The Powell-Shoshone FFA Teams are beginning their practices to prepare for competition in March.
FFA is an award-winning organization focusing on agricultural education, leadership, and community service. The FFA teams include ENR, livestock judging, vet science, agriculture mechanics, wool judging, and many more. It has been supported by advisors like Mr. Benjamin Curdy, who also teaches Agriculture class and welding.
“I like it very much to be an FFA Advisor,” Mr. Curdy said. “It’s kind of my dream job, so I’m glad that I am lucky enough to be doing it.”
Mr. Curdy does a lot for the students to help them become successful leaders in FFA. The students do a great job leading FFA meetings in learning about the community they live in and agriculture.
Day is part of the agronomy team, where they identify seeds and plants found around the community. Another FFA team is the agriculture mechanic team.
“We have been working on residential wiring and trailer wiring,” sophomore Christopher Gemmel said. “Brian really helps us understand the concept, considering he is an electrician himself.”
Gemmel is just one of the awesome students on the agriculture mechanic team. The next incredible FFA team is horse judging.
“We have practices about one to two times a week,” senior Rieta Clark said. “We do a lot of Kahoot quizzes to practice our knowledge on terminology of certain things about horses. We also will practice judging a class of horses on a video program called Livestockjudging.com. It’s a really nice program to use at home or at school.”
Clark is another FFA leader. She is the sentinel in the FFA chapter, where she gets to learn and experience different things about agriculture. The next FFA team is livestock judging.
“My favorite part of Livestock Judging is the rewarding feeling I have after a contest,” junior Juliana Marquez said. “Knowing I pushed through the process. It makes it even better when I walk away with a few 50 scores on my classes as well.”
For livestock judging, the team practices judging a variety of species using the same website that horse judging uses. The last of the FFA teams is vet science.
“I have competed in 3 CDE teams during my time in FFA,” senior Hadley Cooper said. “Livestock judging, meat judging, and vet science. I have enjoyed all, but vet science is my favorite. I want to be a large animal vet, and this CDE really helps prepare you for that.”
Cooper is the president of the Powell Shoshone FFA. During vet science practices, they do a lot with math to find the correct doses for each animal’s medication. They have to identify parasites, animal breeds, and equipment used. All the FFA teams are doing phenomenal jobs preparing for competition.
“I feel excited about the teams,” Mr. Curdy said. “I think we have some great potential on our team, as well as some great coaches. Hopefully, they are all able to put the time into being successful.”
