By Alex Griebel South O’Brien FFA Reporter
Members from the South O’Brien FFA Chapter participated in the NW District FFA Soils contest held at the Iowa Lakes Community College farm. A total of 21 teams and 76 individuals competed in the contest, with the top 5 teams advancing to state.
South O’Brien was crowned Champion Team, which marks the 29th year in a row that a team from South O’Brien has advanced to State in soils. The champion team included: Caden Wittrock (Champion Individual), Gabe Moermond (3rd Individual), Will Stout (7th Individual), and Austin Negus (10th Individual). Alternates Brooks Billick and Karson Wetrich also attended to gain experience for future competitions. “We have a whole new team this year since last year’s team competed in the national event.” said South O’Brien FFA Advisor Eric Kumm. “We went to a soils workshop hosted by Morningside University which I believe helped us quite a bit. I was able to answer their questions and point out a few things they need to look for. We will need to work more on the written test and bring those scores up before the state event.”
The other four teams advancing to state from the district included: Sioux Center (2nd), Unity Christian (3rd), Manson-NW Webster (4th), and MOC-FV (5th).
Caden Wittrock stated, “ The most difficult part of the contest for me was having to judge a pit I have bever seen before. It was very interesting to see how different each patch of soil is. It was very exciting placing 1st as a team, as well as being the champion individual myself.”