The Nevada Extension Office is planning a Crew Development Contest at 9:30 a.m. on February 11 at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. This contest will feature 616 registered students from across the state, competing across several categories including dairy foods (32 participants), electricity (73 participants), forestry (99 participants), horse judging (62 participants), land judging (78 participants), livestock (151 participants), poultry (51 participants), and veterinary science (70 participants).
Lunch will be provided by Farm Credit, and funds from the contest will help fund projects for Nevada County 4-H, Prescott FFA, and Nevada FFA. Prescott School System is providing busses for student transportation.
Extension Chair Stacy Stone said that winners in each category will receive a plaque, and the Extension Office plans to make the contest a yearly event. Next year, he said, they also hope to add a college division.
The dairy foods contest will be in the EHC Building, with Tracy Stone setting up; electricity will be in the arts and crafts building, with Nevada FFA setting up; forestry will be in the Ed and Mary Godwin property, with the Natural Resource Conservation Service setting up; horse judging will be in the rodeo arena, with Hayley Rice setting up and Rhonda Hillery gathering horses and Dr. Mark Russell with U of A extension assisting; land judging will be at the Southwest Arkansas research and extension center, with NRCS setting up; livestock will be at the OYEA facility on Prescott school campus, with Dennis Guidry, Dr. Bryan Kutz, and Lauren Priddy organizing animals provided by OYEA, RP5 Ranch, Rolling Hills Farm, SWREC, Stone Livestock, PHFF, and Plyler and Son Charolais; poultry will be under the beef barn, with Scharidi Barber organizing; and veterinary science will be in the Potlatch building, with Dr. Copie Moore and students from SAU organizing.
Participating schools from across Arkansas include: Alma (18), Ashdown (7), Beebe (27), Bismarck (18), Westside (Jonesboro) (10), Bradley (17), Clinton (23), DeQueen (46), Ouachita (9), Foreman (32), Fouke (4), Farmington (27), Greenbrier (41), Hampton (26), Heber Springs (9), Hermitage (10), Hope (8), Horatio (9), Mena (17), Drew Central (9), Mount Ida (5), Murfreesboro (19), Magnolia (4), Prescott (12), Quitman (13), Rose Bud (12), Sheridan (12), Texarkana (6), Cossatot River (9), Crossett (12), Centerpoint (15), Glen Rose (14), Dierks (6), Acorn (24), Smackover (9), Dover (10), Mayflower (4), Jessieville (3), Mountain Pine FFA (5), Greene County Tech (22), Greene County (7), Nevada County (3), Polk County (13), and White County (10).