Tarleton State University hosted its annual FFA Invitational Career Development Event Judging Contest for the 42^nd time on Thursday, March 27. The Stephenville campus welcomed approximately 9,000 FFA members and their advisors for the FFA career development events.

“The event went great,” said Dr. Ted Ford, associate professor of agricultural and consumer sciences and organizer of the event. “The weather was probably the only hitch with the drizzle and the wind making some of the sheets difficult and unpleasant for the competitors.”

Students came from all corners of Texas representing over 400 high schools. Along with the 9,000 student competitors were approximately 900 ag science teachers.

“Total registration numbers were 9,119 from 469 different schools with 910 ag science teachers here as coaches and chaperones,” Ford said. “We actually successfully scanned 7,195 sheets with a few others that were using incorrect sheets or were disqualified for various reasons. This gave us about an 80% show-up rate which has been pretty consistent over the years.”

The contest consisted of 17 events the FFA students could compete in. Livestock, meats, entomology, range, wildlife and recreation management, homesite evaluation, milk quality and products, farm business management, and environmental and natural resources were among the competitive events, according to a press release.

The winners of the competition received prizes of scholarships, plaques, and other reputations.

 “We awarded a total of $20,000 worth of scholarships to Tarleton with the recipients selected by the Ag Science teachers at the winning schools,” Ford said.

Organizing the event took several hundred Tarleton students to serve as group leaders and contest mentors, Ford stated in the press release.

Contests took place on the Tarleton campus, as well as the university’s Agricultural Center, Horticulture Center, Hunewell Ranch, the Southwest Regional Dairy Center, Lone Star Arena and Stephenville City Park.  

The invitational serves as a practice round and allows students to prepare for team judging in a variety of categories.

 “Frankly I was a bit nervous about having 1,300 more than we had last year, mostly about having adequate space for them to compete,” Ford said. “I never doubted that [but] our faculty and students would provide great contest.”