FFA qualifies for nations

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Students from the West Liberty FFA chapter at West Liberty High School (FFA) qualified for the National FFA competition in Indianapolis this upcoming October.

Students will be competing in two categories: Floriculture and Nursery Landscaping.

Seth Axsom and Pearson Hall were participants in the floriculture team.

“It’s basically identifying plants and flowers and diseases that go with it and knowledge about that,” Hall said.

West Liberty High School ag instructor and FFA advisor Zach Morris said the purpose of floriculture was to stimulate the study and interest in production and retail of flowers, plants and foliage through agriculture education curriculum.

Students were tested on several things in the category including: identify floriculture bedding and plant materials; treat unhealthy plants due to pest issues, nutritional, mechanical or chemical injury; understand the biological and scientific principals; understand the skills of floral design; demonstrate the use of safety procedures in floriculture operations; identify appropriate supplies and equipment for the flower shop and greenhouse; demonstrate interpersonal skills; understand and demonstrate proper sales and service; and maintain records and proper reports.

Axsom was named the Individual State Champ for Floriculture, was a member of the General Knowledge Top Team and was the Top Individual for that in Floriculture.

“I’ve been in speaking competitions since eighth grade so I’ve been involved since I was able to be,” Axsom said.

Hall was a member of the Identification Top Team and named the Top Individual of that team. Hall was named fourth overall for her individual work. She also was a part of the Production Top Team and named Top Individual for that as well.

Hall and Axsom started to work on their project after the state FFA convention was held in late April, Morris said.

Both students had to leave the state convention early for sporting events so Morris had to let them know how they did.

“I was excited to get to go to nationals,” Pearson said. “I didn’t expect to be on this team. I wasn’t planning on going.”

Morris started talking to Pearson about joining FFA when she was in eighth grade, Morris said. Pearson went to the state convention her freshman year, which isn’t normal.

“Everything kind of fell together,” Morris said. “They’re in class together. They were retaining information quickly. We never really talked about it but it just started to feel like we need to really trying to get this thing done our first year. They were scoring so high so early I really thought they could do this in their first shot.”

Normally, sophomores or juniors place that high, Morris said.

“And they’re normally in the event two years before they win it,” Morris said. “One time it took us three years to win in.”

Other individuals on the Floriculture team included: Sophie Buysee, who was sixth top individual and Ava Morrison, who was part of the Problem Solving Top Team, named the Top Individual from that team and Individual Reserve Champion;

“What both teams are probably going to do is we’re going to give them a few weeks off and then do kind of a light start,” Morris said. “They’ll do the early testing in September here before they go to Indianapolis.”

Cael and Cole Daulfeldt were on the nursery landscaping team and were recruited by Morris as well.

“Morris knows I work at the golf course and nursery landscaping ties a lot with golf course working like turf grass and we just like being outdoors,” Cael said.

They were also in speaking competitions before joining FFA, which helped them at the state FFA convention, Cole added.

Students competing in the Nursery/Landscape competition were tested on the ability to identify nursery and landscape plant materials, plant disorders, cultural practices, design and construction, supplies and equipment and safety, Morris said.

The Daufeldt’s didn’t use computers during any of the design and portion of the competition.

“Most of the stuff we had to imagine it because we didn’t have actual examples because he (Morris) didn’t have a team until 10 years ago,” Cael said. “We had to go based off of what we had.”

The results for the nursery landscaping team were: Top Team in equipment and safety operation; Top Team in Identification; Top Individual Identification – Cole; Top Team in Skills challenge; Top Team in Landscape Estimation; Top Individual in Landscape Estimation – Caden Laughlin; Individual State Champion – Cole; Individual Reserve State Champion – Cael; Third overall – Laughlin; and Fifth overall – Cameron Iske.

Morris said he really enjoyed watching this group of eight students compete and looks forward to seeing what they can do at the national convention in October.

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