HAMILTON, Ohio – It’s the beginning of a new tradition: Makayla Krazl was the first ever FFA queen at the Butler County Fair. She is going into her fourth year in FFA at Edgewood High School. Kellie Beiser is her adviser. She’s working to complete her State Degree.

Krazl showed Boer goats through FFA. She showed her Tennessee Walking horse through 4-H. She has been a Butler County Bandits 4-H Club member for 12 years.

To be selected as queen, Krazl filled out an application and was interviewed the month before the fair. During the fair, her duties included handing out ribbons and being present for certain events. Like all FFA members, she spent time working at the Farm Zone Educational Agricultural Exhibit. Plus, she got to talk with people at the fair about FFA.

“It’s really fun that I’m able to show people that don’t know what FFA is, what it’s about,” Krazl told the Journal-News. “If I’m walking around the fairgrounds, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, FFA, how are you a queen for that?’ So, I can explain that to people. I love talking about FFA. It’s really done a lot for me.”

Krazl is working toward her FFA State Degree. Her Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) project is a big part of that.

“You have to fulfill a lot of requirements,” she said. “You have to do community service, you have to have a certain amount of money earned from your SAE project. I had a lot of that, except I was almost $800 short in earnings from my SAE. The only money I had in my SAE project was a job at a horse farm. I started later because I didn’t know what the requirements were. By showing the goats and selling them, I’m trying to get money toward my State Degree.”

Krazl has worked with horses all her life. This year was her first showing goats. “I liked it,” she said. “They are harder to work with than horses because they do not learn as fast.”

But Krazl values her FFA experience beyond the fair, horses and goats.

“I like all of the leadership I get to do; it has helped me a lot,” she explained. “I get to speak in front of crowds. I have often presented to little kids, to teach them about agriculture. That’s fun.”

Krazl is the daughter of Sherri and Dave Krazl. Her brother, Zack, also showed goats at the fair. Like many, the family spends fair week camping at the fairgrounds.

The FFA queen competition came about in part because the 2022 fair queen, Anna Moeller, had the idea and promoted it, said Ryland Beckner, president of the Butler County Junior Fair Board.

“She had the idea of getting the FFA department to have an FFA queen,” Beckner said. “She talked with the people in charge of the king and queen competition, and they were able to get it approved. We will continue to have an FFA queen.”