Thursday, January 08, 2009

West Boyd Ag class member have been quite active in Range Judging. Seven students attended the District Range Judging at West Holt and we have 32 students planning to attend the Area 5 range judging at Battle Creek on September 24th. At the Range Judging competitions students have to identify by common name, 24 randomly selected plants on a plant line and also identify their life form, life span, origin, season of growth, livestock forage value, and growth form.

In addition they have three range sites to identify the name, determine the range condition score, and the degree of use. They also will complete a ranch map problem to determine available AUM’s, needed AUM’s, whether to increase, decrease or leave the stocking rate the same, and answer questions regarding general management practices including water sources and locations, cross fencing and rotational grazing systems, and weed and brush control etc.

On October 1st they hope to have some students participating in the State Range Judging held near Burwell.

Homecoming FFA BBQ
The annual West Boyd FFA homecoming BBQ was held September 19th during the football game at Butte. This was a great success . . . thanks to all of the area supporters.  The chapter served 300 delicious roast pork sandwiches along with two cases of chips and six gallons of baked beans as well as lots of lemonade and water. The members did an outstanding job of serving with only a very minimum amount of supervision!!

Special thanks to the Spencer State and Butte State Banks for donating the napkins and Butte Farm Supply for donating the plates. The chapter also wishes to thank the chef at Drickey’s Market  for the excellent preparation of the very delicious pork, and Mary Finnegan for all of her assistance to make this such a huge success. The proceeds from this fundraiser help to defray chapter expenses when attending State and National FFA Convention!

West Boyd FFA NFL
Members and families of the West Boyd FFA Chapter gathered at Fort Randall Dam on July 17, 2008 for their annual summer NFL (New Found Leaders) camp and family outing. The members and guests enjoyed a fantastic afternoon of swimming in the river, boating, sun, and tubing! For some of them, it was called “attempted tubing”!

At 7 p.m. more family members joined the group to enjoy a potluck supper along with grilled hotdogs and hamburgers. After stuffing themselves with scrumptious food, the officers had the guests join in for some very differenmt and interesting relay races which consisted of a variety of events.

Later after the guests left, the campers sat around the camp fire talking and staying up very late. After getting 2-3 hours of sleep the members ate a breakfast of pancakes and juice and packed up their tents and bags to go home.