Lincoln University Hosts FFA Career Development Experience
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Floriculture students evaluate plants at LU’s Dickinson Research Facility on March 11.
Lincoln University’s College of Agriculture, Environmental and Human Sciences (CAEHS) hosted 550 high school students from 27 Missouri Schools on March 11 for its 43rd annual FFA Career Development Experience.
The event invited FFA students from across the state to participate in practice contests evaluating their knowledge of several agricultural fields.
Special Assistant to the Dean of the CAEHS Amy Bax welcomed students at LU’s Jason Gymnasium the morning of the event.
“We’re excited to have you here,” Bax said. “We have a lot for you guys to learn.”
Bax explained the Career Development Experience is intended to prepare students for state FFA contests.
With proctors present, no phones allowed during testing and the instruction to return all testing materials, students treated the practice contests like the real deal.
Bax also told students they could approach judges after the competition to learn about subjects and concepts they may not have recognized or understood during testing.
“If there was a plant specimen and you don’t know what it is, go back and ask," Bax said. "If there are meat cuts and you don’t know what they are, go back and ask. Ask. Somebody will help you.”
Contests covered livestock, forestry, soils, poultry, floriculture, dairy food, agronomy, farm business management, entomology, meats, horses, dairy cattle and nursery and landscaping.
FFA students inspect meats at the Covered Bridge Market in Russellville on March 11.Students traveled to several locations on and off Lincoln’s campus for the practice contests, including LU’s George Washington Carver Farm and Alan T. Busby Farm, and sites in Russellville, Centertown and Ashland.
Livestock, forestry and soil students took a bus to George Washington Carver Farm. Forestry and soil students started inside with written testing while livestock students began outside in the mild morning air.
Standing amidst the farm’s several greenhouses, livestock students inspected gilts (female pigs who haven’t given birth), market hogs, rams, ewes (female sheep), market lambs, feeder cattle, heifers and goats.
An LU undergraduate student assisting with the event said students analyzed and judged animals for many qualities, such as weight and build, with the goal of identifying better and worse stock.
Students stood in silence around the multiple livestock pens, focusing on their tasks, interrupted only by the snorting of pigs and chirping of birds.
Bax later said there were no individual winners as the contests were for practice. However, she did share which schools finished at the top in each contest category.
The top schools included:
- Agronomy: Eldon FFA
- Dairy Cattle: Warrenton FFA
- Dairy Products: Sullivan FFA
- Entomology: Troy FFA
- Farm Business Management: South Callaway FFA
- Floriculture: Eldon FFA and Chamois-Morrison FFA (tie)
- Forestry: Owensville FFA
- Horses: Owensville FFA
- Livestock: Troy FFA
- Meats: Troy FFA
- Nursery and Landscaping: Linn FFA
- Poultry: Owensville FFA
- Soils: Troy FFA