Dan Bechtold, Editor
The Winner Future Farmers of America chapter in Winner has grown. Together with FFA and ag classes offered at Winner High School, today’s students are being training to be tomorrow’s future farmers and good stewards of the land.
Wyatt DeJong is the FFA adviser along with teaching ag classes. The classes that he teaches this semester are: introduction to agriculture, food and natural resources, animal science, ag business and marketing, horticulture and natural resources.
DeJong sees the classes as a way for students to find their interest.
DeJong explains he has been able to work with businesses in Winner who have allowed the students do some job shadowing. Country Pride Coop has hosted students in the agronomy and feed departments.
In class the students are growing plants and the school recently received a grant from the South Dakota FFA Foundation to purchase a science kit to help students learn more about plants. This kit will be used in the horticulture, agronomy and some in the ag business class.
Soon, a 24×30 greenhouse will be set up where students will be able to grow plants during the month of April and May. “We will look at all facets of growing plants,” said DeJong. He said the class will look at grown fruit, vegetables and some shrubs.
The teacher said a lot of his classes are small and he uses a lot of hands on training so students can see how science is applied to the agriculture world.
“I tell students when they don’t know what they want to do past high school is to experience something and see what is out there,” DeJong said.
In the ag business class there is a lot of math. All students in this class have a specific project they work on outside of class. DeJong said they could be anything from babysitting, working at Elder Inn or owning their own cattle. “They can use the some of the principals we talk about in class to manage their own projects,” he explained.
DeJong has seen a growth in FFA in Winner. The officers are: Calah Covey, president; Leslie Soles, vice president; Sydnie Peters, secretary; Jace Assman, treasurer; Cody Amidon, reporter and Dacey Kocer, sentinel.
Recently 14 FFA members attended a Career Development Experience (CDE) in DeSmet. The Winner natural resources team took 8th place. Members of the team are: Kayleb Brozik, Avery Gilchrist, Bethany Cable, Sydnie Peters and Amanda Boerner.
Individually, Gilchrist took 10th place.
Peters had the highest test score of the 110 students.
Nathan Ducheneaux was one of five students who scored well on welding quality.
John Kludt will be competing at state in ag broadcasting. The state contest is April 12-14 in Brookings.
Two Winner seniors, Leslie Soles and Nick Hossle, will receive their state FFA degree at state convention.
Also at state, Payton Eagle will be recognized for her work in equine science.
“This year has been a huge growing year for FFA,” said DeJong. The adviser has a lot of experience in FFA as he served as a state officer when he was in school and was also the national central region vice president in 2010-2011.
The adviser said one of the highlights of the fall FFA work was working with the parliamentary procedure team. He explained each one of the students on the team spent over 40 hours on their own working on this project.
“FFA opens doors for students,” said DeJong. He said the focus of FFA is leadership, personal growth and career success.
As an adviser DeJong likes to help his students succeed.
The teacher loves being the classroom and helping students become more curious of the world around them.
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