ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
In the cool shade of the Virginia Tech dairy barn, a few dozen stone-faced high school students sat yards apart Thursday morning, staring off at distant clouds and quietly reciting udder qualities.
One by one, they took turns walking outside to a lone, shady tree where they nervously stood, as though expecting a death squad to come marching up the hill.
Instead, a smiling judge merely quizzed each one on the finer points of dairy cows.
"You look for things like if her [the cow's] udder is smooth and level above her hocks," explained Mindy Switzer, a senior from Turner Ashby High School in Rockingham County. "The worst is when you can't remember something - especially if it's a close pair. Like if they're real similar."
These young dairy experts were a few of the almost 1,300 high school students who spent the week at Virginia Tech's annual FFA convention.
FFA (which used to be called "Future Farmers of America" until it was dropped to include all agricultural industries) began 70 years ago, when some Virginia Tech professors organized a group to help boys develop leadership skills. A few years later, the national organization was formed. And more recently, it became coed.
Even under this week's hot summer sun, the students wore their blue, corduroy jackets, long a proud symbol of the organization.
The middle and high school students came for the fun of it, to meet kids from across the state and to vie for a shot at the national FFA competition in Kansas City this fall.
They ate breakfast at 7 a.m. and didn't stop until late in the night. Competitions across campus in everything from tractor troubleshooting to landscape design pared down the cream of the young farmer crop.
They took tests and were quizzed by judges about their knowledge. Sometimes, they couldn't speak to anyone for hours, until the competitions ended.
"It's not really like school, because you're having fun," said Sam Bradley, the captain of Wilson Memorial High School in Augusta County, the largest delegation with 109 students to travel to Tech.
Bradley doesn't live on a farm, and plans to go into bricklaying now that he's graduated. FFA, he said, has given him much more than agricultural knowledge.
"Your speaking skills are most important. When you're presenting to the judge, you've got to be appropriate, and carry yourself," he said. "That's helped me with friends, my job, school, everything."
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gene Dalton. Under a shade tree near the Virginia Techby CNBdairy barn, FFA member Amy Kimmel tells judge Jerry Swisher how she
judged a cow in the livestock judging competition. She is from
Fredrick County and Swisher is area dairy
extension agent in Augusta County. color.