Kathleen FFA Takes Top Honors in Citrus By Shelby Carlton Florida leads the country in citrus, producing 63% of the of the total United States production alone. Leading the state is Polk County with 90,050 acres of citrus production. With Polk’s number one ranking, it’s no doubt that this year’s Florida FFA state winning citrus team is from the Kathleen Sr FFA Chapter. Florida FFA hosts an annual Citrus Career Development Event (CDE), which challenges students to excel in the industry that is so prominent in our state. Students are requires to take a general knowledge exam that covers anything from disease control, to greenhouse production of rootstock trees, to commercial harvesting methods and everything in between. Additionally, students must learn to identify 38 varieties of citrus, 35 pests and predators, 27 weeds and 32 diseases and disorders that affect citrus production in our state. The contest consists of live samples that have been collected and displayed by leaders within the citrus industry. This event was held December 1 at the FFA’s Leadership Training Center in Haines City. Thirty-three teams traveled from all across the state to compete in this year’s event. Members of the Kathleen Sr FFA team were there to compete as well. Team member Lacee Richardson said, “I was really looking forward to competing in this year’s
event because we’ve put so much effort and time into studying, and I really wanted to see if our hard work would pay off.” The contest began around 9:30 am and didn’t complete until noon. The students definitely found the event to be extremely challenging. When the results were posted Kathleen came out on top this year. Team members were Sarah Shipley, Mikayla Myers, Alex Yelvington and Lacee Richardson. Sarah Shipley was also the high individual earning 458 points, followed by Mikayla in 2nd place with 454 points, Alex was 3rd earning 446 points and Lacee finished in 4th place individually with 430 points. After learning the results Sarah said “I knew my team members were working hard and we were all pretty close in knowledge, and it is very cool we were that close to each other as individuals. We really pushed each other to become better.” This is the fourth straight year that Kathleen FFA has won the state championship title in citrus. Other Polk County teams finishing in the top 10 were Lake Gibson High School, who finished in 5th place, Haines City High School, who finished 6th overall, and Auburndale High School who finished in 9th place. Congratulations to this year’s FFA State Citrus Champions—Kathleen FFA and all Polk County top ten teams.
813-767-4703 301 South Collins Street, Suite 101, Plant City, Florida 33563
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INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
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December 2015
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