The Skills You Don’t See on the Results Sheet: What CDEs and LDEs Really Build
How Contests Build Skills That Outlast the Competition
A results sheet is a list of numbers. It records who placed where. It does not record the weeks of preparation, the arguments over strategy or the first time a member defended a decision aloud to a stranger. For that, the best evidence is how FFA describes its own events. Reading those descriptions side by side shows a pattern: each event is built around a hidden skill set that outlasts the contest.
All the descriptions below come from the National FFA Organization’s event pages, which are summaries rather than official rules. Members and coaches should rely on current event handbooks for scoring details.
- Key takeaway: the placing is the receipt; the skills are the purchase.
- Test it: after any event, list three skills you used that were not on the scoresheet.
What the Event Descriptions Promise
Observation, Decision and Defense
The Livestock Evaluation event page says participants develop the ability to make accurate observations, determine desirable traits and make informed decisions, then discuss and defend those decisions using industry terminology. It also says members build connections with industry professionals. The Meats Evaluation & Technology page adds analytical skills, critical thinking and cooperation and communication through individual and team activities.
Research and Judgment
The Parliamentary Procedure page lists leadership, research, problem-solving and critical thinking, including presenting convincing debates, evaluating minutes and organizational documents and using resources to solve management problems. The Agricultural Issues Forum has teams research local, state, national and international issues, build portfolios and presentations and answer questions, with judging on content, creativity and respect for diverse cultures.
Making and Packaging Work
The Agricultural Communications event has participants create a media plan for FFA New Horizons magazine: a feature story, magazine layout, broadcast piece and social media strategy, with individual and team activities that mimic a real magazine setting.
Courage and Composure
The Creed Speaking page says the event builds self-confidence and public speaking skills for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade members, who must also answer questions about the Creed and basic agriculture.
The Skills That Do Not Show Up
Put those descriptions next to Advance CTE’s Career Ready Practices and a second layer appears. These are the skills below the scoresheet:
- Preparation habits. Nobody scores your practice schedule, but it determines the score.
- Handling nerves. FFA’s Mark Jewell says nervousness can be a gift because it shows you care, as quoted in 5 Tips for Better Public Speaking.
- Team repair. Fixing a conflict at 9 p.m. before a contest is a skill employers value as conflict resolution.
- Professional behavior. Showing up on time and prepared is part of the Career Ready Practices emphasis on reliability.
- Ethics under pressure. FFA staff describe the Code of Ethics as the shared ground rules for competition, per Play Fair With the FFA Code of Ethics.
The last four items are this site’s interpretation of how the events work in practice rather than statements from the event pages.
How to Capture the Hidden Skills
- Keep an event journal. After each contest, write what you did, what you learned and one thing you would change.
- Collect feedback. Save judge comments and coach notes.
- Translate to workplace language. “Defended decisions orally to a panel” reads better than “did oral reasons.”
- Quantify honestly. Teams, divisions, levels and dates make a claim checkable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which events are open to middle school members?
FFA’s event pages say Creed Speaking is exclusively for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade members, and Conduct of Chapter Meetings introduces middle school members in grades 7–9 to parliamentary procedure.
Are CDEs and LDEs individual or team events?
Both formats appear. Meats Evaluation & Technology and Agricultural Communications include individual and team activities, and the Agricultural Issues Forum involves teams of three to seven students. Check the current handbook for your event.
Where can I find the official rules?
The event pages summarized here are on FFA.org. They describe each event’s purpose; scoring details, time limits and eligibility belong to the current event handbooks, so ask your advisor for the version your event uses.
Honest Limits
Event descriptions say what the events are designed to build, not what every participant gains. Quality varies by coach, chapter and event. No cited source measures skill growth, so treat the list as a map of opportunities. The people who benefit most are the ones who notice the hidden skills and practice them deliberately.
Several past presidents on this site built careers around skills of this kind: Jackie Mundt in agricultural communications, Mark Sanborn in leadership speaking and Zach Kinne in agricultural policy.
Sources
- National FFA Organization: Livestock Evaluation
- National FFA Organization: Meats Evaluation & Technology
- National FFA Organization: Parliamentary Procedure
- National FFA Organization: Agricultural Issues Forum
- National FFA Organization: Agricultural Communications
- Advance CTE: Career Ready Practices, National Career Clusters Framework