HOWARD — Four members of the East Knox FFA recently competed in the Ohio FFA General Livestock Career Development Event (CDE) held at the Ohio Exposition Center in Columbus.
This team consisted of all freshmen – Alexia Wine, John Schillinger, Hayden Garman, and Keaton Spence and placed 165th out of 200 teams and 1,043 individuals from across Ohio.
The top 10 teams in the state compete in the finals at a later time where they judge additional classes of livestock and give oral reasons on each class.
In the contest team members take a written test on general livestock knowledge and also complete five market grid questions; place eight classes of livestock consisting of one market and one breeding class of beef, swine, sheep and goats; answer five questions over four of the placing classes; and evaluate keep/cull classes of the various species where they select the best four females to keep for breeding purposes out of eight animals using performance records as well as visual evaluation.
The General Livestock CDE is an educational program designed as a practical method of teaching students to recognize quality production animals.
The skills students learn in evaluating general livestock should make them better livestock producers and consumers by giving them practical experience in identifying and understanding characteristics that affect production and quality.