The Lewis Cass FFA chapter is no stranger to FFA competitions, participating in a wide range of contests. These contests typically span various levels, including area, state, and national competitions. Among the many achievements the chapter has earned, their consistent presence at the national level is particularly notable. The chapter has established a remarkable three-year streak in competing at the national level in the challenging contest of Soil Evaluation.
The soil evaluation contest involves going to a field or pasture in order to determine what type of soil is there. A backhoe will dig four different pits in different areas. These pits will be about 40 inches deep in order for the judges to see the entire soil profile. The participants have to get into the pit and determine multiple different factors about the soil. Some things they have to judge are the textures, drainage, colors, and erosion. The judger has to know these soil properties in order to answer questions about what management practices could be used on that soil. There are two different types of management practices. One is an agriculture site and the other is a home site. The contestants have to know all the rules that apply to both sites. They have to be able to get their soil properties right in order to get their management practices correct.
This year the chapter has another team that will be going to the national contest in May. This team consists of Lily Yax, Allara Henry, Trinety Gillem, Brystalin Gillem, and Riley Johnson. This fall they decided they wanted to learn how to be great soil judgers. They took hours out of their day in order to study all of the different rules of the contest. The first contest they participated in as a team was the county contest. They scored well for it being the first contest of the season with Allara and Lily being the top two scorers. Once the team realized they had a chance to go to the national contest, they started studying extremely hard.
Two teams were able to make it out of the area contest to go to the state contest. The state soils practice day was a helpful day for the top team. Lily Yax said having the practice day was the reason she was able to get her drainages right on the contest day. The practice day consisted of nine different practice pits. These pits were close to where the contest was being held, so the soils would be relatively the same at the contest. At the state contest, Lily Yax was the top overall scorer. The team placed third in the contest which was enough to move onto the national contest in May.
The team is only allowed to go to a national contest once, so next year, a different team will have to try and take the place of the top team. According to Mr. Appleton, the team coming up has a good shot at making it to nationals next year. With soils being over until May, the team will study hard over the winter in order to try to win at the national contest. Hopefully, they will be able to get a win in Oklahoma.
