By JoMINNEAPOLIS – On Oct. 4, the Sleepy Eye FFA Chapter sent four teams to the University of Minnesota to compete in Career Development Events or CDE’s. A CDE is an opportunity for students to learn about a certain aspect of agriculture and compete in competitions to demonstrate their knowledge.

The Poultry CDE involves judging chicken and turkey carcasses, eggs, processed poultry, and taking a poultry knowledge test.

The poultry team went to the U of M Invitational before heading to their regional competition. The team did great placing 1st in the competition. The team consisted of McKenzie Cselovszki who placed 2nd individually, Brianna Polesky, who placed 12th individually, Parker Neid 14th individual, and Colin Hillmer.

The soils team also attended the competition in St. Paul placing 7th. Isaac Johnson was the top scorer on the team, the rest of the team consisted of Carter Fischer, Owen Braun, and Kyle Christensen. In the soils contest, members judge different soil profiles, and identify its characteristics, including texture, depths, and erosion potential.

The dairy judging team placed 14th at the competition and Anna Landkammer was the top scorer on the team, the rest of the team consisted of Clarissa Simonsen, Macy Schenk, McKayla Ashenbrenner, and Tyrah Stoll. For the Dairy Judging CDE, the individuals judge the cow based certain body traits like: udder, legs, dairyness, topline, and the overall appearance of the cow.

On October 6th, CDE teams ventured to Sherburne to compete in the Region VI fall CDE competition.

The poultry team was the 1st Place Team overall and qualified for the state competition in the spring. McKenzie Cselovszki was the 2nd place individual, Brianna Polesky was the 4th place individual, Parker Neid was the 5th place individual, and Colin Hillmer was the 14th place individual.

The Soils team placed 5th in the competition and earned a trip to state competition. Carter Fischer was the top scorer on the team, and his teammates are Owen Braun, Kyle Christensen, and Isaac Johnson.

The Forestry team placed 4th in the region and qualified for the state competition as well. Andrew Rose was the high scorer on the team, and his teammates are Jayden Fischer, Carter Tauer, and Jadon Haala.

The forestry contest consists of identifying trees, measuring trees and logs to determine board feet, chainsaw parts and maintenance, identification of tools and diseases that affect trees, and a knowledge test.

The State FFA CDE Competition will be held in April at the University of Minnesota. The soils, poultry, and forestry teams will begin preparing in March for this next level of competition.