Poultry Team Heads For Nationals
THE FOUR-GIRL TEAM WON MISSOURI COMPETITION
McDonald County High School sent off its state champion poultry judging team to the National FFA Championship in Indianapolis, Ind., on Tuesday.
Tyson Foods presented a donation for the team’s travel expenses to the McDonald County FFA Chapter at the Ag building at McDonald County High School on Tuesday morning.
“We’re extremely pleased to have the opportunity to support the team as they embark upon a national conference,” Chuck Yarbrough of Tyson said. “We have people come to work (at Tyson) because they know how great the school system is.”
Superintendent Dr. Mark Stanton said, “FFA is a giant part of
our school district. We’re excited. We’re very proud of you.”
The poultry judging team members are Hannah Sherman, Mylinda Dryer, Abby Bishop and Madison Mitchell.
“We went to state in April in Columbia and have traveled all over the state judging,” Bishop said.
Eric Roller, the team’s coach, said, “They’re a great group of girls. They’ve worked hard. We’ve had a great time. They’ve just scratched the surface of their potential. They’ll go as far in this life as they want to.”
Bishop said there are 14 different classes they have to judge. They will judge live birds, carcasses, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, interior and exterior eggs. There will be a test with 25 multiple-choice questions and five math problems, she said. There will also be a team activity. This will be their first contest where they get to work together as a team, so “that will be exciting,” she said.
“It’s very long and stressful, but we love it,” she added.
Robert Hall, ag advisor to the team, said Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas have always been very competitive in the national FFA championship. He said there will be 60,000 FFA members plus advisors at the event.
“I feel they will shine not only for McDonald County but for Missouri,” he said. Since they won state in April they have been practicing twice a week.
High school principal Greg Leach said, “We’re very proud of our girls and I know they’ll do well. They make us proud. I couldn’t pick four better girls to go represent us.”