KALONA

The Hillcrest FFA chapter has been considerably busy this Fall.

On Sept. 26, 2023, members of the FFA were sent to the Southeast District Soil Judging competition in Muscatine. Participants entered a pit to examine the soil and from that they were able to determine the quality of the soil.

Another contest members participated in was livestock judging at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. Livestock included pigs, goats, sheep, and cows. Students inspected the livestock to determine which one from each group had the most potential.

Two fundraisers that took place this fall were grinding and selling corn and wheat meal at the Kalona Fall Festival, and selling fruit. 

FFA has been incorporated into the classroom as well through agricultural classes. The CASE AFNR class has gone on several field trips to learn more about agriculture and what it looks like. These trips included going to Ed Gingerich’s to learn about cattle and cover crops, and to Marty Gingerich’s where they saw the process of nursing pigs.

The Agriculture Construction class has spent time improving campus by working on installing a new greenhouse to grow produce during the winter months. They also dug a new long jump pit and poured concrete for the runway. 

This upcoming spring semester will include more of the same competitions and classroom work. There will be a farmer feed where all the surrounding farmers are welcome to come and enjoy a breakfast consisting of eggs, pancakes, sausage, and bacon.

The chapter will also clean a mile of ditch along Hwy 1.

The big event that everyone loves is the State Convention in Ames on the campus of Iowa State University. 7,000 FFA members from across the state come together to compete in areas like welding, ag business management, team ag sales, ag biotechnology, and poultry evaluation.