The South O’Brien FFA team of MaKenna Wallin, Reese Farquhar, Abby Woodall, and BreLee Rasmussen competed in the National FFA Land Judging Contest held in El Reno, Oklahoma the first week in May.
Reese Farquar stated, “ I thought the entire competition was different from Iowa’s.”
The top five teams from each state qualify to compete in the national event. South O’Brien qualified by placing third in the Iowa FFA State Soils contest last October.
99 FFA teams from around the U.S. participated, with South O’Brien placing 86th. The other teams from Iowa placed: Keota-73rd, Brokaw (Clarinda)-74th, Fairfield-81st, and Louisa-Muscatine-92nd.
The soil was very red, but I thought it was easier than Iowa’s.” Abby Woodall stated,
The team took advantage of the practice pits that were available to judge to try and get used to the color difference and texturing, as well as become more familiar with the different scorecard. South O’Brien FFA Advisor Eric Kumm said, “At the national contest, the one thing that is probably the most challenging is determining the slope. In Iowa the contestants are given the elevation difference and then they pace off the distance between the stakes and do some simple math to get the slope. At nationals, it’s known that the stakes are one hundred feet apart, but they now have to determine the elevation difference. With the weather the way it was this spring, we just weren’t able to get outside to get the reps in. Next time we qualify, we really need to find a spot nearby in a pasture where we can set up stakes for a slope wheel to practice this part of the contest more.”
“ The contest had a completely different scorecard from what I am used to. But my favorite part of the trip was visiting the site of the bombing at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum and the National Softball Hall of Fame.” MaKenna Wallin stated “ It was very cool to see all of the things Oklahoma had to offer, and getting to judge soils completely different from Iowa’s.”
Kumm also mentioned, “The years we qualify, I try to take our teams to some interesting sites around Oklahoma City. On Mondays, one of the few stockyards left in the nation has a sale, so we walk the catwalk to look at the cattle and watch a little bit of the sale. We also visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, have a steak at the Cattleman’s Steakhouse in the stockyards city, plus we have to do a bit of go-kart racing after we’re done practicing for the day. These young ladies are very busy throughout the year, and I’m proud of the work they put in to improve day-to-day, they were a fun group to coach, and hopefully competing in a national event was a positive experience for them that they’ll remember.”