Ashland FFA team, from left to right: Callie Cullins, Caiden Condon, Grace Routhier and Carter Craig.
On Sept. 14, the farm business management team from the Ashland FFA Chapter in Maine competed at the Big E competition. Members of the team are senior Grace Routhier and juniors Carter Craig, Callie Cullins and Caiden Condon.
The team left the Big E fairgrounds at 8 a.m. to travel to Connecticut for the competition. About nine teams from states in the northeast region competed at the Big E, and the Maine team placed third overall in the competition.
In May 2024, the team won first place at a local competition, qualifying them for the Big E competition. To prepare for the Big E, team members studied business terms and equations.
The competition has two parts: a team portion and an individual portion. During the team portion, the team computed income and profits based on fictional agricultural businesses. The individual portion consisted of a test based on vocabulary and business terms. The team sees the Big E competition as a success.
Farm Business Management team members in front of the Maine building at the Big E fairgrounds.
Members of the Ashland team had a positive outlook on the competition. Chapter President Caiden Condon said everyone worked well together.
“We did not know all of the material but used the experience to learn more for nationals,” he adds.
The Ashland team has qualified to compete at the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in October and plans to use its experiences from the Big E to help prepare. This will be the chapter’s first time attending national convention since 2018.
