AUSTIN YOUTH FORAGE CONTEST RESULTS

  

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office has released the results of their annual Austin County Youth Forage Contest.

The event was held at the Austin County Fair and sponsored by the Austin County Beef and Forage Committee.

According to Extension Agent Stacie Villarreal, they had a total of 58 youth from FFA Chapters in Bellville, Brenham, Burton, Columbus, El Campo, Flatonia, Madisonville, and Rusk take part in the contest.

For the contest, youth had to apply their knowledge of forage to identify species common to pastures and evaluate hay based on physical properties.

The contest has three components. The first is placing the hay sample classes, which are judged based on physical ranking, maturity, texture, leafiness, purity, and color.

Meanwhile, the second part is plant identification, and the last part is a 20-question knowledge exam on forages.

In the team competition, Rusk FFA finished first, while Bellville was second, Columbus was third, Brenham was fourth, and Flatonia was fifth.

For the individual competition, Cullen Halfmann of the Brenham FFA finished in first place and received a $1,000 Scholarship from the Beef and Forage Committee.                                                                  

Jackson Kinney from the Rusk FFA was the second-place finisher. Kash Kruger of Bellville was third, Britt Martin of Rusk was fourth, and Sadie Noska of Flatonia was fifth.

Round out the top ten were Wesley Martin from Rusk, Jack Dudensing from Columbus, Jack Luedecker from Bellville, Audrie Busa from Madisonville, and Colby Lewis from Columbus.