High school, middle school students recognized at State FFA Convention

The Wyoming FFA State Convention was held in Cheyenne on April 18-22.

Several members of the Hot Springs County High School Thermopolis FFA Chapter and the Thermopolis Middle School FFA Chapter were recognized at the state event.

Thermopolis FFA Chapter

High school seniors Morgan Slover and Lexi Overfield were named Region 2 Stars and both received their State Degrees.  

Slover participated in teams in vet science, marketing planning, and farm ranch management. Slover earned two silver proficiency awards, one in beef production and the other in ag mechanics and fabrication. For beef production, Slover worked for her father and wrote a paper about her experience. For ag mechanics, she worked on a barn project and wrote a paper about that.

Overfield also did vet science, farm business management and marketing planning. Also, Overfield received gold in her proficiency award in agri science and she received state star in agri science. 

Regarding her experiences in FFA, Slover said, "I feel like FFA and state conventions have opened the door to a lot of possibilities that I know were out there and has given me a lot of opportunities and knowledge of different things."

Overfield added about FFA and said, "It's definitely opened a lot of doors for especially scholarships. And different life skills, like public speaking, especially is a huge one that we've learned. And keeping records is really important. And we definitely learned a lot about that with our online records."

Regarding how their experiences may help them with the future, Overfield said, "Currently I'm looking at getting my agri science paper published so that I can spread the knowledge that I've learned to both ranchers and environmentalists."

Slover added, "I work for my dad, and this has helped me come up with different projects and just keep track of everything I've done out there. The competitions will help me in the future because I plan to go to school for ag business and then take over my dad's ranch. So this has helped me gain a lot of the skills and has put me a step ahead of where I would be if I didn't take ag."

High School FFA Instructor Britton Van Heule said about Slover and Overfield, "They are outstanding young women that have taken advantage of a program that would help propel them into their future and make them more successful."

Van Heule was also recognized at state convention when he was selected as the Wyoming 2023 Champion Ag Teacher. He is the Thermopolis FFA Chapter Head Advisor, Alyssa Green is the Assistant Advisor and Ryan Roybal is the ENR Coach.

The Thermopolis Chapter was named a Silver 2 Star Chapter, with 3 Star Gold being the highest ranking.

Additional awards include:

Proficiency Awards - Gold level applications will be submitted to Nationals, and considered for top three placings.

Service Learning - Maddison Andreen, Gold, Kaitlin Barral, Silver

Beef Production Placement - Morgan Slover, Silver

Agricultural Mechanics Design/Fabrication - Silver

Agriculture Mechanics Repair and Maintenance - Simon Ream, Silver

Agriculture Research-Integrated Systems - Lexi Overfield, Gold

AgriScience Fair - All gold students will submit their application and paper to National FFA. Top 10 will be selected in each category with those students attending the National FFA Convention in the Fall to compete.

Animal Systems, Division 3, Tymber Eckley - Gold

Animal Systems, Division 5, Sydney Shaffer - Silver

Environmental Natural Resources, Division 5, Porter McCumber - Silver

Food Products and Processing, Division 3, Hanna Hill - Gold

Food Products and Processing, Division 3, Maddison Andreen - Bronze

Food Products and Processing, Division 5, Brandon Rice - Gold

Power, Structure and Technical Systems, Division 5, Simon Ream - Gold

Career Development Event (CDEs)

Meats Evaluation team 10th out of 30 teams with 116 students competing. Simon Ream, 38th; Kallie Van Heule, 46th; Levi Stark, 48th; Porter McCumber, 36th

Livestock Judging team 3rd out of 48 Teams with 168 students competing, 2nd in beef, 3rd in reasons, 3rd in sheep. Taylor Agar 15th, Rylee Agar 17th, Timber Eckley 48th, Hayden Overfield 62nd. Beef - Tymber Eckley 5th, sheep - Rylee Agar 3rd, reasons - Taylor Agar 9th.

Agronomy team 15th. Tera Kraushaar 35th and Nevaeh Brill 40th

Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) team 18th. Jay Ritchey 32nd, Porter McCumber 45th, Bridger Peil 50th and Kale Odell 61st

Marketing Plan - Kallie Van Heule, Morgan Slover and Lexi Overfield wrote a marketing plan for the LU Ranch. Results have not been released yet.

