Keota FFA Team Places 5th in National Agricultural Mechanics Contest

The Keota FFA Chapter Ag Mechanics team competed in the National Agricultural Mechanics competition during the 82nd National FFA Convention held in Indianapolis, IN during October 21-24, 2009. The team did an outstanding job during all parts of the contest and placed 5th in the nation out of 44 teams that competed in the event.
Members of the ag mechanics team include senior Travis Greiner, senior Bryce Sieren, junior Blake Bayliss and junior Kyle Huber. The team was coached by Mr. Dan Striegel, Keota FFA chapter advisor.
The Keota team qualified for this event by winning the state ag mechanics contest which was held last June. The team worked diligently to prepare for the event by practicing at least two mornings every week since school began in August.
The theme for the 2009 Ag Mechanics Contest was plant production systems. All activities in the event centered around this theme of raising crops, although the team learned this involves much more than just corn and soybeans! The two day event included activities on irrigation, seeding, welding and much more.
The National Ag Mechanics contest is broken down into five sections which include: Machinery & Equipment, Industry & Marketing, Energy Systems, Structural Systems, and Environmental & Natural Resources. There is a general knowledge test for each area and a couple different hands on skills that each competitor completes for each of the 5 areas.
The first day of the event included the ag mechanics exam and the team activity, while the second day was devoted to individual hands-on skill activities. The written exam was a 100 question test that covered all areas of the event.
The entire team had a written scenario presented to them and they had 2 hours to solve the problem. This year’s team activity was based on routine maintenance of a Briggs & Stratton engine which was coupled to a water pump. They also had to construct a small irrigation system out of PVC pipe. The irrigations system had to be built to exact specifications and could not have any leaks. The team also had to run the pump at various engine speeds, measure the amount of water being pumped and use these results to develop a graph of the pump’s output.
The individual activities on the second day included: reading a blueprint and brazing a pipe to a metal plate, using a multimeter to measure voltage and amperage of an electric motor, performing routine maintenance on a John Deere Gator, finding seeding rates for a drill/fertilizer spreader, and calculating a bill of materials for an irrigation system.
FFA Advisor Dan Striegel stated, “I am very proud of this group of young men. They put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this event. This is the best performance that any Keota FFA team has had in the 68 year history of our FFA chapter.”
The 2009 National FFA Agricultural Mechanics contest was sponsored by Bridgestone/Firestone and by Lincoln Electric.