Press release
On Saturday, October 8th the Buckeye Central FFA’s Soil Judging Teams participated in the Ohio FFA Associations Rural and Urban Soil Judging Career Development Event (CDE). The contest was held in Fairfield county near Baltimore Ohio. FFA members enjoyed the cool morning air that warmed into great weather conditions to evaluate four soil pits for the purposes of Agricultural uses as well as Urban development uses.
The Urban Soils contest challenges the students to evaluate the properties of the soil to determine best management practices for urban development or home building. Soil texture, water table, structure, slope, and depth are a few of the factors students must determine. Best management practices are then selected for Buildings with Basements, Sewage Treatment Systems, Driveways and local roads, and Lawns and Gardens.
In the Urban soils contest the Red and Grey paced the field as they brought home the state championship beating out 43 teams from schools all across the state. This top 5 finish qualifies the Urban Team for the National Land and Range Judging contest in the “Homesite” division. This is the fifth year in a row that they placed in the top 5 in Ohio and it is the fourth year in a row a BC Urban Soils team has qualified for the National Contest.
The Urban team includes Juniors Kendra Stahl, Makayla Aichholz, Jared Clark and Sophomore Mason Stahl. Kendra Stahl was the top performing student from BC bringing home the individual championship scoring higher than 155 other students. Makayla Aichholz followed up her Rural State Championship from 2015 with a solid 9th place individual finish and giving her two state titles in a span of two years. Jared Clark placed 14, and Mason Stahl placed 30th to round out the teams scores.
The Rural or Agricultural Use contest students evaluate similar soil properties to make recommendations for best management practices that will help reduce or eliminate erosion, resolve compaction problems, increase water quality, as well as make fertilizer recommendations.
In the Rural soils contest the chapter judged their way to a 5th place team finish which makes it 2 years in a row the Rural team has qualified for the National Contest.
The Rural team consisted of Junior McKennah Corfman, Sophomores Madi Diesch and Brandon Mann as well as Freshman Alivia Niese. Pacing the Bucks was Corfman who placed 6th as an individual, Diesch finished 13th, Mann followed with a 47th place individual finish and Niese finished in 52nd of 162 participants.
This makes a second trip to Oklahoma’s National Land Judging Contest a reality for Junior McKennah Corfman who was a part of the 3rd place Urban Team in 2015.
Both teams will be traveling to the National Land and Range Judging contest in Oklahoma May 1-5th, 2017. This National Contest is administered by the Oklahoma Department of Soil and Water Conservation.