DeKalb High School’s Cole Triplett was crowned National Champion at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Triplett competed in the Ag Science Fair competition where he chose to tackle a problem in his family’s own flock of sheep. “My brother began a sheep operation several years ago, which now includes our entire family”, said Triplett. “One of the biggest problems in our flock is the protozoa called Coccidia. I learned this when our local vet taught me how to conduct fecal counts on our sheep”, said Triplett.” Coccidia can cause diarrhea, dehydration, starvation, and damage to the G.I tract of a sheep. Triplett added, “During the first year, we had lost several sheep to Coccidia and I knew to prevent further death loss I wanted to find a more efficient way to treat Coccidia. I realized that I could turn this into a science fair experiment and help spread the word about it and tell people about this more effective way to treat Coccidia.” After Triplets’ realization he decided to compete in the Agriculture Science Fair competition.
“The Agriscience Fair competition is like any other science fair, but focuses on agriculture- related topics”, Triplett explained. “I designed and carried out a project, summarized the project as a poster, completed a detailed application, and went through a 15-minute interview with judges.”
There were two levels of competition in the contest. The state level was an invitational contest held in Fort Worth at the Texas FFA Convention.
