CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Wyatt Vick finished first overall and led Zane Trace to a fourth-place finish in the Ohio FFA Food Science and Technology Career Development Event at Ohio State University on Jan. 13.
Team members Kailee Adkins, Camron Naumovski, Elise DePugh and Vick answered questions about food safety, identified food equipment, evaluated food samples and worked together to create a new food product.
Vick received a scholarship of $5,000 to Ohio State University and the team will receive a banner to commemorate their accomplishment.
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Six Zane Trace FFA members traveled to Colorado to experience agriculture in another part of the United States from Jan. 13-17.
Their trip began in Denver where the group visited the 118th National Western Stock Show. They saw many different cattle breeds, including Galloway, Red Angus and Simmental. After touring the stock show the students ended their first day with a hike up the Mt. Sanitas trail in nearby Boulder before spending the night in Estes Park.
The next morning the group visited Rocky Mountain National Park where they explored the trails around Bear Lake on snowshoes due to over 3 feet of snow on the ground. During the hike, the group climbed to an elevation over 10,000 feet above sea level and saw amazing views of the cliffs and snow. On the way back down the mountain, the group saw several herds of mule deer grazing along the road.
After their adventure in the national park, the group traveled to the Maxwell Ranch, which is part of Colorado State University. At the ranch, they visited with Joel Vaad, the ranch manager, and his family. The Vaad family taught the students how they manage the 12,000-acre property and care for the herd of 300 commercial cows that call it home. At sunset, everyone braved extreme winter weather and windchills under 30 below zero to help feed nearly 1 ton of hay to the cattle. The students gained an appreciation for the size and scale of western cattle operations and the unique challenges they face such as low rainfall, expensive hay, mountain lions, rattlesnakes and wolves.
On their last day in Colorado, the students traveled to Boulder to learn the art of milling flour from heritage grains at Moxie Bread Company. They watched a demonstration of a nearly 2-ton granite mill that is used to convert spelt, kamut, amaranth and turkey red wheat into flour for customers. Moxie processes over 2,000 pounds of flour each week, 900 pounds of which they use in their bakery.
After visiting the mill, students returned to the National Western Stock Show and watched the champion market hog drive and learned rodeo secrets from one of the bullfighters before the rodeo that evening.
The next morning they flew back to Ohio, carrying with them memories, knowledge and experiences that they could only have in Colorado.
