FFA members Bailey Schmiedt, Alissa Ball, Nathan Linke, Jared Goldammer and Wyatt Feistner were part of the SC/W FFA group that prepared and served a community pancake breakfast during the celebration of National FFA Week.

FFA Member Aaron Linke teaches elementary students about evaluating and judging soils, a fall CDE event.

    Sanborn Central/Woonsocket FFA members kicked off their spring semester activities by celebrating National FFA Week, Feb. 20-27 with various events at each school.
Sanborn Central started the week with a Penny War with the proceeds going to the Believe Scholarship.  Throughout the week they had a “Dress in Blue and Gold Day,” “Donut Sales Breakfast” and “Dress Like a Farmer Day.”
At Woonsocket School, the week started with a coloring contest for Kindergarten through fourth grade. On Tuesday they held a community pancake breakfast with proceeds going to the Rob Baruth Fund.  They continued the week with a “Wear an FFA T-shirt Day,” elementary ag Literacy/Career Development Event stations and a donut sales breakfast.
Chapter members then moved into preparing for their spring CDEs (Career Development Events).
The SC/W FFA attended their first competition on Friday, March 8, in the District 6 CDEs in Redfield, where they competed in four events: Farm Business Management (seniors), Ag Mechanics (juniors), Meats (sophomores) and Agronomy (freshmen). Results were as follows:
Ag Mechanics – team: eighth place; Drew Olinger – ninth, Ty Ziebart – 27th;
Agronomy – team: seventh place; Austin Schmit – 24th, Sawyer Senska – 31st, Madi Moody – 34th;
Farm Business Management – team: third place; Dillon Moore – eight, Garrett Larson – ninth, Garrett Dean – 14th;
Meats Evaluation – team: second place; Trent Kingsbury – second, Riley Schmiedt – third, Jared Goldammer – 12th place, Catherine Bechen – 25th, Bailey Schmiedt – 27th.
The Pipestone Meats Invitational at SDSU is a meats-only competition for teams from across South Dakota and Minnesota. The competition, held Thursday, March 10, was an opportunity to see beef carcasses, which are not at most CDEs.  The meats team ended in fourth place; Individually, Riley Schmiedt got seventh, Aaron Linke, 11th, and Trent Kingsbury, 13th.
SC/W next competed as a chapter at the District 4 CDEs in Platte on March 15. Results are as follows:
Ag Mechanics – sixth place team; Ty Ziebart – fourth, Drew Olinger fifth;
Agronomy – second place team; Austin Schmit – fifth, Madi Moody – seventh, Nick Snedeker – 14th, Alex Wormstadt – 19th, Kyle Zoss – 22nd;
Farm Business Management – third place team; Garrett Larson – third, Wyatt Feistner – sixth, Garrett Dean – ninth, Tyler Johnson – 11th, Trevor Olson – 13th;
Floriculture – sixth place team; Kyla Morgan – fifth;
Meats – second place team; Trent Kingsbury – second, Jared Goldammer – sixth, Riley Schmiedt – eighth, Bailey Schmiedt – ninth, Aaron Linke – 10th, Nathan Linke – 12th.
The next CDE on March 22 at Miller is one of the biggest CDE’s of the year. Following are the results:
Ag Mechanics – seventh team; Ty Ziebart-15th, Drew Olinger – 17th, Bailey Schmiedt – 27th;
Agronomy – eigth team; Austin Schmit – 24th;
Farm Business Management – fifth team; Garrett Larson – 15th, Garrett Dean – 18th, Dillon Moore – 23rd;
Floriculture – eighth team; Kyla Morgan – 25th;
Meats – first team; Trent Kingsbury – first, Aaron Linke – second, Riley Schmiedt – 8th, Nathan Linke – 9th;
Milk Quality and Products – seventh team; Tyler Johnson – 28th;
Natural Resources – 13th team; Shaun Snedeker – 27th.
The most recent chapter CDE was at Lennox on March 31. This is one of the biggest of the year, with 1,300 students registered from 35 schools. Results are as follows:
Ag Business Management – fourth team; Dillon Moore – 17th, Garrett Larson – 19th, Wyatt Feistner – 21st, Trevor Olson – 29th;
Ag Mechanics – sixth team; Drew Olinger – 11th, Ty Ziebart – 28th;
Agronomy – ninth team; Austin Schmit – 22nd, Madi Moody – 37th;
Meats – second team; Trent Kingsbury – second, Nathan Linke – fifth, Aaron Linke – sixth, Jared Goldammer – 19th.
The Meats team finished the local contest season with CDE competition at Little “I” at SDSU on April 1. Little International is attended by teams from South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.
Out of the South Dakota teams competing, the SC/W Meats team took first place, with Aaron Linke first individual, Trent Kingsbury seventh, Nathan Linke eighth and Jared Goldammer 12th. Overall, there were 47 schools competing with 202 individuals. They placed fourth overall and individually as follows:  Aaron Linke – fourth, Trent Kingsbury – 23rd, Nathan Linke – 24th, Jared Goldammer – 35th.
The final competition is at the State FFA Convention, held from Sunday, April 10, through Tuesday, April 12 at SDSU. The team will have the opportunity to see our SC/W FFA Alumnus Jonathan Linke help lead the Convention as part of the State FFA Officer team and present his retiring address during the Monday evening general session.