Centre FFA members competed in several events during the past month.

Centre FFA officer team and greenhand members participated Nov. 5 in the South Central District Leadership Conference at Arkansas City.

The officer team competed in the senior division ritual and information test. They advanced to the finals and placed sixth in ritual out of 22 teams. Team members were Grace Knepp, Jensen Riffel, Cailey Barney, Athena Salamone, Tyler Nickel, and Dillon Knepp.

The greenhands competed in parliamentary procedure and placed first as a team. They will be competing in novice competition at the state convention in May. Team members were chairman Tanner Stuchlik, Mikey Silhan, Kyle Peterson, Emily Casey, Alex Remmers, and Quinten Bina.

Ag Awareness Day

On Oct. 29, Centre FFA members invited first- to fifth- grade students to an ag awareness event at the school.

Several members gave hands-on presentations of different segments of the agriculture industry and shared how they are involved in those areas. The students learned about farm equipment, greenhouse operations, swine, and arc welding.

Swine presenter was Jensen Riffel. Samantha Engler and Lacey Wingerd explained greenhouse operations, Kyle Peterson and Tanner Stuchlik talked about farm equipment and tractor safety, and Kyle Naerebout and Tanner Wiggins demonstrated welding procedures.

“The day was a success and it was great to get to see young kids get excited about some of the different areas in agriculture,” adviser Laura Klenda said.

FFA members said they enjoyed the chance to interact with the younger students and planned to host the event again in the future.

National FFA Convention

Centre FFA members attended the 91st National FFA Convention and Expo at Indianapolis, Indiana from Oct. 23-27. They learned about FFA on a national level and met members from throughout the country.

The trip began with a tour of Bayer Crop Science, formerly Monsanto, in St. Louis, Missouri. The second tour stop was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The group then attended the first general session, which included an introduction to the 2018-2019 National FFA theme, Just One. Half the group attended a Garth Brooks concert in Lucas Oil Stadium that evening.

On Oct. 25, members attended the convention and exposition, took an educational tour of a Fastenal Distribution Center, and attended a rodeo.

The final session featured a keynote address from Judson Laipply, the creator of ‘Evolution of Dance’.

Horse evaluation and entomology

Centre FFA traveled to Kingman on Oct. 17 to compete in the South Central District horse evaluation and entomology events.

Participants competing in horse judging were required to evaluate and rank two halter classes and four performance classes. Greenhand members placed ninth as a team. The team included Quinten Bina, Emily Casey, Tanner Stuchlik, and Kyle Peterson.

Members also competed in entomology. They identified 50 insects and took a 40-question test over general knowledge and science of insects.

The greenhand team placed second overall. Mikey Silhan placed third, Kyle Peterson placed eighth, and Tanner Stuchlik placed 10th. Other team members were Emily Casey, Quinten Bina, and Alex Remmers.

Centre’s senior division team placed seventh overall. Team members were Alexis Craney, Cailey Barney, Lacey Wingerd, Samantha Engler, Devin August, Haley Meyer, and Makayla Forichette.