Students show what they know at Aggie Day

Loretta George/Tribune photo The floriculture identification exam was located at the Bourbon County 4-H building directly across the campus from Fort Scott Community College. Here, students attempt to identify plants, then take a 50 question exam over the floriculture industry, according to Jim Morgan, Louisburg, who was the official at this exam site.

Applying what they are learning in the classroom, and honing their skills through competition, about 1,500 area youth came together Friday at Fort Scott Community College.

The local college hosted the 32nd annual Key Industries Aggie Day on Friday, with representatives from over 100 regional high schools.

"This is a great experience for kids to get out and apply what they've been learning in the classroom," said Kyle Parks, Fort Scott High School FFA teacher. "I like the fact that it's at our community college. I think that's important because the younger students don't know what is available. It exposes them to the programs that are available here."

Parks brought 42 FFA'ers from his school to compete.

Kevin Gleason, Uniontown's FFA teacher brought 42 students, and at least one said she enjoyed the day.

"I get to hang out with friends and get to do stuff I don't ordinarily do in the classroom," said Stephanie Robinson, Uniontown FFA participant.

Submitted photo Area high school students participated in Aggie Day competitions Friday at the Fort Scott Community College. Pictured in top photo is Kolby Seested, first place in Intermediate Livestock Judging. Pictured at right in bottom photo is Mirranda Allison accepting the Senior Livestock Judging first place award for the winner, Minnie Sutton. Both are from the Fort School district. FSCC freshman Tabitha Kedigh presented the awards.

In addition, there were 11 4-H participants from Bourbon County clubs, from elementary school age through high school.

Regional FFA Chapters and 4-H Teams were invited to participate in the annual Agriculture Interscholastic Contests.

Competition could be individually or on a team of three to four individuals. Contest divisions were agronomy, dairy foods, entomology, farm management, floriculture and food science. There were also livestock contests in the area of reasoning, meats and poultry. Speech and nursery/landscape were additional contests during the day.

The top five individuals and the top three teams in each division were acknowledged with medals and plaques. Results were not handed out at the awards ceremony, but are posted on the Internet at http://fortscott.edu/students/activities/aggieDays/results.aspx

The Aggie Day competition is one of the largest and the longest running agricultural competitions in the area.

Ryan Edgecomb, meat judging coach and Ryan Page, livestock judging coach at FSCC facilitated the events of the day.