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On Oct. 6, 10 Buckeye Central FFA members participated in the Ohio FFA District 2 Agriculture and Urban Soil Judging Contest in Wakeman, Ohio.
The Ohio FFA District 2 is constructed of 26 local high schools and career tech centers within Crawford, Morrow, Richland, Huron, Ashland, Holmes, Erie, Sandusky, and Lorain Counties. In order to advance to the State Soils Competition a team must place in the top five within its district.
The Agricultural use land judging team from Buckeye Central consisted of senior Derek Kalb, sophomore Makayla Aichholz, and freshmen Adam Krebs, Grant Bishop, and Mason Stahl. The team finished in second place out of 20 participating schools and advanced to the state contest Oct. 17 in Ashland County.
Aichholz paced the team with a fourth-place individual finish, and she was followed by Kalb in sixth, Bishop who was seventh, Krebs 20th, and Stahl at 24th. A total of 90 students participated district wide. This will mark the second year in a row the BC FFA will have a team in the State Agricultural Soils Contest and the third trip in the past 10 years.
The Urban land judging team from Buckeye Central consisted of juniors Caylie Bean and Tori Miller along with sophomores Payton Phenicie, Wade Ackerman, and Kennah Corfman. The team finished in second place out of 16 participating schools and will also advance to the State contest.
Ackerman was the top individual in the group with a solid second-place individual finish and he was shortly followed by Phenicie eighth, Corfman ninth, Miller 20th, and Bean 21st.
This marks the 6th year in a row the BC FFA has advanced to the state contest in Urban Land Judging, including a state championship in 2013.
These teams will be working hard preparing for the upcoming state contest by sacrificing their lunch time to work in the Ag room refining their skills. They hope to find themselves in a top five finish at the state contest which will qualify them for the National Land and Range Judging Contest in Oklahoma.
The FFA is a national organization that promotes premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through its many intra-curricular activities. The soil judging contest is just one of those activities that allows students to take their classroom knowledge and apply it to a real life situation. The evaluation process these students go through is nearly identical to the process our local Soil & Water Conservation District employees utilize to make recommendations to local agricultural producers, land owners, and homeowners.
With the recent outbreaks of blue-green algae in Lake Erie and its contributing waterways, soil conservation has become an important piece of the puzzle to solve this epidemic. Our students in the Agriculture Program have been learning about the importance of best management practices to reduce the amounts of soil erosion and nutrient runoff into our state’s waterways. The land judging contest gives them an opportunity to apply these principles and skills in a career oriented approach.
RELATED CONTENT: BC FFA sweeps Crawford County Soils Contest | BC FFA advances to state soils contest | BC FFA students attend national soils contest in Oklahoma | BC Urban Soils team wins state contest