Sales team 20th overall. Kaycee Stothart was high individual overall earning 1st, Lainie Boren 73rd, Camille Rodriguez 76th, Brodie Taber 83rd

Poultry team was 13th overall. Tera Kraushaar 37th, Jayda Griffin 50th, Kaitlin Barral 63rd, Tucker Lake 77th

Vet Science was 7th high team overall, 3rd in team activity, 9th on the test. Lexi Overfield 20th, Sydney Shaffer 24th, Morgan Slover 65th, Patrick Chapel 69th

Farm Business Management team was 8th overall. Lexi Overfield 25th, Hayden Overfield 27th, Sydney Shaffer 32nd, Morgan Slover 43rd

Horse Evaluation team was reserve champion overall, 2nd high team in performance, 4th high team in reasons, 6th high team in halter. Overall - Kamryn Farrell 15th, Maile McCumber 25th, Kaycee Stothart 29th, Patrick Chapel 38th. Halter - McCumber 14th, Farrell 17th, Stothart 32nd, Chapel 112th. Performance - Chapel 8th, Farrell 25th, McCumber 44th, Stothart 44th. Reasons - Farrell 18th, McCumber 35th, Stothart 42nd, Chapel 61st

Leadership Development Events (LDEs)

Ag Issues 6th overall. Maddison Andreen, Hanna Hill, Brooklyn Williams, Lance Axtell, Tucker Lake, Brooke Hubele and Kaia Galovich

Parli Pro 6th overall, 4th on the test. Hayden Overfield, Tymber Eckley, Maddison Andreen, Hanna Hill, Lance Axtell and Brooklyn Williams

Conduct A Meeting 6th overall 5th on the test. Kamryn Farrell, Maile McCumber, Taylor Ivie, Alix Sorensen, Madi Shaffer, Kaycee Stothart and Jay Ritchey Public Speaking - extemporaneous Rylee Agar 7th, prepared Taylor Agar 7th, creed Maile McCumber 8th

State FFA Degree recipients: Owen McCumber, McCoy Longwell, Chase Moeller, Gavin Shumway, Kallie Van Heule, Lexi Overfield and Morgan Slover

Stars: Morgan Slover - Regional Star Ag Placement, Lexi Overfield - Regional Star Agriscience, State Star

The High School FFA will hold their banquet on May 8 at the Fair Building at 6 p.m. for recognition of all their students' awards and accomplishments. It is open to the public.

Big Springs FFA Chapter

Several Thermopolis Middle School Big Springs FFA Chapter members attended the Wyoming State FFA Convention in Cheyenne recently.

Big Springs had 15 members that competed in the Agriscience Fair and 12 of them were named state champions. Ann Allen State Champion Animal Systems Division 1, Camden Weyer and Ryan Axtell State Champions Animal Systems Division 2, Tyler Morris and Clint Kimes State Champions ENR Division 2, Alec Martinez State Champion Food Products and Processing Division 1, Mac McCumber and Baer McPhie Second Place Food Products and Processing Division 2, Ava Dafoe State Champion Plant System Division 1, Kylie Frederick and Logann Farrell State Champions Plant Systems Division 2, Christian Eplin State Champion Social Systems Division 1, Izzie Hetzel Second Place Social Systems Division 1, Morgan Jones and Chloee Owsley State Champions Socal Systems Division 2.

Members also participate in Career Development Events (CDEs) at state convention competing against other middle school members. Mac McCumber, Alec Martinez, Max Martinez and Reagan Huckfeldt were on the second place poultry team. The horse team earned fourth place with team members Autumn Cornwell, Layla Epperson, Paige Jones and Ella Slover. The meats team also did will in their competition earning fifth place with members Mac McCumber, Baer McPhie, Ryan Axtell and Kolby Deere. The livestock team consisting of Chloee Owsley, Mac McCumber, Kylie Frederick, and Logann Farrell earned tenth place.

Big Springs Chapter members also competed in the Quiz Bowl and Ag Issues events against high school teams.

