Thirteen members of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) spent each weekend at the State Fair of Texas showing their animals in competition. They competed against schools from across the state.    

Freshmen Daryn Davis and Bailey McEntee both placed second in their divisions earning Reserve Grand Champion banners in their respective categories in sheep breeding.  Davis won the title with a Hampshire ewe and McEntee won for a Southdown ram.

For the competition, the sheep are placed into classes by age and are ranked from first to last. The leaders of each class are then placed into a division with two other classes, and then ranked once more.

“Competing was exciting,” Davis said. “We raise our animals, and we show them at majors. The judges will come along and say ‘oh, you need to put more muscle on this one or you need to put more fat on this one.’  It’s a catch-up, so whenever we compete at other majors, we can do better at those.”

Competitors in each class enter the ring with their animals for review, and the judges eliminate all but the top animals from the ring.

“When we walk in a judge will sift us, so that the top ten or twelve will be kept in the ring while everyone else will exit the ring,” said FFA President junior Brittany Creacy. “The people who stay in have to move around with their animals so that the judge can rank them from first to last.”

FFA members choose the animals they would like to raise at the beginning of the year. They base their decisions on personal preference or availability.

“I got my ram at a national show in Missouri,” McEntee said. “He was the Reserve Grand Champion there, which is impressive because there are three times as many competing sheep in Missouri as there are here.”

The competing animals are housed either in the GISD barn located on Pleasant Valley Road or on private property.  The only stipulation is that the private property is within the GISD district boundary. Members spend countless hours taking care of their animals.

“First, we need to teach our animals how to properly walk,” McEntee said. “We  have to show them where and when to place their feet. Then, we teach them how to show.  We set them in a sort of ‘box’ so that they set their feet in a line. Then, we sensitize them so that they’re not so jumpy around people.”

Junior Hope Miller not only competed in the dairy heifer competition, but she also competed in The Job Interview contest at the State Fair. In the Job Interview, candidates had to go through various stages of interviewing to show off their business skills  ranging from writing an application to talking face-to-face with judges.

“In the job interview, only the top 30 candidates out of 300 were chosen,” Miller said.  “You had to go through an interview process, and the judges critiqued you on your business skills and your professionalism.”

The local chapter of FFA was established in 2014 with very few members joining. That year only the FFA officers participated in events with one or two other members typically joining them. Now, 50 to 60 members are part of the local chapter.

“Now the organization’s grown so much bigger, that we now have leadership opportunities,” Creacy said.  “We have people who are in office, and we have strong people who have learned a lot of life lessons while they were in FFA.”

While the State Fair show is a highly visible competition, FFA also competes in many other shows throughout the year.

“We have local shows every year at the Curtis Culwell Center,” Creacy said. “The State Fair is one of our major shows, because it’s one of the only fall shows we go to. In the springtime, we go to as many major shows as possible.”

The organization also has junior members who are not in high school yet.  Haley Pool is an 8th grader and Cassy McEntee is a 6th grader. Both attend Hudson Middle School.

“Sachse FFA had a great State Fair,” Nicole Harper-Hohenberger, FFA Adviser, said. “We won many ribbons, made lots of memories and had lots of fun. We are very proud of all of our kids and look forward to the Spring stockshow season.”

Those who competed at the State Fair were:

Freshman Daryn Davis:  Breeding Sheep – Reserve Grand Champion Hampshire Ewe

Freshman Bailey McEntee: Breeding Sheep, Beef Heifer, Breeding Rabbits and Broilers – Reserve Grand Champion Southdown Ram

6th grader Cassy McEntee: Breeding Sheep, Beef Heifer, Breeding Rabbits and Broilers

Junior Ebed Aguilar: Beef Heifer

Senior Drew Boyd: Beef Heifer

Junior Brittany Creacy: Beef Heifer

Junior Rylan Herold: Beef Heifer

Junior Hope Miller: Dairy Heifer and Job Interview Contest

Senior Sierra Baker: Breeding Goats

Junior McKenzie Morgan: Breeding Goat

8th grader Haley Pool: Breeding Goats

Junior Lucy Noble: Breeding Rabbits

Sophomore Heather Smith: Breeding Rabbits