Breckenridge FFA excels at area competition

Breckenridge FFA excels at area competition News Staff Tue, 04/23/2024 - 4:20 pm   Breckenridge FFA competed at the Pecan Ridge District Convention at Dublin High School. The convention took place Monday, April 15. Contributed photo/Austin Hanna By Mike Williams news@breckenridgeamerican.com Breckenridge FFA had a successful day, Monday, April 15, at the Pecan Valley District Convention in Dublin with one second-place finish, three third-place finishes and a fifth-place finish. The Pecan Valley District of Area IV consists of 14 chapters in schools ranging from 1A to 5A and has the most members of the 10,954-member area. The district is made up of Aledo, Bluff Dale, Breckenridge, Brock, Dublin, Gordon, Huckabay, Lingleville, Millsap, Santo, Stephenville, Strawn, Three Way and Weatherford. According to the Area IV website, the Pecan Valley District has 2,417 members with 302 coming from Breckenridge. “At district convention we have our speaking contest at the district level,” Breckenridge FFA Sponsor Austin Hanna said. “(Also the) district officer elections. The kids vote for who they’re going to send from our district to the area elections next month. At the same time we’re checking record books and Lone Star applications. Mainly we do speaking events, elect officers and check the kid’s record books to see that they’re good to go to the next level.” Kaylee Langford finished second in the Ag Tech and Communication category of Prepared Public Speaking. Sylee Mitchell finished third in Ag Policy of Prepared Public Speaking. Mackenzie Cloud finished fifth in the Animal Science category of Prepared Public Speaking. In Prepared Public Speaking, students write and deliver a six to eight-minute speech about a current agriculture-related topic. The students research the topic of interest and then put together an informative speech to present to a panel of judges. Those judges score the students based on the speech’s content, composition and delivery. During the convention, competitions were held in the event for Ag Policy, Ag Tech and Communication, Agribusiness, Animal Science, Natural Resource and Plant Science. Langford, with her second-place finish in Ag Tech and Communication, will advance to the Area IV Convention taking place in May at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Rylee Fuller took third place in Extemporaneous Public Speaking. Extemporaneous Public Speaking students showcase their agricultural knowledge and ability to think on their feet by giving a speech and answering questions with a short amount of time for preparation. Participants then present a four to six-minute speech on a topic from a pool of 18 topics to a panel of judges. Following the speech there is a five-minute question session with the judges on the topic presented. This event challenges students to practice their presentation skills, articulation, and logical thinking and advocate for agriculture and agricultural education. Breckenridge also competed as a team in the talent contest with Jack McKay and Cabel Perkins and finished in third place. All talent team members must be currently enrolled in an agriscience course at the time of the district election or have been enrolled in an agriscience course during the current school year. Teams have a maximum of eight minutes to perform their routines. In addition to the competitions, Cloud ran and was elected to be a Pecan Valley District Officer. Forage to compete at state this week In addition to the successes last week at the district convention, Breckenridge FFA will be competing in the 2024 state event Friday, April 26 in Huntsville for Forage. “At the contest they’ll lay out 30 of the 90 possible plants,” Hanna said. “The kids have to identify them, tell which season it is, if it’s annual or perennial and if it’s native or invasive.” The forage team consists of Breckenridge High School students Miley Roberts, Kason Burchett, Glen Thibodeaux and Emillio Castorena. “I’ve had most of them for two to three years,” Hanna said. “...It’s definitely been interesting. They’re good kids. They try hard, they put in a lot of effort. They’ve made, especially this year, a lot of strides. I think it’s helped, for me, I’ve put in a lot of extra work this year to try and get them ready. It’s hard for me to expect them to identify plants if I don’t know what the plant is either. So that’s where I’ve been working on myself.” News Log in to post comments