FFA Career Development Events: A Complete List
FFA competitions cover technical agricultural work, speaking, meetings, and employment skills. National FFA lists Career Development Events and Leadership Development Events together. Your state or district may offer other contests, or use a different schedule or format. Check the official national CDE and LDE directory and use the handbook for the competition season you intend to enter. Even a team that can identify twenty samples sometimes can't identify which file on the advisor's desk is the newest one.
Current national event list
These are the event names in the combined National FFA directory. The groups below are a way to browse by interest. Ask your advisor which contests are offered locally and how students qualify.
Technical agriculture and evaluation
- Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems
- Agronomy
- Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management
- Environmental & Natural Resources
- Floriculture
- Food Science & Technology
- Forestry
- Horse Evaluation
- Livestock Evaluation
- Meats Evaluation & Technology
- Milk Quality & Products
- Nursery & Landscape
- Poultry Evaluation
- Veterinary Science
Business, sales and communications
- Agricultural Communications
- Agricultural Issues Forum
- Agricultural Sales
- Farm & Agribusiness Management
- Marketing Plan
Speaking, meetings and employment
- Conduct of Chapter Meetings
- Creed Speaking
- Employment Skills
- Extemporaneous Public Speaking
- Parliamentary Procedure
- Prepared Public Speaking
Pick a contest by the type of work you'll practice
Open two interesting handbooks and look for the event components and score sheets. A member interested in livestock may enjoy comparing live animals, explaining a market comparison, or learning how products are assessed. These are distinct skills. A student who loves arranging flowers might discover that floriculture includes identification and sales situations. The bouquet is only part of the job. Someone still has to hear what the customer asked for.
Ask the coach whether participants compete alone or as a group, how members are selected, what practice entails, and whether there are costs or travel requirements. If your district offers a contest that doesn't appear on the national list, ask for the district or state rules directly. Teams sometimes borrow practice from a national event while competing under a local rubric. For scoring purposes, a familiar exercise and an identical contest are two different things.
Read the handbook with a highlighter and a calendar
Mark three sections. Find the eligibility and registration rules, the list of scored tasks, and the procedures for equipment or submissions. Then circle the one component you understand least. Ask your advisor for a timed sample before deciding how to practice. A student choosing between speaking and judging might try one short outline and one sample class, then compare how quickly each experience gave them something specific to work on.
Plan backward from the earliest deadline. Work out when you need approval to join a team, when travel arrangements are due, and how far before competition the coach wants a final practice. If you miss the season, ask to observe a permitted practice or help coach the next introductory group. A good first year can start with learning what one event actually asks you to do.
Give a practice observer the event rubric and ask which activities seemed most engaging. Comparing the kinds of decisions you enjoyed making can help you choose a contest and find a teammate who enjoys another part.