County FFA Land Judging Contest Held in Harrison Township

Greg McGlinch, Darke SWCD, goes over the practice soil pit
evaluation with students participating in the 2013 contest
at the Murphy Farm outside of New Paris.

On September 17, 2013 the Darke SWCD held their annual land judging contest for Darke and Miami County FFA Chapters as they prepare for the District Contest. This year’s contest was held at Mark Murphy’s Farm off Eaton-Ft Nesbitt Road near New Paris. This year 16 teams from nine schools – Ansonia, Covington, Franklin Monroe, Greenville, Miami East, Mississinawa Valley, Newton, Tri-Village and Versailles – participated in the event.

FFA students analyze a soil pit during the 2013 land judging
contest held in Harrison Township at Mark Murphy’s farm.

The land judging contest consists of a rural and an urban test. Each test challenges the students to not only identify soil types, but also consider other soil characteristics when making recommendations for use of that area. The contest consisted of four stations, three soil pits and a written test. The students had 15 minutes to finish the test at each station. Upon completion of the contest, students were asked to hand in their answer keys before Darke SWCD staff would go over the answers and reasoning at each station.

This year Versailles Team #3 finished with the highest team score on the rural test, followed by Versailles Team #2 and Ansonia. The highest individual score was Danielle Hesson from Versailles FFA. Newton Team #1 recorded the highest team score in the urban test, followed by Miami East and Covington. Abby Webb from Newton turned in the highest individual score on the urban test.

“Darke SWCD would like to thank the Murphy’s for graciously hosting this year’s competition, George Skidmore for helping Greg and Tim evaluate the soil pits, Darke County Ditch Maintenance for digging the pits and all the schools for participating in the event. The participation and enthusiasm from the students and teachers is what makes this competition great,” said Jared Coppess, District Administrator for Darke SWCD.