The Ag Issues team placed tenth and consisted of members Ryan Axtell, Tyler Morris, Ann Allen, Logann Farrell, Izzie Hetzel, Kylie Frederick and Bella Hubele. They performed a skit that deals with an issue currently happening in agriculture. Their topic was how hay prices, fuel prices, and livestock prices are affecting farmers. 

Several members completed the 100 question test for Quiz Bowl and the top four scores from the Big Springs Chapter were added together for the team score. The team placed 13th and the following members participated: Alec Martinez, Max Martinez, Camden Weyer, Autumn Cornwell, Morgan Jones, Ava Dafoe, Baer McPhie, Ann Allen and Izzie Hetzel.

TMS Big Springs FFA Advisor Becky Martinez said, "Our students did great. We traveled with 21 middle school students that are seventh and eighth graders. I would say about half of them it was their first time getting to go to the state convention. So it was very eye-opening for them to kind of see what FFA looks like at the state level and to be competing with so many different teams and just having that many kids in the same area that were interested. And they did fantastic. I'm super proud. Our agri-science kids competed in February and have been waiting for months for their results, so they were very eager to hear what their results were. And I think for the most part very pleased to hear what their results were. They did fantastic. I was so excited for them. I think we had 12 that are state champions that will submit their research paper to nationals for an opportunity to get to compete at the national level as well."

Our IR reporter sat down with a few of the members to discuss some of their projects.

Seventh grader Kylie Frederick went to the state convention for her ag science project. She did livestock judging and ag issues. Frederick's project along with partner Logann Farrell was for plant science, where she tried to determine which soil was best for plant growth, specifically kale. They predicted that organic Miracle-Gro would work best and their research determined they were right. They placed first in ag science. Frederick explain the process that led to their success and said they first did trial research to determine what they were doing and then did the actual project to have more accurate results. 

Seventh grader Izzie Hetzel's project was to see if non-organic foods versus organic foods have different tastes. Hetzel had people in the school try different juices from different ages. They tasted both organic and non-organic apple juices of the same type of brands and she asked them if they tasted similar or better, or any differences. Hetzel's results were that people said there isn't much of a taste difference, basically indefinable. Hetzel placed second in ag science.

Eighth grader Ava Dafoe tested to see whether cilantro grew different in different ph of soils. Her hypothesis was the cilantro would grow better in a neutral ph soil as preferred to an acidic or alkaline soil due to the minerals that were in the soils. Her results were that it grew better in the acidic soil as preferred to the neutral or alkaline soil, and it barely grew at all in the alkaline. Dafoe placed first in plant systems.

Eighth grader Alec Martinez's project was about how steak would be in regard to tenderness based on different cooking methods. Martinez used three methods, an oven, an electric grill and sous vide. Sous vide is where the meat is cooked in a sealed bag in a water tank to a specific temperature. Martinez predicted that cooking in the oven would have the most tenderness. However, his results found that the electric grill had the most tenderness out of all the methods of cooking. Martinez placed first in food products and processing systems. Additionally, Martinez and his team did poultry judging and placed second at state. 

Seventh grader Mac McCumber's project was about where people would buy produce from local producers versus store producers. On his farm, they placed farm fresh produce from their garden that was only a week old and took a survey online about what people would rather buy from. McCumber predicted that people would rather buy farm fresh produce because it's healthier and it wasn't as old. His results were that people would rather buy local produce. McCumber placed second in the food science division. 

A big highlight of convention for the Big Springs Chapter was receiving top honors as a Gold Star chapter. Last summer the officer team set a goal to be a gold chapter and developed the chapter's Program of Activities (POA) with exciting and new events for the year. "Several members devoted hours to fill out the lengthy application, and we were proud to be the only middle school chapter to receive the Gold Star Chapter this year," said advisor Becky Martinez.

Martinez was also awarded the Honorary FFA Degree for her service to the state organization.

Looking to the future, the students' research papers are due in June and Nationals are in October. Additionally, this summer, the chapter will hold a fundraiser called "Redneck Run" which is a 5K similar to a tough mudder competition. It will be held in conjunction with a cornhole tournament and it is a family-friendly activity for everyone. The specific time and location are to be determined.