Agriculture Interscholastic

AN Aggie TRADITION FOR MORE THAN 70 years

When the members of the Oklahoma Legislature passed Senate Bill 109 on May 20, 1908, which laid the foundation for Cameron State School of Agriculture, little did they know that more than 100 years later, Cameron University would still be attracting high school students with an interest in agriculture to its campus. For more than 70 years, Cameron has hosted the annual Agriculture Interscholastic career development event, with the exception of 2020, when the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Each year, hundreds of high school students descend upon the Cameron campus to test their skills in areas ranging from practical animal science and agronomy to leadership and business while they prepare for the state FFA competition. By hosting the Agriculture Interscholastic, CU provides high school students from across the state an opportunity to qualify for the state competition and to explore opportunities for their future education.

Cattle

Competitors from across the state gather to evaluate the first class of cattle during the 2021 Agriculture Interscholastic.

Milk

The milk quality and products events provide participants the opportunity to work cooperatively to determine milk acceptability, present their findings, solutions and recommendations; identify cheese types, milk flavors and artificial dairy products and more.

Meat

Meat judging teams must evaluate cuts of meat to determine grade based on quality. The contest helps high school students develop the ability to evaluable meat animal products in order to optimize economic returns to producers and industry as well as to meet the needs of consumers.

Land

Participants in the land judging competition are required to lower themselves into a pit so they can effectively evaluate the composition of the soil to determine its value in agronomy.

AGGIE ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Antoine Ehouman, a native of Cote D’Ivoire, assisted with the 2011 Agriculture Interscholastic event. He graduated from CU in May 2011 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture with a concentration in Agriculture Business Management. He is currently an assistant manager at Clemens Food Group in Blacksburg, VA, following stints as the swine center manager at Virginia Tech University and as farm manager at Smithfield Foods in Laurinburg, N.C. Ehouman says he chose to attend CU due to the lack of higher education programs in agriculture in his homeland. His CU experience led him to internships at both Smithfield Premium Genetics and Cornell University’s Teaching and Research Center Sheep Farm.