Fair Grove students who have taken a few years of agriculture classes and have participated in the school’s Future Farmers of America club (FFA) had the chance to attend District competitions for all area high schools at Missouri State University.

Matia Hartley (11), Vice President of the Fair Grove FFA team, explains how each team has a contest topic that they are tested over. Six out of the eight Fair Grove teams, including floriculture, meats, dairy cattle, dairy foods, and farm management, got high enough scores allowing them a place to compete in the state tournaments in Columbia on April 21st and 22nd. Hartley says, “Each team must complete a written test quizzing them over their designated topic. Then they will have to judge animals or agricultural produce depending on their chosen topic. How well they judge this will also be added to their overall score. A lot of practice time is taken to do well in these areas. Most students spend time every day during class preparing, and even on weekends, or after school.

President of FFA, Britney Lawless (12) says, “Students learn a variety of skills that can be applied later in life.” Lawless goes on to say that the time students take out to is really helping them to later understand a wider scope of what farming life entails.

While each group spent a certain amount of time preparing for contests there was also a lot of time spent learning other areas of management that can prepare them for multiple areas of farming. In the long run, students learned a little bit of everything that can later help them on a larger scale.