The Prairie Central FFA’s streak of national wins continues.
Prairie Central was the national champion for Dairy Cattle Evaluation at the 95th National FFA Convention and Expo held this week in Indianapolis. Team members include Carla Kilgus, Grace Lemenager, Hannah Miller and Ellie Ellis.
“I give most of our credit to Mrs. Freed because she was the one that took the time for our practices morning and night,” said Lemenager.
Team members had to take a written online test before the contest, meaning they spent several weeks practicing before and after school.
“We worked on judging classes and then giving oral reasons,” explained Miller.
The kids seem to agree the many hours preparing for the contest was completely worth it in the end.
The Dairy Products Team was the reserve national champion. This team includes Preston Plenert, Brittney Slagel, Kamber Kilgus and Adri Cottrell.
“The first part of it was really studying old tests, working on team problems and then after we took the test it was more of tasting the products,” said Kilgus.
“One of the things I really enjoyed was the cheese ID and the real versus artificial product ID,” noted Slagel.
All of the ag teachers, parents, volunteers and Kilgus Dairy helped to prepare the team for its success.
“The whole contest was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my entire life,” observed Cottrell.
Plenert was also impressed with the experience.
“At the hotel, we studied all day Wednesday just working on things we needed to get better at.”
Prairie Central’s Meats Evaluation received 10th in the nation with members Ellie Drach, Ivan Miller, Garret Platz and Tyler Hartman. Poultry Evaluation received 11th with members Mya Roth, Franklin Rathbun, Eli Schaffer and Rhet Gehring. Ag Mechanics received 21st in the nation with members Nathan Plenert, Seth Rigsby, Drew McWhorter and Ty Welborn. Farm and Agribusiness Management received 11th with members Andrew Slagel, Morgan Lanz, Koryn Fehr and Kenna Skaggs.
“The kids did a great job,” agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Kyle Miller said.
Miller feels the ag program’s success at Prairie Central continues to build upon itself.
“The younger kids see their siblings or the older kids in the school really enjoy it.”
Miller is thankful for the alumni, business people and local farmers who are involved with the success of the FFA, by offering their expertise to the students. Miller also gave credit to fellow ag teachers Becky Freed, Tyson Stork and Kylie Miller for their efforts.
After a weekend of celebrating its national success, the Prairie Central FFA will get right back to work in the next week starting work with the dairy products and agronomy teams. They have already started the ag sales contest as the kids won the section division and advance to the district level.
A welcome home reception was held Saturday afternoon at Kilgus Farmstead near Fairbury as students talked about their experiences at the national convention.
