Students from Susanville’s Future Farmers of America headed to Tulelake last week to take part in a series of competitions with other FFA chapters from around the north state.
“At the Tulelake field day we had teams compete in many different speaking events and career development events,” explains FFA Vice President Erin Nickell.
“The speaking teams that we had there were our novice and advanced parliamentary procedure teams in this event the teams had to be able to run a mock meeting in 11 minutes where they have to debate and vote on motions as well as take a test on knowledge of parliamentary procedure.”
The group also had individual speakers compete in impromptu and extemporaneous public speaking.
“In the impromptu event they have 30-seconds to prepare a two minute speech and present it. In extemporaneous public speaking they have 30-minutes to prepare a 4-6 minute speech and present it.”
FFA Teams also competed in career development events including veterinary science, vegetable crops and agriculture mechanics.
“In veterinary science the students had to be able to properly ID animal breeds, parasites, and tools that are commonly seen in the veterinarian field. The students also had to present three practicums which demonstrate procedures which would be performed in a veterinary clinic.”
The vegetable crop team, according to Nickell, had to be able to properly ID vegetables, transplants, diseases, insects and seeds as well as judge the quality of vegetables and give reasons as to why they judged them that way.
The agricultural mechanics team had to be able to do arc welding, plumbing, electric motors and controls, problem solving, tool identification and take a written test.
“Altogether we had a great contest with advanced parliamentary procedure placing 1st high team, novice parliamentary procedure placing 5th high team, Jae Norton placed 5th high in impromptu, veterinary science placed 2nd high team with Jae Norton placing 1st high individual and Erin Nickell placing 2nd high individual, vegetable crops placed 2nd high team with Nate Biggs placing 2nd high individual and Waylon Miller placing 3rd high individual, and agriculture mechanics placed 4th high team with Nolan Mallery placing 4th high individual.”
