SULLIVAN, Ohio — Four Black River FFA members recently received their Ohio FFA state degree during the 93rd State FFA Convention. Chloee Howard, Kiersten Hendershot, Rebecca Stroud and Hope Diaz received their state degrees, which only the top 2% of Ohio FFA members earn.
Chloee’s SAE projects consists of raising market hogs, lambs, turkeys, chickens and rabbits. Kiersten earned her degree by raising market and breeding cattle, and market hogs and goats. Rebecca raises market steers and works at Farm and Home Hardware. Hope earned her degree while working on the Diaz farm.
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WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — The Miami Trace FFA chapter will send members to Indianapolis as they vie for national honors in the area of poultry evaluation.
FFA members who will represent the chapter include Bryce Bennett, Drew Black, Jenna Goddard, and Jonah Goddard. Amanda Swigert is the coach and FFA adviser for the team. Participants in the Poultry Evaluation Career Development Event select live meat-type chickens for broiler breeding, evaluate and place live egg-type hens, and rate the finished product by evaluating and grading ready-to-cook carcasses and parts of chickens and turkeys. These members won the Ohio poultry evaluation CDE in late March through a virtual competition.
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UTICA, Ohio — Utica FFA members participated in Ohio state FFA Convention virtually April 29 and 30. Since convention was virtual this year, adviser Gina Neff hosted three watch parties in the FFA room for middle school and high school FFA members and celebrated the success of some of Utica FFA’s members.
Graduate Abby Kellett received her state degree. Abigail Paxton got a gold-rated treasurers book, and Georgia Gamble was awarded a gold-rated reporters book.
Utica FFA was recognized for its charitable giving to the Utica Food Pantry and to Walking Wild Rescue.
Amanda Annett was state winner in the Beef Production Placement proficiency award and state runner up in Diversified Livestock Production. She was also recognized for being named Ohio’s America Star Placement.
Utica also had some students place first in the state Agriscience Fair. These students will move on the national competition. Emily O’Hara placed first in animal systems division one. Melinda Wesley and Andrew Boeshart placed first in animal systems division two.
In food products and processing, Sarah Canterbury and Allison Baughman placed first in division two. In plant systems division two, Kyle Gilbert and AJ Shannon placed first.
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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — When the 2021 Ohio FFA State Convention moved to an online format this year, members of the Zane Trace FFA chapter looked for a creative way to commemorate the event.
Thanks to the efforts of agriculture instructors in Holmes, Wayne, Ashland, Licking and Ross counties, the 2021 FFA Funvention was planned for April 29 and 30 at the Holmes County Fairgrounds and Harvest Ridge Event Center near Millersburg, Ohio. Nearly 400 members from 18 chapters, including 25 from Zane Trace, attended the event.
Each day, they participated in live-streams of the Ohio FFA Convention sessions and in-person workshops
Students also assembled 40 clean-up buckets for the CROP/CWS disaster relief efforts, which were transported to the First Christian Church in Mansfield to be distributed when needed to families in disaster areas.
Zane Trace FFA member Braylee Burkitt was selected by the Ohio Berkshire Association’s Donor Gilt program to receive a gilt to start her own herd.
As part of the program, Braylee will exhibit her gilt in the Berkshire show during the Ohio State Fair then breed her to a purebred Berkshire boar. She will also donate one gilt from her first litter in 2022 to the donor program to fulfill another young person’s dream of starting a Berkshire herd.
