The First FFA CDE of the Season!

On March 18th the Jones County FFA Chapter travelled to Philip, South Dakota, to compete in their region’s first FFA Career Development Event (CDE). These are competitive events that are made to help FFA members to apply their knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities in real-world scenarios. Starting back in the beginning of February, the FFA members would have practices after school on Wednesdays to prepare them for these CDEs. Range Judgers could be seen studying Grassland Plants, Ag Mechanics with studying Tractor Parts, and Horse Judgers studying Horse Breeds. All these things had influenced what the final scores of the FFA members had turned out to be.

On the morning of March 18th all the students at Jones County High School had their first class of the day. However, those who were FFA Chapter Members checked out of school early to travel and compete at Philip, South Dakota’s CDE. The FFA competitors travelled with Jake Lolley, the new FFA advisor, and Brandon Vevig who is one of the school’s janitors who drove the van in which they rode in. When they had arrived at Philip, they had checked in and found a place to wait until the instructions for the day were announced. After the opening ceremony had concluded, the different divisions dispersed into different areas to take their tests. The competitors were focused and concentrated while they put their knowledge and abilities to the test. To receive a medal and qualify to compete at the State CDE, a contestant would have to place in the top five of their division individually, or place in the top three as a team. Those who had placed will compete at the State FFA Convention in Brookings, South Dakota, later this Spring. Those who had placed from Jones County were Denae Man, in the division of Horse Judging. Jesse Schoon and Cyrus Hendricks had come close to placing in the Rangeland Identification division with Jesse placing 6th and Cyrus placing 7th, however, the Range Plant Identification team had placed 3rd.

The Jones County FFA Chapter had proceeded to travel and compete at Lyman and Lemmon South Dakotas CDEs in the following two weeks, and the competitors had done quite well. At the Lyman CDE on March 25th, Thad Kierl placed 3rd in Ag Mechanics, with Connor Iverson following up with 4th in the same division. In Range Plant Identification Jesse Schoon had received 5th, and the Ag mechanic team had placed 3rd while the Range Plant ID team also received 3rd place. Just last week at the Lemmon CDE on March 30th, which was the most recent event, Easton Newsam had placed 5th in Ag Business, while Cyrus Hendricks had also placed 5th in Range Plant ID.