FFA members compete in fall speaking contests

Special to the Daily Mail

Eight Nevada FFA members competed in the Area 9 Fall Speaking Contest in Miller, Mo.

Of the eight Nevada competitors, seven finished in the top three within their division and went on to compete at the Southwest District Fall Speaking Contest.

Contestants included Alexandra Gast -- Missouri Teach Ag Speech, Braden Ast -- Missouri Cattleman's Association Speech, Makayla Haner -- Missouri Sheep Producers Speech, Landon Netherton -- Missouri Institute of Cooperatives Speech, Kelstynne Pettit-- Missouri Pet Breeders Association Speech, Kaitlyn Jenkins -- Young Farmers and Young Farm Wives Speech, Danielle Laning -- Soil and Water Conservation Speech, and Paxton Dahmer -- Missouri Pork Producers Speech.

Then on Nov. 10, the seven qualifying FFA members competed in the Southwest District FFA Fall Speaking Contest in Aurora.

Braden Ast and Paxton Dahmer made it into the final round at the district contest, with Dahmer finishing second overall in the Missouri Pork Producers and being the alternate to the state speaking contest. Ast finished third overall in the Missouri Cattlemen's speech.

Other students competing in the district contest were: Kelstyne Pettit, Makayla Haner, Kaitlyn Jenkins, Danielle Laning and Landon Netherton.

The topics the students spoke on were: Missouri Pet Breeder's Association, Missouri Sheep Producers, Young Farmers and Young Farm Wives, Soil and Water Conservation and Missouri Institute of Cooperatives, respectively.

To prepare for the district speaking competition the students spend many hours researching their topics and interviewing local producers to gather the information to compose their speeches. They then spent the weeks leading up to the contest memorizing their speeches and preparing for any questions the judges might aask them over their topics.