High school students will bring the finest agricultural mechanics projects in the state to the Blinn College – Brenham campus Wednesday, April 29, for the College’s 14th annual Agricultural Mechanics Show.
Event co-founder Johnnie Schroeder hopes to bring in more than 60 different high schools to showcase their finest—and largest—agricultural mechanics projects. The show will be held at the College’s W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex beginning at 10 a.m., with the closing awards ceremony at 4 p.m.
“This show is one of the biggest in the state,” Schroeder said. “What’s great about our show is that high school students come in and have a chance to win a Blinn scholarship.”
The show features projects developed and designed by students in high school FFA chapters and county 4-H clubs. Students work 300-400 hours on some projects, which are then judged on quality and showmanship. Projects included agriculture machinery and equipment; livestock equipment; trailers; recreational items including barbecue pits, picnic tables, metal and wood furniture, entrance gates, deer blinds, animal traps and horticulture products; and engines and reconditioned tractors.
Projects will be judged in five categories: agriculture machinery and equipment, livestock and equipment, trailer, recreation and engine. The winners of each category will be awarded a Blinn scholarship. Submissions include restored tractors and custom-built trailers.
There will also be on-site horticulture, wildlife, welding and cutting torch contests.
The show has grown from about 30 schools its inaugural year in 2001 to 60 last year, and the 2014 show included a record 152 entries. Shane Kirts of Era High School FFA was named grand champion with his restoration of a 1967 Allis Chalmers tractor and Cody Garrett of Cuero FFA was named reserve grand champion for his 57-foot semi livestock trailer.
“We used to give out an award to the team that traveled the farthest,” Schroeder said. “For some of these schools it takes more than a day.”
Blinn’s Agricultural Sciences Program is roughly four times the size of any other two-year agricultural program in the state and offers agriculture classes on all of its campuses, with the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex serving as the program’s hub.
In addition to its excellence in the classroom, Blinn offers extracurricular educational activities in the areas of livestock judging, agriculture club, wildlife, agriculture mechanics, horticulture and agriculture sciences. For more information on Blinn’s ag science program, visit: www.blinn.edu/agriculture.
Registration is currently available for Blinn’s May Minimester and Summer semesters. For enrollment information and to learn about financial aid opportunities, visit: www.blinn.edu.
