South O’Brien has had a poultry judging team compete each year since the contest first began in 2015. Recently, however, the team couldn’t get over the hump of finishing in 5th place until this year.
This year’s poultry team consisted of seniors Leo Sells, Hudson Oolman, Dain Moermond, and Dante Johnson. These four have worked hard over the past few years and came out this year as State Champions. Individually, Leo Place 3rd, Hudson 4th, Dain 14th and Dante 41st out of 526 individuals.
Poultry judging consists of everything from identifying different parts of chickens to grading eggs, placing live chickens, and a general knowledge exam over the poultry industry.
Chapter Advisor, Eric Kumm, commented that, “This came as a bit of surprise this year since this event is so competitive with 140 teams. In the past, we’ve had a few times where our team has placed higher than the champion team in every category except the exam. The champion team would usually score around 150 more points on the exam, but this year South O’Brien placed 1st in Ready-to-Cook poultry, 2nd in the Exam and Shelled Eggs judging, 3rd in Further Processed Poultry, and 7th in the Live Poultry category. The team looks forward to representing Iowa in the National FFA Poultry contest held at the National FFA Leadership Conference in Indianapolis this October.”
Dante Johnson, one of South O’Brien’s poultry judges, really liked competing in this contest with his friends over the past three years. Outside of the competition, at the Iowa FFA State Leadership Conference, the team enjoyed doing the Meals for the Heartlands, watching the talent show, eating at Hickory Park, talking to commercial show exhibitors, as well as many other activities at the convention. Johnson recommends this competition to other FFA members because “it is a really great experience, you learn a lot, the activities at the convention are a lot of fun, and you get to hang out with friends.” He said “it was an amazing feeling to win first place and bring yet another state champion plaque back to South O’Brien.”