Potosi High School students are passionate about FFA judging thanks to our awesome agriculture teacher, Mrs. Brunton. Students have been practicing with their teammates to compete at the upcoming contests.
On March 26th, six judging teams from Potosi will compete in the regional contest at UW-Platteville. The different categories for this upcoming contest are agronomy, livestock, wildlife, floriculture, poultry, and junior dairy. There is one big contest, but different categories to judge within the contest. There will be more categories, like horse judging, but we do not have a horse team this year.
The teams have been practicing for this contest since before Christmas. They practice during power hour Monday through Friday. Mrs. Brunton teaches all the teams what they need to know. The poultry team learns how to properly judge different ways to prepare chicken meat, such as chicken nuggets or even a whole chicken carcass. The floriculture team practices by assembling bouquets of flowers.
The teams will compete against other schools at the contest. There are usually four people per team. These students range in age from freshman to senior. On the poultry team, there are only seniors: Madi Cooley, Ryleigh Meier, Connor Robbins, and Mannattyn Udelhofen. Other teams include a range of grade levels. The floriculture team consists of Ayva Yager, Emma Uppena, Jessa Caley, and Emily Schaefer. The livestock team includes Kiara Hefty, Avery Decker, Kloe Sedbrook, and Sarah Mayer. The agronomy team includes Wyatt Emler, Harmony Reynolds, and Bradly Retallick. Lastly, the junior dairy team includes Rachael Vosberg, Levi Mayer, Brennan Meier, and Lane Schaefer, all freshmen.
Brunton has led judging teams for about 19 years now. She thoroughly enjoys it. “My favorite team to teach is wildlife. I really like judging wildlife.” She likes the variety of animals that she gets to look at. Brunton has taken teams to state around 10 times.
Ryleigh Meier, a senior on the poultry team, says she is very ready for this upcoming contest. “I feel ready, and I am glad I got to learn something new.” Meier says it was a fairly easy gaining experience, but there were a few difficult topics to learn. Learning the different parts of the chicken carcass was difficult for her. She has judged livestock before, but poultry is new for her this year. “I felt like I didn’t really know a lot when I judged livestock because there were a lot of different animals to learn about.” Meier is more confident this year judging poultry.
Ayva Yager, who is on the floriculture judging team, is also ready for the upcoming contest. “I’m as ready as I'll ever be.” Yager is very excited for the contest. She feels confident, and she knows what she is doing when it comes to floriculture. “This is my first time judging anything, and it has been a lot of fun learning this new thing.” Yager says she is a little nervous but more excited because it is something new. “Certain specific flowers are hard to remember, but it is more fun than difficult.”
We are wishing all the teams good luck and hope they advance to the next level. If any of the teams do well, they may get the chance to advance to the state contest, which would be the next one.