Four members of FFA competed Feb. 16 in the NCFFA State Poultry Judging Contest. The team was led by adviser Michael Johnson and consisted of four members: Caroline Becker, Emerson Hayes, Makayla Loop and Preston Spencer.

The contest consisted of career development events and leadership development events involving FFA. Lots of training was required to learn these skills.

“We usually did meetings after school where we watched videos and learned how to judge and what to look for,” Loop said.

During these meetings Johnson took on the challenge of coaching the team.

“We practiced afterschool using videos and hands on products like eggs and chicken patties. The students put in a lot of hard work to learn the material away from school for homework,” Johnson said.

After several training sessions, it was time for the competition to begin. Several events in the competition occurred.

“We evaluated processed chicken parts like chicken patties and tenders along with unprocessed parts like chicken breast,” Spencer said. “We also evaluated the interior and exterior of egg quality and took a written test on chicken carcasses.”

Even though the team trained for the contest, challenges still came their way.

“It is always tough to go to your first competition, and there are over 300 FFA members competing. It is definitely an eye-opening experience,” Johnson said.

The FFA team persevered through the challenges. However some challenges were harder than others.

“Stand out moments were definitely the oral reasons. We were all very nervous about that. It didn’t go exactly as planned but we still got through it,” Loop said.

“In the end our team’s effort paid off and they placed 20 out of 76 in our state and placed second for our county,” Preston Spencer said. “We got our judge card back, and seeing through our hard work and preparation we scored very well as a team.”