Approximately 1,000 FFA members and agricultural science instructors from across the state will gather on the campus of Tarleton State University on Thursday, April 19, to compete for the chance to represent the Texas FFA Association in National FFA Career Development Events (CDE).

This week’s state CDE events include dairy cattle, environmental and natural resources, homesite evaluation, land, range, and milk quality and products judging contests. FFA members from 260 high schools traveling to Stephenville are regional winners from all corners of the state and represent one of 10 administrative “Areas” under the auspices of the Texas FFA Association.

“These state-level events wrap up our contest season for the spring, and in many ways are the highlight of the semester. These contests determine which high school FFA teams are good enough to represent Texas in national competition,” said Dr. Don Cawthon, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “We host several of the state FFA contests at Tarleton because of our reputation across the state, and nationally, for these events, including dairy cattle, dairy foods, land and range. We have also taken the initiative to develop state-level contests in other areas such as environmental science and natural resource management, which is a real testament to the dedication of our faculty and staff.”

FFA members will arrive at Tarleton’s University Agricultural Center Thursday morning ahead of their respective competitions, and gather in Wisdom Gym at 1:30 p.m. for an awards ceremony.

Hundreds of Tarleton faculty members and students will assist with the FFA state contests, this being the fourth and final contest hosted by the university this spring, said Dr. Ted Ford, associate professor of agricultural and consumer sciences and organizer of the FFA contests.

Tarleton has hosted the state FFA contest for more than three decades, and was instrumental in establishing the land and range events before the Texas FFA Association adopted the two CDEs as official contest, said Ford. “We are excited to add two new events this year, the environmental and natural resources event with 15 teams, and the homesite evaluation event with 29 teams,” he added.

Earlier this spring, Tarleton hosted the 40^th annual FFA Invitational CDE Contest, which attracted more than 7,000 high school students, and on April 11 the university welcomed approximately 3,000 FFA members for the Area contests.

For more information on this and future FFA or 4-H events, contact Dr. Ted Ford at 254-968-9224 or email [email protected].