OKLAHOMA CITY — On Monday, April 29th four members of the Buckeye Central FFA chapter attended the 2019 National Land and Range Judging Contest held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After the dust settled the team came out with an 11th place finish in the nation! The team of four included Juniors, Alivia Niese, Emma Rhodes, and Steven Long as well as Sophomore Thomas Phillips.
In order to qualify for the National Land Judging contest, the team first needed to get through the County, District, and State competitions. This past fall, the team placed 1st in the County, 1st out of 16 teams at the District contest and 3rd out of 52 teams at the State contest.
This year the team traveled to Oklahoma on Monday, April 29th and toured the Oklahoma City Stockyard & Livestock Auction which is one of the largest livestock auctions in the nation. They then went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and Museum where they took in some history lessons.
On Tuesday, the team traveled to Arcadia Lake where they tried to practice in between rain and thunderstorms. After practice the team spent time at Top Golf Oklahoma City, and tried to escape at the Breakout Games escape room.
Wednesday was another day of practice pits followed by a tour of Express Ranch. Express Ranch is a national leader in Angus seed-stock and genetic improvement. While at Express the group got an interesting look into the Embryo Transplant facility where they watched as embryos were drawn from a cow and were then able to look at those embryos and assist with the grading process through microscopes. Wednesday evening was wrapped up at the team social.
Thursday morning was competition day! The group traveled in a 5-mile-long caravan that traveled from Oklahoma City to El Reno, OK where the contest pits were located. During the contest students evaluated slope, texture, depth of the soil, and other characteristics in order to make recommendations to the landowner regarding home-site developments. After the contest the students went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum where they toured and awaited the contest results.
This is the sixth year in a row the Buckeye Central FFA has qualified for the National Land Judging Contest. The 11th place finish this year is the third year in a row that a Buckeye Central team has placed in the top 10% of participants. As individuals Rhodes placed 30th, Phillips 37th, Long 49th, and Niese 75th out of 211 total participants.