Five members of the East Knox FFA recently competed in the State FFA Milk Quality & Products Career Development Event last month at The Ohio Exposition Center in Columbus.
The team consisting of senior Jesse Wolford, juniors Dylan Springer, Hayden Baker, and Aiden Kapper, and freshman Rylan Winkler placed first in the state event held in the Rhodes Center on the Ohio Exposition grounds. In the event, competitors had to identify off-flavors and intensity of the flavor in 10 milk samples; recognize dairy and nondairy products and determine milk fat percentage or vegetable fat in the samples; identify cheeses from a list of 20 and complete a cheese matrix including moisture and fat content, origin, pasta filata, how it was ripened, and brine or surface salted; complete a California Mastitis Test on milk samples: and complete written tests including production, milk marketing, and problem-solving questions. Individually, Springer placed first, Kapper was second, Wolford placed eighth, Baker finished 15th, and Winkler was 85th out of a field of competitors from around Ohio. The top four scores make up the team score.
East Knox FFA will now represent Ohio in the National Milk Quality & Products Career Development Event in Indianapolis, Indiana on Oct. 23-26 in conjunction with the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo.
The Milk Quality & Products event is an educational activity designed as a practical method of teaching students to perform hands-on skills and to identify various dairy products and quality problems associated with milk. The team will receive a banner for placing first in the state on-stage at the 96th Ohio FFA Convention on May 3 at the Ohio Expo Center. Springer, Kapper, and Wolford will each receive state plaques for their efforts of finishing in the top 10 individuals. This is the 16th year that an East Knox FFA Milk Quality & Products Career Development Event Team has placed in the top 10 in the state. They have won the event four out of the past eight years and finished second (twice), fourth, and eighth in the years they didn’t place first.
