Lamar FFA Teams Travel to Texas

From left to right: Remington Stocking, Swayzee Bellomy, Theresa Butler, Parker Wurst, Ryin Roberts, Coy Mahanay, West Texas A & M's "Thunder" (buffalo mascot), Austin Peck, Jeremy Wallace, and Justin Souders (former Wiley FFA member and "Buffalo Handler" for W. T.)

From left to right Coy Mahanay, Parker Wurst, Remington Stocking, Swayzee Bellomy, Theresa Butler, Parker Wurst, Ryin Roberts, Austin Peck, and Jeremy Wallace.

By Theresa Butler, Lamar FFA Chapter Junior Reporter

Thursday, March 31, eight members of the Lamar FFA Chapter headed to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas to participate in various Career Development Events (CDEs) workshops. Participants involved in such contests develop many personal skills including increased motivation, development of social and communication skills, and increase in self-confidence. Career Development Events (CDEs) are designed to compliment classroom instruction by giving students an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge in competitive situations. Each contest has been specifically developed to test skills and knowledge of students in a particular area of agriculture (National FFA, 1991).

Members of the Horse Evaluation Team, consisting of Remington Stocking and Parker Wurst, travelled to Tech’s state-of-the-art Equine Center with over 300 other FFA and 4-H members to learn and develop their skills in Horse Evaluation. Four members of the Livestock Evaluation team, consisting of Coy Mahanay, Ryin Roberts, Swayzee Bellomy, and Theresa Butler, competed in contest with more than 600 other FFA and 4-H members. Austin Peck and Jeremy Wallace were able to attend a learning workshop sponsored by Texas Tech’s Ag Education Department. Following a grueling day of travel, contests, and workshops members were treated to supper at Joe’s Crab Shack in Lubbock.

The following day students travelled to West Texas A & M University in Canyon and participated with hundreds of other FFA and 4-H members in various contests including Horse and Livestock Evaluation as well as Ag Mechanics. Approximately 370 FFA and

4-H members participated in the Horse Judging. Over 600 members competed in the Livestock Evaluation and close to 100 members competed in the Ag Mechanics contest. Everyone had a great time and learned a great deal.

On the final day, FFA members drove to Clarendon Junior College in Clarendon, Texas and participated in Livestock and Horse Evaluation.

The Horse Evaluation Team learned about horse conformation and how to judge many different performance classes including: Reining, Western Pleasure, Western Horsemanship, Trail, and Hunter Under Saddle. The Livestock Evaluation Team learned about “keep/cull” classes in which they determine which animals to keep or cull based on performance records and visual inspection. Lamar FFA members met new people and gained exposure to the colleges and different way in which Texas holds their contests.

Some of the highlights included meeting with Lamar FFA member’s former Ag Teacher, Mr. Perryman who now teaches in Texas. They also enjoyed meeting new people from across the states of Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The Lamar FFA Chapter is looking forward to applying their new skills to the Regional and State CDEs coming up soon!