FARMINGTON -- Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn honored members of the Farmington High School FFA Chapter last week with keys to the city.
Penn handed out keys to members of the 2016 Livestock Judging Team at the Dec. 12 City Council meeting. Penn recognized them for their accomplishments on the state level and national level.
"This team competed at the national level and we have one who is #1 in the nation. That's pretty awesome," Penn said in giving out keys to seniors Jessika Calhoon and Dixie Miller, junior Corrine Burrus, Blayke Rogers, a 2016 graduate attending Oklahoma State University, and coach Clayton Sallee
The next night, the Farmington School Board honored the girls for their accomplishments.
Last January, team members set a goal to win the state livestock judging competition and began preparing in earnest. They met twice a week for four hours each day and then participated in more than 20 contests in four states.
Competitions require FFA teams to evaluate several classes of livestock, such as cows, pigs and goats, and rank them from best to worse. The team then presents oral arguments defending the order in which they ranked the animals.
In April, Farmington won the state livestock competition by a 56-point margin, the largest margin in the state competition in the past 10 years. Miller was named high individual in the state with a score of 580 points out of 600. Burrus was sixth in the state, Rogers was 10th and Calhoon finished 22nd.
The students qualified to compete in the National FFA Livestock Judging contest in Indianapolis, Ind., in October. Here, the team competed against the best from each state.
Farmington placed third in the nation and qualified to represent the United States in the Royal Highland Contest in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 2017.
Burrus finished first in the individual portion of the contest and was named the high individual in the nation and also named the best high school livestock judger for 2016.
Sallee told school board members that livestock judging is the most competitive event for FFA members. He said third place is probably the best that any team in Arkansas has done on the national level.
Miller received another honor when she was named an All-American at the 4-H North American International Livestock Exposition livestock judging contest in November.
At the school board meeting, Superintendent Bryan Law echoed the mayor's words.
"We're very proud of you. To compete national on that level is a great accomplishment," Law told the girls.
General News on 12/21/2016