Tennessee FFA Career Development Events

How Tennessee FFA Career Development Events Work

Career development events, or CDEs, are contests where FFA members show hands-on agriculture skills: judging livestock, identifying soils, grading meat, diagnosing animals or planning a landscape. Tennessee FFA says its program has more than 30,000 members in 265 chapters across West, Middle and East Tennessee, per an RFD-TV report on the 2026 state convention in Gatlinburg. Teams usually move from a chapter or regional contest to a state event, and state winners can advance to the national level. The dates below come from the most recent full Tennessee FFA calendars posted online, covering the 2024-25 season, so use them as a map of the year and confirm current dates with your advisor and tnffa.org.

The Events With Their Own Dates

The West Tennessee FFA CDE and LDE contest sheet lists a set of events held away from the convention, each with a team size and a location:

• Dairy Evaluation and Dairy Cattle Handlers: Tennessee State Fair, Lebanon, August 22 that season; team of 4 for evaluation, individuals for handlers
• Livestock Evaluation: MTSU, September 11; team of 4, top 4 teams per region
• Land Evaluation: October 14; team of 4, top 4 teams per region, with the location varying
• Horse Evaluation: MTSU Miller Coliseum, November 12; team of 4
• Meats Evaluation: Wilson County Fairgrounds, December 12; team of 4
• Veterinary Science: UT Martin University Center, April 12; team of 4, scrubs or business casual
• Floriculture, Nursery/Landscape and Poultry Evaluation: Tennessee Tech Hyder-Burks Pavilion, April 22; teams of 4
• Forestry: Camp Clements, June 6 to 7; team of 4
• Agricultural Mechanics: Tennessee State University, date to be announced; team of 4, top 2 teams per region

Some of these are open to any team that registers, while others send only the top teams from regional contests. Check the "state qualifiers" column for your event.

State Convention CDEs

The 98th Tennessee State FFA Convention was held in Gatlinburg in March 2026, and the 99th is planned for 2027. Contests held during convention week in the 2024-25 season, which ran March 23 to 26, included Agronomy, Environmental and Natural Resources, Farm Business Management, Food Science, Milk Quality and Products, Agricultural Sales, Agricultural Communications and Marketing Plan. These teams are a mix of four-person and smaller teams: Agronomy, Environmental and Natural Resources, Farm Business Management, Food Science and Milk Quality teams have 4 members, and Marketing Plan teams have 3. The contest sheet does not label every convention event as a CDE or an LDE.

Regional Contests

Each region runs its own qualifying contests, so your path depends on where your school sits. The East Tennessee calendar shows regional Land Evaluation on October 3, regional Livestock Evaluation on March 1 at UT Knoxville's Brehm Arena, Ag Mechanics on March 8, and Floriculture and Nursery on March 12. The Middle Tennessee calendar lists regional Soils on October 1 in Lewisburg, regional Livestock on March 18 at MTSU, and regional Ag Sales on December 3 at the Wilson County Fairgrounds. West Tennessee's calendar adds a West TN Horse Judging contest in September, a Soils contest at the Jackson Experiment Station and a Livestock contest in November.

Fair and Clinic Contests

Some contests ride along with fairs. The East Tennessee calendar lists an Appalachian Fair beef judging contest on August 19, a Tennessee Valley Fair FFA exhibit judging on September 7 and an Appalachian Fair invitational dairy handlers event on August 23. The State Fair also hosts open contests on August 19, with registration due August 15, plus the State Dairy Evaluation and Dairy Handlers CDEs. For Meats Evaluation, registration opened at 12:30 p.m. and the contest started at 1:00 p.m. at the Wilson County Fairgrounds, with sign-up due December 5. Other registration deadlines in the sample season were August 15 for Dairy, October 7 for State Land Judging, November 5 for Horse Evaluation, April 16 for Poultry and May 23 for Forestry.

Registration and Paperwork

• Register your team before each deadline, which usually falls about a week before the event.
• Convention CDE and LDE paperwork, such as marketing plans and portfolios, was due on the Judging Card system by March 1 in the 2024-25 season.
• Online CDE and LDE certification closes September 1 for national events.
• Example scorecards are posted through Judging Card, which requires sign-in.

Dress and Conduct

Events that score appearance must follow the most recent National FFA official dress standards, and participants should follow the National FFA Code of Ethics. When an event lists dress as "No" and has no specific clothing rules, an FFA t-shirt is appropriate. Otherwise attire must be appropriate for school.

Preparing a Team

• Start with your advisor and the classes you are taking. Livestock, Meats, Floriculture and Forestry all reward practice reps.
• Attend clinics. The calendars list university clinics at Tennessee Tech and UT Martin.
• Count heads early. Many events require exactly four.
• Read the current scorecards before your first practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Guide checked Nov. 11, 2026. Rules and dates change; confirm with the organizer.