By Justin Walker
Communications Specialist

The Texas FFA State Leadership Development Events (LDE) contests will take place this weekend in Huntsville.

FFA chapters from across the state will represented at the two day event on Sam Houston State University’s campus, where students will demonstrate their leadership skills in a variety of different competitions.

Agricultural Advocacy, Chapter Conducting, Agricultural Skills Demonstration and FFA Broadcasting are three of the 10 contests in which members will compete. Each competition highlights a different skillset, which promotes learning and leadership within personal development, Texas FFA President Cory Sinkule said.

“When we have these competitions, it’s all about motivating students to advance their speaking abilities, to step outside their comfort zone and to learn how they can best talk about agriculture,” he said.

Through the different contests, students have the opportunity to gain different leadership skills, such as representing the morals and values of the organization or how to share the message of FFA and agriculture, Sinkule said.

“It’s important as an organization that we promote these events, so young people can learn how to speak and how to best articulate what the FFA is all about and what agriculture is all about,” he said.

Texas agriculture benefits from this contest as well, Sinkule said. LDEs cultivate agricultural advocates in the next generation of leaders.

FFA members participating in the state contests learn about agricultural issues and how to address those situations properly to better inform consumers.

“FFA does really well at teaching students how they can be a consumer, as well as how they can inform consumers how to make the right choices in the marketplace,” Sinkule said.

Ten competitions will be held this weekend with opportunities to advance to the national contest held next October. Not all state winners will qualify for that contest, Sinkule said, as several of this weekend’s events are specific to Texas.

In addition to the contest, the Texas FFA state officer team asked FFA members who qualified for state to participate in a community service project. Texas FFA members will bring new or lightly-used coats as a donation to the Shepherds Mission in Huntsville.

For more information on LDEs and Texas FFA, visit https://www.texasffa.org/lde.