Excellence is a constant within the Agricultural Education program at Polk County High School.

When the Polk County High School FFA Land Judging Team leaves Sunday morning for Oklahoma, bound for the national competition, students Banks Barber, Annslee Kilgore, Dakota Searcy and Davis Young will know that they have done their part to maintain that tradition.

For the fifth straight year (minus 2020-21 when the competition wasn’t held due to the pandemic), the FFA Senior Land Judging Team has earned a trip to the National Land and Range Competition held in Oklahoma City. The team placed third last fall at the 67th Annual North Carolina FFA Association Land Judging Career Development Event.

“We always want to win state, but our number one goal is to try to get every kid who participates the chance to go to nationals,” said Polk County agricultural education teacher Chauncey Barber. “And five years in a row is pretty dang good, and I tell these kids all the time that if you have positive consistency, you build tradition.”

Helping fund this trip for this year’s team are sponsors such as Carolina Farm Credit, Polk County Farm Bureau, Polk County Sheriff’s Department, Dusenbury Insurance Agency, Dave Slater, Polk County Soil and Water, Ross Plumbing and Ruff Logging.