Yuma Union High School District Future Farmers of America (FFA) students competed in the FFA State Conference on Feb. 24, 2023 at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Some of the competitions included: ag business, milk quality, entomology, dairy evaluation, soils, agronomy, food science, and poultry evaluation. 

Cibola’s poultry evaluation team, consisting of Taygen Newby, Rylee Raney, Wyatt Bacon, and Kaylyn Larson, took first place overall and had several team members place in the top ten individually. The poultry evaluation team will be traveling to the National FFA Convention in October in Indianapolis. 

"It means so much for us to be able to go to the National FFA Convention,” Bacon said. “We all worked so hard to be able to win first place at state, studying before school, after school, and at home. It is awesome that all of our hard work paid off." 

Gila Ridge had eight top ten teams and four top ten individuals from several competitions. 

“We are extremely proud of our FFA members for competing in this year's state CDE (career development event) competition,” Gila Ridge High School FFA Advisor Laramie Pruit said. “It is always a good day when we see students putting professional skills into practice and seeing their accomplishments in the largest industry in Yuma.”

San Luis High School’s wildlife team placed second overall, and had two top ten individuals.

The FFA state conference is the main CDE for FFA students to showcase their skills and compete with other FFA programs around the state. 

FFA is part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at YUHSD and is offered at Cibola, Gila Ridge, San Luis and Yuma High. FFA prepares students for leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education.