A busy fall

The Washington FFA has had many activities going on this fall. The FFA chapter has had a great number of members engaged in all sorts of fundraisers, competitions, conventions and conferences.

The fall activities started off with the Grow by FarmHer conference. The conference was held at the FFA Enrichment Center on Nov. 23 in Ankeny. A group of young women from the FFA chapter attended the conference that promoted and displayed women in agriculture. Over 350 young women attended from all over Iowa to listen to great speakers and catch impressive workshops.

Next up was the Linn-Mar Kirkwood livestock judging invitational that was held on Oct. 11. Two Washington FFA teams competed. The first team consisted of Leah Evans, Collin, and Madison Fishback and the second team consisted of Sophie Murphy, Ellie Todd and Dakota Miller. The first team placed 19th out of 86 teams and the 2nd team placed 49th out of 86 teams. Highlights of the competition were Sophie Murphy placing 42 out of 291 contestants and Washington team 1 received second overall in beef.

The Land Lab harvest for this 2016-2017 school year was successful with a lot of help from community members. Karlton Skubal, Tucker Renoux, Cole and Kyle Dallmeyer, Aaron Vittetoe, Jack Carter, Wil Marek, John Sands and Sam Reed all participated in the success of the land lab harvest. The Land Lab members put together their own personal money to purchase input costs to grow about 40 acres of corn and 40 acres of soybeans. The students also get to decide all of the management decisions for the crops. Jake Thomsen from Washington Sinclair Tractor brought a combine and showed students how the combine takes the yield. He also came to an Agronomy class and taught students how the yield data they collect can be used in many different maps including yield maps. David Hora, a Washington FFA member and Agronomy student, brought a drone from Continuum Ag. David took video while the harvest was in progress and Mitchell Hora, the CEO and Founder of Continuum Ag, put together a video that showed the Land Lab harvest and thanked the sponsors who helped with everything during the year.

A group of girls from the Washington FFA chapter traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to take part in the National FFA Convention on Oct. 18 ? 21. The girls who went were Sophie Bell, Allison Hamilton, Sophie Murphy, Mikayla Rodgers, Hailey Shultz and Ellie Todd. While at the convention they attended sessions with over 18,000 people, toured Fair Oaks Farms where they learned about row crop and pig production and watched many competitions and career development events. ?My favorite part about National Convention was visiting the different tours and getting to meet new FFA members from all around the United States? said Hailey Shultz, a freshman FFA member at Washington. The girls experienced new things through the convention.

Green-Hand Fireup took place on Oct. 25 at Mid-Prairie High School. This event is for the new FFA members of the year. Green-Hand Fireup teaches FFA members about opportunities in the FFA and encouraged them to set goals and create plans to achieve them. The event was a great opportunity to get the freshman members thinking about how they could help their chapter.

Last but not least, students have been busy with fruit sales. FFA students throughout the chapter sold fruit the whole month of October. The fruit sales committee which consists of Makenzi Marek, Ellie Bell, Sophie Bell, Collin Greiner, Brady Knutson, and Hailey Shultz have been busily processing orders and payments to ensure delivery goes without any problems. The fruit will be delivered the week of Dec.12. The new FFA members have the opportunity to pay for their FFA jacket if they raised enough money. This is one of fundraisers the Washington FFA Chapter does for the year.

Throughout all of the fundraisers, competitions, conventions and conferences the attendance of members has been great. They have learned and strengthened their skills to benefit the Washington FFA. The successful 2016 fall has come to an end and members look forward to bringing in the new year with many more activities!