| Louisville or Bust |
 Michaela Branen received her American FFA Degree at the National FFA Convention |
| Collinsville FFA
attended this year’s National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky
where last year's graduate Michaela Branen received her American FFA Degree
which is the highest award for a member to receive. FFA Officers Leigh
Brown, Dakota Fugate, and Morgan West attended the convention as well.
The trip started on Tuesday, October 28th at 5:30 a.m. with a flight to
Charlotte, North Carolina where they boarded their connecting flight to
Louisville, Kentucky. After arriving in Kentucky we went to the popular Louisville Slugger Museum where Dakota, Leigh, and Morgan were shown, first hand, the process of creating a Louisville Slugger Bat. Most people fail to see the connection between Louisville Slugger Baseball Bats and Agriculture but at the Museum they do a great job of explaining what type of trees are used and why those trees are chosen, how the forests are managed, and the process a tree goes through to become a bat. The next few days were filled with tours of farms in both Louisville and Indiana as well as attending leadership workshops and sessions at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Tours consisted of a visit to Deere Farms in Lanesville, IN where students were able to see an excellent example of Agri-tourism, Harvest Moon Dairy in Crestwood, IN, and the infamous Churchill Downs in Louisville. Deere Farms is a family owned farm that uses their corn crop to make a 13 acre corn maze which attracts people from miles around, it took over an hour to find our way through the maze which had checkpoints to help keep us on track and so the owner knew we weren't "cheating" and cutting through the field. At Harvest Moon Dairy we were able to get up close to over 100 dairy cows and dozens of bottle calves. One of the dairy cows had actually just given birth when we arrived so we were able to witness the process that a cow goes through immediately after birth. The dairy is a family ran business that is trying to keep up with "modern" farming, they recently had to rebuild their entire barn in an effort to keep the cows healthier and make their business more efficient. We were allowed to walk around the barns and pet the calves, walk through the milking parlor, see samples of the feed, and watch the feed being mixed. We were also given a short presentation of how the dairy is operated, how much milk the cows produce each day (some produced 20+ pounds per day!), and how the profits have increased by adding agri-tourism and giving tours to bring in extra money. Last, but not least we visited Churchill Downs where we toured the facilities, watched a LIVE horse race, and got to see the horses up close as they were preparing to race. In addition to the leadership workshops, award ceremonies, and convention sessions hosted by the National FFA there was also a Rodeo on Friday night. As we left the Rodeo it began to SNOW! Luckily, it did not snow much and we were able to catch our flight back home on Saturday, November 1st. Cheyenne Mosier Collinsville FFA Reporter |
| -- Submitted by Jennifer Hamlin -- 11/14/2014 |
