by Caden Wittrock
South O’Brien FFA Chapter Reporter
FFA teams from 30 chapters, including 117 individuals, participated in this year’s Career Development Event designed to provide the student an opportunity to display their agricultural knowledge and skills in the area of Soils Evaluation. The Soils Evaluation Career Development Event included the evaluation of four soil pits, plus a written exam about soils in Iowa. The score card used to judge the soil pits is divided into five parts: Surface Features, Soil Features –The Profile, Land Capability Classification and Productivity Potential, Evaluation of Management Practices, and Sustainability of Soils for Non-Agricultural Uses.
The South O’Brien FFA team of Brelee Rasmussen, MaKenna Wallin, Reese Farquhar, and Abby Woodall traveled to Iowa State University and competed on Saturday, October 21st. At the state competition, the team finished 3rd, punching their ticket to nationals. Individually, Abby Woodall had the top score in the Pit Judging and was Overall Reserve Champion, missing out on the top spot by only five points. BreLee Rasmussen ended up in a four-way tie for fourth place, and placed 5th after the tie-breaker.
Abby said she is excited to be able to travel to Oklahoma this spring to compete with her friends. Her brother Ben made it to nationals so she is proud to be able to follow in his footsteps. Abby said FFA is a very fun experience, especially if a lot of your friends are involved. You get to spend quality time with them on trips that you get to take within our great chapter.
South O’Brien FFA Chapter Advisor, Eric Kumm, added “I knew they would have a good shot at being competitive at state after looking at how their district score compared to the other chapters that qualified. I’m really proud of the time and effort the team put in this fall to place themselves in this position. It was a very competitive event–only two points separated the team from second place, and six from first place. They’ve been a fun group and I look forward to seeing how they will do at nationals.”
The top five teams will represent Iowa at the National Land Judging Event in May of 2024: Fairfield FFA, Louisa-Muscatine FFA, South O’Brien FFA, Brokaw FFA, and Keota FFA.