FFA Agronomy and Livestock Judging Event a Success

Hinsdale FFA Agronomy and Livestock Judging team swept the Big Muddy FFA District Career Development Events (CDE) on Oct. 3 in Richey, Mont. Ten chapters with 110 FFA members competed.

Hinsdale FFA coach, Patti Armbrister said, "I was so excited to have the agronomy and livestock teams win. The amazing part of the agronomy team win, was no one person carried the team. Every person in the chapter should feel good about the wins as the entire Agriculture Education class and FFA chapter pushed each other to gain the knowledge needed to place so high with all of the team members."

Cache Younkin placed first in the Varsity Livestock Judging contest which was one of his goals since he was very, very, young. It is wonderful to see a student succeed when they have set goals and worked hard to achieve them.

Logan McColly placed fourth in the Varsity Agronomy contest. The team excelled at range plant ID, range similarity indexing, understanding the soils and plant communities in order to know if the pasture is in good shape or poor condition.

The Hinsdale Agriculture classes studied agronomy, with live hands-on workshops in range, plant ID, and soils. The NRCS presented a soil workshop and Ron and Rose Stoneberg presented to all of the students in the Ag-Ed classes, on how they have been successful in increasing soil health and increasing available grass and grazing on their operation.

Cordell Younkin placed fourth for the varsity livestock team judging as a freshman. "I think an individual award will come his way someday soon," stated Armbrister. Mickayla Johnson placed sixth in the varsity livestock team. Casity Boucher placed sixth, Cache Younkin place seventh, and Mickayla Johnson placed ninth for the agronomy team.

The Hinsdale JV agronomy team placed first with John McColly leading the way placing fifth, Trey Johnson eighth, Halle Beil 10th, and Sarah Boucher rounding off the team in 13th place. Loden Ilder placed 13th and Aiden Albus was 16th out of 40 individuals competing.

JV Livestock team placed second overall, with Kaitlyn McColly leading the charge with 442 points, winning first place individually, Loden Ilder placed second overall with other teammates Aiden Albus and Trey Johnson. Both Albus and Johnson are seventh graders competing for the first time.

The chapter and it's members would like to thank the following people and groups for helping them prepare to be successful: Chisholm Christensen, Brady Johnson, the soil crew with the NRCS, Patti Armbrister (advisor), the Hinsdale FFA Alumni, and all of the people that provided animals for the Hinsdale contest.