CARBONDALE, IL (WSIL) -- Students in the southern Illinois region got a taste of the Ag-business Friday by taking part in SIU's annual FFA Livestock and Horticulture Career Development Day.
The event moved online for the past two years because of the pandemic, organizers say it is good to be back on the farm.
It is a competition between schools, judging livestock, "Seeing which ones are the best of the group, seeing which ones to keep, or cull," says Jonah Tanner, a sophomore from Pinckneyville, IL.
While students judged livestock at SIU Farms, another group identified plants, judged flowers and created landscaping designs back on campus in the Agriculture Building.
The event moved online during the pandemic and though Susan Graham, Sr. Manager of Communication, Outreach, and Recruitment at College of Agricultural, Life, and Physical Sciences, says they received positive feedback on their video productions, "It just does not compare to being in person, out here with the animals actually able to see them in person and interact with students of other schools as well."
Graham says 80 different schools took part in events Friday with SIU students helping to set up and serve as judges.
"This is a long-standing tradition on this campus for at least 50 to 70 years that I can find documented," explains Graham.
The students visiting SIU get a look at campus, while the students in school at SIU bring to the field what they study in the classroom. Â
"It also gives our students at SIU the opportunity to do hands on activities," says Graham. "Because some of these students will go out in the industry, some will be ag teachers and they'll be bringing their students back for this contest in just a few years hopefully."
Graham adds, many of the students visiting Friday already have a jump on their peers, just by being a part of the FFA Organization.
"FFA just builds leadership, it builds skills," says Graham. "It builds public speaking and interacting with others and hopefully that sets with them on their way home today."
