Livestock CDE team earns an 8th Place

CHELAN - Chelan FFA Members traveled East to Spokane to compete in the Washington State FFA Livestock Career Development Event and the last Meats Evaluation CDE before State.  Eleven members made the trip and competed well at the events held on Wednesday May 3rd in conjunction with the Spokane Junior Livestock Show.  

The Livestock CDE Team of Stephanie Olivera,  Jessie Oules,  Owen Oules, Aislinn Davis, Kenny Reeves and Ashley Sams  had to complete a wide variety of the assessments on their way to an 8th place plaque and a trip on stage at State Convention next week.     They had to complete a 25 question objective test on the livestock industry, then complete a team activity on Genetics  where using Bull performance data and estimated progeny differences (EPDs)  analysis they had to select bulls for different operational scenarios around the state.   The team activity also included a video marketing scenario where they are given a number of lots of calves from a recent video auction catalog.  Then based on a scenario and location, they have to select the best lot of calves  based on transportation cost, calf breeding, size of loads, backgrounding, and vaccination history. The final part of the team activity was to choose which four ewes out of eight to keep and which four to cull based on live evaluation and performance data.   Then  each individual evaluated 2 classes of beef,  2 classes of swine, 2 classes of sheep, and 1 class of meat goats.  Then after the placing classes were complete they gave a set of oral reasons on beef replacement heifers, market hogs, and market lambs.  

When it was all said and done they had judged and talked their way on stage with an 8th place finish for the second year in a row.    

The meats team finished their last warm up of the year with a 9th place finish.  The team of Obed Diaz, Max Nims, Richard Heimark, Henry Armstrong, and Carlos Vargas did well identifying meat cuts, quality and yield grading, placing retail and primal cuts, and completing a ground meat formulation problem.  This young team has been working to prepare for a run at State FFA Meats CDE in Pullman with the 87th Washington State Convention.