SCRIBNER – The FFA Northeast Area Land Judging Contest was held Wednesday, October 7 in Scribner. Teams from West Point and Wisner-Pilger High Schools finished in first place. The event was split into a morning and an afternoon contest, due to the large number of students competing from 27 high schools across the northeast region. In the morning division, West Point took first place with a top score of 1241 points. Team members competing were: Mason Toelle - 326, Riley Kaup - 307, Graidy Tusha - 305, and Jaxon Pierce - 303. In the afternoon contest, Wisner-Pilger took first place with a top score of 1189 points. Team members were: Chesney Ruskamp – 309, Jentrye Frederickson – 306, Ramsey Arduser – 292, and Jacey Dimon – 282.
In the morning contest, Battle Creek placed second with a score of 1073. Third place went to Lakeview with a score of 1046. Norfolk came in fourth place with 978. In the afternoon contest, North Bend came in second with a score of 1104. Winside was in third place with 1079 points. Fourth place went to Lyons-Decatur Northeast with a total of 915 points. The top 8 teams advanced to the State Competition held in Beatrice on October 14.
The top 5 individuals in the morning contest were Mason Toelle, Riley Kaup, Graidy Tusha, Jaxon Pierce, and Austynn Batenhorst – all from West Point. The top 5 individuals in the afternoon contest were Carter Krause of Winside, Austin Stuenkel of North Bend, Chesney Ruskamp of Wisner-Pilger, Tate Penke of Oakland-Craig, and Jentrye Frederickson of Wisner-Pilger.
The contest was hosted by Muller Farms of Scribner. The judging site provided good soil diversity and landscape positions. The contest prepares students for making informed decisions regarding soil utilization in the future.
The 27 schools competing in the contest were: Arlington, Bancroft-Rosalie, Battle Creek, Blair, Elkhorn Valley, Homer, Howells-Dodge, Lakeview, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, Leigh, Logan View, Lutheran High Northeast, Lyons-Decatur Northeast, Newman Grove, Norfolk, North Bend, Oakland-Craig, Osmond, Pender, Randolph, Scribner-Snyder, Stanton, Tekamah-Herman, Wayne, West Point, Winside, Wisner-Pilger.
The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts, the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Scribner High School, and the Nebraska FFA State Land Judging Committee organized and sponsored the contest.
STATE CONTEST: The Lower Big Blue NRD hosted the State Land Judging Contest in Beatrice on October 14, with 151 students competing from 43 schools across the state. From the northeast area, West Point finished in 8th place with a total of 1117 points – team members: Mason Toelle – 304, Riley Kaup – 278, Graidy Tusha – 276, and Jaxon Pierce – 259. In the individual scores, Dylann Ott from Wisner-Pilger finished in 10th place with a score of 327.
Land Judging is a high school competition that challenges students to gain a better understanding of soil structure and land evaluation. Land judging enables each participant to learn how to recognize the physical features of the soil, determine land capability for crop production, and evaluate management practices needed for proper stewardship. Soil, land, and home-site evaluation provide a setting for students to investigate the soils in their region, the environment that surrounds them and their effect on their daily lives.