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This year marks the 62nd annual event known as ‘Aggie Days’ for the agriculture department at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO). Aggie Days will take place April 2, 5-6, 2013. Aggie Days host thousands of students during the Agriculture Interscholastic Contest. Students from across the four states will travel to the NEO campus to compete in this sweepstakes-style contest.
New to Aggie Days is the addition of three Viking scholarships, which will be awarded to the high team in the sweepstakes portion of the contest. The high sweepstakes team in the single teacher division and high sweepstakes team in the multiple teacher division will each win three Viking scholarships that the chapter will award to seniors of their chapter for the fall of 2013. Buckles will also be awarded to the high individuals in the senior divisions of the horse judging and livestock judging contests.
Aggie Days is open to any student who is a member of 4-H or FFA. Participants range in age from third grade to seniors in high school. Students will compete in a variety of agriculture-related categories. “Interscholastic judging contests are a great way for students to learn through application and experience, and each contest is based on agricultural principles that students learn through their 4-H or FFA programs,” said Shannon Cunningham, chair of the agriculture department and assistant vice president of academic affairs. “It is a great way for students to demonstrate decision making and logic skills through different disciplines.”
“Our Aggie Day contests are a great opportunity for students to see our facilities, campus and Synar Farm,” Cunningham added. “There is such a rich sense of tradition and pride involved with Aggie Days, and it takes place just before students compete in district and state contests, so it is an excellent opportunity to refine their skills”.
The event also enables NEO to highlight its nationally recognized agriculture programs and teams. NEO offers degrees in equine and ranch management, agriculture, natural resource ecology management and pre-veterinary science. Students from across the country travel annually to Oklahoma to be part of NEO’s agriculture program. The department has four competitive traveling teams: rodeo, equine judging, equestrian, and livestock judging. “This event brings an interested audience right to our doorstep,” Cunningham said. “Through Aggie Days, students are exposed to not only the variety of fields related to a career in agriculture, but they see first-hand the quality educational opportunities that are available at NEO.”
Contests include: horse, speech, dairy, poultry, meats, farm business management and many more… For a complete list of contests and a thorough rundown of registration information, please follow the link below: https://neo.edu/Portals/4/Faculty%20Staff/Web%20Pages/Burrows,%20Amanda/AggieDay2013.pdf. For more information, please contact Shannon Cunningham at 918-540-6272 or email scunningham@neo.edu.
