The Boyle County FFA is hosting its annual Farm Machinery Consignment Auction on March 6 at 9:30 a.m.

The event will be outdoors at The Showroom, located at 2405 Lebanon Road.

FFA alumni member Tom Ross said this is the Boyle County FFA’s 11th annual auction since it began when he was president of the alumni association for about three years. He’s also been treasurer. The auction is the organization’s largest fundraiser, and money goes toward students’ trips to state and national conventions and other expenses. It would be quite expensive for kids if they had to pay for all those expenses themselves, he said. The sales commission from the items goes toward funds for the FFA.

Items sold will be farm machinery of various values, and Ross said the FFA is still taking items. He said they will be taking consignments all day Friday, and people can bring the items to The Showroom for consignment. The students assist with the auction, he said.

“This is our main fundraiser, and this has typically been our main fundraiser for several years, and they know that this helps pay for their activities, so they’re eager to help,” Ross said.

The FFA was able to have last year’s auction in March of last year, right before COVID-19 shutdowns hit.

Ross said the biggest thing students can learn from the FFA is how to get in front of people and speak. The FFA isn’t farming — it’s speech contests,  parliamentary procedure contests, livestock judging contests, seed judging contests as well as other events, he said.

“All these areas help prepare them for the real world when they get out,” Ross said.

There are multiple agriculture teachers at Boyle County High School and one at Boyle County Middle School. An agriculture teacher being at the middle school is fairly recent, he said, over only the past few years.

“They get started a little earlier that way,” he said, as students should contact agriculture teachers and take agriculture classes if they’re interested in joining the FFA.

Ross said several students who have been part of the FFA have gone on to agriculture education at the University of Kentucky, and some have gone on to teach agriculture themselves.