Marion FFA hosts district competiton
Marion High School hosted teams from 13 schools Feb. 14 for South Central District FFA competition in entomology, poultry, and dairy events.
Marion, Centre, Hillsboro, Goessel, Buhler, South Barber, Wellington, South Haven, Winfield, Inman, McPherson, Great Bend, and Newton had teams participating in various contests.
Marion/Florence FFA members served as group leaders, helped set up and take down the contest, and supervised the entomology career development event.
Marion/Florence FFA members placed fifth in the A-team division of the entomology contest, paced by Gabe Moore, who finished seventh individually.
Marion teams took the top three spots in the freshman division, and seven of the top eight individual honors.
Sam Ehrlich, Ryan Jones, and Dillon Wildin took the top three spots, respectively. Danny Hett, Josh Gayle, Sheldon Boone, and Brandon Coleman finished fifth through eighth.
In addition, Marion placed first in the B-team division of the contest.
Contestants were required to take a comprehensive written test over insect control, habitat, growth cycles, characteristics, and effects on humans and agriculture.
They also had to identify 50 samples of common insects in Kansas.
Other entomology team members from Marion included Alan Overton, Austin Percell, Tacy Taylor, Emmanuel Jackson, Jason Richmond, Zan Fine, Matt Fine, Bryce Suffield, Joe Norris, Ted Turk, Adam Hett, Eric Vogel, Marshall Ragland, and Justin Herzet.
More than 100 students from 11 teams competed in the poultry contest.
Participants in the event were required to evaluate two classes of chickens, check for exterior defects in eggs, use a candling light to examine the interior of eggs for defects, identify various cuts of chicken, place a carcass class, grade a class of eggs, take a written test, and complete team problem solving activity.
Hank Collett, Chase Williams, Brad Klenda, and Joe Norris competed from Marion.
The event was coordinated by Dr. Scott Beyer, a poultry specialist from Kansas State University.
The dairy competition included tasting samples of milk to identify the off-flavor and score it. Contestants had to identify different samples of cheese according to appearance and flavor, as well as complete a California Mastitis Test on several samples of milk.
Evaluating and scoring milker parts, sediment pads, and written tests over milk production, milk marketing, and a problem solving section were the other parts of the contest.
Members participating from Marion included Boone, Turk, Alycia Pontious, Mark Kukuk, Charlie Holub, Danny Hett, Mason Kukuk, and Adam Hett.
