Whitley County High School FFA excels at regional competitions

Photo submitted. Pictured from left to right: Trey Potter, Dakota Lawson, Chase Lawson, Bryce Bays, Erica Flannery, Caleb Rose, and Gracie Brashear

_{The Whitley County High School FFA Chapter traveled to North Laurel High School for several competitions on March 5th.}

_{The competitions centered around the students Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) Projects.}

_{As part of the Agriculture program Agri-science students are required to develop some type of agriculture project that they are to work on outside of the normal school day and keep records over what they do.}

_{Their project will be in one of the following categories: Agriculture Placement – the student works for a business related to agriculture, Agriculture Entrepreneurship – students owns some type of agriculture operation, Agri-science Research – student uses research to solve some type of agriculture issue or new development, Exploratory – student studies different careers within agriculture for possible future employment.}

_{Over the course of their high school career students are encouraged to keep records over there projects, once they have completed two years of records then students can enter there SAE project into the regional proficiency contest.}

_{A proficiency is a paper application that allows students to showcase their project by having written summaries, financial records, skills summaries, and photographs of students with their projects.}

_{This year WCHS FFA entered 10 proficiencies at the regional contest and won eight of the ten, the winners will advance onto state competition in June. This was the most of any school in the region.}

_{Bryce Bays was winner in Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance.}

_{Caleb Rose was winner in Ag Processing.}

_{Dakota Lawson was winner in Ag Mechanics Design and Fabrication.}

_{Bryce Bays was winner in Diversified Livestock.}

_{Caleb Rose was winner in Food Science.}

_{Trey Potter was winner in Small Animal Production.}

_{Gracie Brashear was winner in Nursery Operations,}

_{Chase Lawson was winner in Wildlife Management.}

_{Fisher Barton placed 2nd in Landscape Management.}

_{Erica Flannery placed second in Diversified Horticulture Production.}

_{Whitley County FFA also had five students who qualified to receive their State FFA Degree which is given to less than five percent of students in FFA. They must meet qualifications based on their SAE Earnings, scholastic achievement, and community service involvement.}

_{WCHS FFA recipients were Chase Lawson, Caleb Rose, Bryce Bays, Erica Flannery, and Shane Bingham.}

_{From the State FFA Degrees that are entered into the region, two STAR finalists are chosen as being the best SAE project within their respective area: the areas are Star in Placement – student works for a business in agriculture, Star in Agri-Business – student owns some type of business related to agriculture, and Star in Ag Production – Student grows plants or animals.}

_{WCHS FFA has a finalist in two out of the three areas, Chase Lawson is a finalist in Agri-business, and Caleb Rose is a finalist in Ag Placement.}

_{Chase Lawson’s project involves him custom training hunting dogs for customers and he also buys, trains and sales hunting dogs as well. Caleb Rose’s project involves him working at}

_{Moonlight Meat Processing where he is responsible for processing animals to be packaged for human consumption.}

_{These two students will be visited by two agriculture teachers from the region sometime in the next two weeks to see if they are selected as the regional winners and are then able to advance onto state competition.}