in Outdoor Recreation.… Continue reading

At the 87th National FFA Convention and Expo, the River Valley FFA’s own Julya Faulkner received her American FFA Degree. Julya is a sophomore at Ohio Northern University. The American FFA Degree is the highest degree an FFA member can achieve, and only a select few have the honor of doing so. There are a few requirements for the American Degree. Effective January 1st, 2015, each American Degree Recipient will have earned at least $10,00, and successfully invested at least $7,500, in their SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) project. They also must have completed 50 hours of community service outside of class, and they must have graduated high school before the convention at which they receive the degree.

Julya Faulkner’s SAE consisted of many different activities. Under the supervision of former River Valley FFA Agricultural Education teacher Mr. Jerry Swartz, and her mother, part of Julya’s SAE was a cake decorating business.… Continue reading

The Miami Trace Livestock Evaluation team, which consisted of Caleb Penwell, Gus Mitchem, Brock Wilt, and Caroline Hughes, represented Ohio as they competed at the 87th National FFA Convention in Louisville, KY. Overall, the team finished 3rd out of 40 representing states which made them the highest placing team in Miami Trace Livestock Evaluation history. All four team members received a gold medal rating as individuals with Caroline Hughes placing 12th individually.

During the Livestock Evaluation contest, members placed various livestock classes of beef cattle, sheep, goats and swine and presented oral reasons for their placings. Lastly, the team completed a written exam and team activity. The team worked very hard at the contest, and the Miami Trace FFA, a satellite program of Great Oaks Career Center, would like to congratulate the General livestock team in their achievements and hard work, and thank them for making the Miami Trace FFA proud.… Continue reading

Ohio had a very impressive list of Proficiency finalists at the 2014 National FFA Convention and a great lineup of National Proficiency winners. Here they are (Photos from Ohio FFA Convention):

 … Continue reading