The Junior Florida Cattlemen’s members have been very busy these past few months with many activities. On October 11, approximately 75 of our junior members and their parents met at Schroeder- Manatee Ranch in Bradenton for our FJCA fall field day. After signing in, we all visited with each other for a while until we started our hay-ride around SMR. On our hay ride, we got a tour of the ranch led by Jason McKendree, the cattle manager, and were able to see some of their sod operations as well as some of their cattle. One of the herds we looked at was all 1st calf heifers and Mr. Jason explained the breeding program to us. What a great looking pasture of cows and calves they were! After our ride, we stuffed ourselves with hotdogs and hamburgers that were sponsored by the Manatee County Cattlemen’s Association. Thank you!
After lunch, we discussed items of business such as the JFCA cattle show that was held in Okeechobee in September. If you missed it, you missed out on a great time and an awesome show! We also discussed how the FJCA helped out at the Ranch Rodeo on both Friday and Saturday. We would like to thank Mrs. Emily Hobby and Mrs. Sarah Childs for the opportunity to assist and thank you to all members and parents that helped. Another item of business is the new NCBA contests. Information on the Quiz Bowl, Team Marketing, Livestock Judging and Public Speaking contests can be found at www.BeefUSA.org. The FCA will be sending the winners from Marco to participate, and we are all very excited to represent the FCA at the competition. Counties also need to make sure that they send in their bid sheets for the youth beef show. The deadline is November 15, and we will select the location at the December Quarterly. Our new FJCA t-shirts are also on sale. Contact Mrs. Yarborough or the FCA office to order. Parents, these T-shirts will make awesome Christmas presents for your FJCA member!
We then elected our new JFCA officers for the upcoming year. The officers elected were Kaitlyn Gill, President; Thomas Richmond, Vice-President; Haley Webb, Secretary; JK Yarborough, Treasurer; and Cody Corson, Ex-Officio. We are all very excited about this upcoming year and the opportunity to work with Mr. Hobby and the FCA. If you want us present at a county meeting or event, please don’t hesitate to contact us. After electing our new officers, we drew for door prizes that included a cow whip donated by LR whips, a skinning knife donated by Robinson Custom Turkey Calls, mineral donated by Com See Come Sav, and a pocket knife donated by Wingate Creek farms. On behalf of the officer team and members, I would like to extend a huge thank you to Gene and Tamara Wingate for all that they did in putting the field day together, Ashley Howell for helping out, and Schroeder-Manatee Ranch for all that they did for us.

Submitted by:
Haley Webb
Secretary