The 81st FFA Annual State Convention was held in Lincoln on April 1-3 2009. The Laurel-Concord FFA had many seven teams participate and 25 participants at state convention.

   FFA members attended sessions, heard from many motivational speakers including Shawn Harper and Maile Ilac Boeder, toured the capital, attended a career fair, and participated in many other activities.  Teams that participated at state convention were:

Agriscience: Cody Wood (Coleridge), Brady Papenhausen (Coleridge), and Austin Wieseler (Wynot)
Senior Livestock Judging: Tyler Hansen (Laurel-Concord), receiving 21st place, Purple ribbon, Emily Gubbels (Laurel-Concord) receiving 49th place, Blue ribbon, Jason Miller (Coleridge), White ribbon, and John Burmester (Coleridge).  As a team, they received Blue Ribbons, 15th place.  There was a total of 264 participants and 64 teams.
Junior Livestock Judging: Alison Davey (Newcastle), white ribbon, Heidi Klug (Wynot), Morgan Quinn (Winside), and Cody Stappert (Wynot)
Meats: Chad Boeckman (Wynot), Blue Ribbon, Duane Burbach (Wynot), White Ribbon, Tyler Pinkelman (Wynot), and Cody Stappert (Wynot), Red Ribbon.  As a team, they received Red Ribbons.
Natural Resources: Melinda Hoesing (Coleridge), Blue Ribbon, Becky Wood (Coleridge), Blue Ribbon, Kody Knudsen (Laurel-Concord) Blue Ribbon, and Billy Leapley (Coleridge).  As a team, they received Red Ribbons.
Food Science: Heidi Klug (Wynot) 2nd place individual, April Lauer (Wynot) Purple Ribbon, Jesse Gildersleeve (Laurel-Concord) Red Ribbon, and Tyler Sherman (Laurel-Concord) White Ribbon.  As a team, they receive Red Ribbons
Livestock Management: Emily Gubbels (Laurel-Concord), Alison Davey (Newcastle), Chris Schmidt (Wynot), Tyler Hansen (Laurel-Concord), and Jason Miller (Coleridge)  Livestock Management is divided into 6 categories: Beef, Dairy, Horse, Poultry, Sheep, and Swine.  The livestock management placed 9th in Horse Division and 20th in Sheep Division.  As a team, we placed 25th out of 41 total teams.

   Ben Vanderheiden was awarded first place with Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance-Entrepreneurship Proficiency and third place with Agricultural Sales-Entrepreneurship.  He will be representing Laurel-Concord Schools at National Convention in Indianapolis 2009 with his proficiency in Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance.  Ben’s repair skills include bicycle brake and derailer cable adjustments, changing tires, and installing new bicycle components. Ben is sure that when a bicycle comes in to be repaired, that it is repaired completely in a timely and orderly fashion. 

   Tyler Sherman earned his FFA State Degree.  The State Degree is the the highest degree that our state association can bestow.  The state degree is a great honor to receive.  It is presented to experienced members based on achievement in the FFA, their supervised agricultural experience program, and agricultural courses.  Members must have been in FFA at least 3 years, have completed at least 360 hours of instruction in agricultural education, have earned at least $1500, and have worked at least 1,000 hours.