Cascade Courier - Your trusted local news source since 1910

Recently, the Belt High School FFA Agricultural sales team traveled to Cascade MT. The reason for this trip was for students Kate and Mac Hedstrom, Parker Osterman, and Vannie Urick to attend a sales contest to see how they are placing across the district. They were chaperoned by Advisor Lauren Simons to this contest.

During a sales contest, students must sell a different agricultural related products each year. This year the students are selling welders. This contest consisted of an individual and group event and a written exam. The written exams were projected to take about 20-30 minutes. The group of Belt high school students were challenged and given four prompts to find the correct welding product for them. Then during their individual event they were given one of their prompts to sell that particular product that they chose to that customer that was assigned to them spontaneously.

The results of this event were very encouraging for the students on this team because they ended up placing 4th out of 12 teams. This now confirms that the Belt Valley FFA Ag Sales team will be attending the State contest in Billings later this year. This will now be the second time in a row that the Ag Sales team has qualified for the state contest. Individually, Parker Osterman placed 6th out of 43. Osterman’s fellow FFA members claimed that they were very proud that each of their fellow sales team members were able to achieve their goal of advancing beyond districts.

The next day, Wednesday, January 17th, 2024, the Agronomy and Livestock judging team participated in the KMON contest. The students on the Agronomy team were Danika Lords, Brooke Holum, Madisen Feldman, Eli Bodner, and Mac Hedstrom. Each of these students strived to put in their best efforts and received 6th place as a team overall. The students on the Livestock team were Clayton Jassen, Jeremy Nebel, Eli Bodner, Osterman, Laysa Bergeron, Maren Keaster, Reagan Jassen, and Kate Hedstrom. Each of these participants also put in all of their hard work and effort for 7th place out of 15 teams. The student that placed highest was Clayton Jassen in 4th place out of 89 opponents. He will be presented his award at the end of the year FFA Banquet. The date and time of the banquet will be announced at a later date.

During a livestock judging contest, students evaluate different animal species and decide which one would be best for its labeled intended purpose. They must also complete a written exam, lasting about 20 to 30 minutes. They are required to provide reasoning behind their analysis.

Many of the participants claim that reason is one of their favorite things because they are able to justify their decision-making process in judging the animals. This can then result in them gaining more points and bringing them up in their individual rank.

Belt Valley FFA has also been conducting a cash calendar fundraiser. Each of the members were required to sell 20 calendar ticket; some sold more than 20. For the individuals that purchased a calendar ticket, they will receive a phone call if they won, and then they will be awarded with their prize.

The Belt Valley FFA members would like to thank the individuals that purchased a calendar ticket and tell them that their donation was very much appreciated. Mr. Simons has done a great job resurrecting FFA in Belt. As the program grows, more and more students are able to benefit from all it has to offer.