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Teenagers are climbing into deep pits of red dirt in a field about 30 minutes west of Oklahoma City.
They’re trying to get a better look at the soil.
The next day, they’ll put their land judging skills to the test at the National Land and Range Judging Contest. The competition — which is the highest level for high schoolers in the U.S. — is held annually in Oklahoma each spring.
This year’s contest brought 750 4-H and FFA students to showcase their eye for land traits like surface texture, erosion and slope. Students from 32 states – including nearly every state in the central U.S. and as far away as Oregon and Florida – participated in the event.
High school freshman Clay Cash traveled 15 hours from eastern Kentucky with his team to compete. He’s been judging soil since the fourth grade.
“I've always been interested in this. I live on a farm, so kind of seeing how fertile the soil is and everything really plays a big part in my family's life,” Cash said. “I want to be outside for my career. I really want to be a wildlife biologist.”
Last year, his team won the 4-H Kentucky state championship, qualifying to compete at the national level.
“It's a very big deal for me,” Cash said. “My sisters both done it, and she's in college now. She got really close to making it here. But I'm glad I could kind of fulfill that dream for us.”
On a nearby hill, high school senior Lucia Benavidez from eastern New Mexico held out her clipboard to measure the slope. She’s worked hard to be here through her FFA chapter and is excited to represent her school and state. She said this competition covers a lot of angles.
“There are just so many aspects that come together on this one,” Benavidez said. “Some of them are a bit more difficult than others. So, you do have to be very analytical.”
Across the field, high school junior Audie Usener spritzed water on a handful of subsoil. The central Texas teenager was checking the soil’s permeability, or how fast water will run through it.
He has been competing in these types of judging competitions for two years.
“I like to travel, see new places … and I like winning,” Usener said. “You know, we're at the national contest representing Texas, so that's what I like.”
His team were runners up at the FFA Texas state contest earlier this year.
“But, hey, we lost just barely and we're going to prove them this week. I tell you what,” Usener said.
Skills for the future
Knowing how to assess soil is important for growing crops, raising animals and choosing where to build a house or other structures,
"The purpose of soil judging is to understand and study soils,” said DeAnn Presley, a soil management extension specialist at Kansas State University. “So that then later on when somebody says, ‘Well, why are we digging this hole? Or what can this soil be used for? Or could I put a railroad track here?’ you'd have something intelligent to say about that."
Competitions like these let students really experience what they’ve learned in the classroom, said Presley, who also advises the college-level soil judging team at Kansas State.
"I think people truly care about what they can understand,” Presley said. “Now, they may not care about it long term, but at least they'll have an understanding of it and then build upon that with the rest of their life.”
Understanding soil is important in a lot of industries, including environmental sciences, agriculture or civil engineering.
Larry Wright, the national competition coordinator in Oklahoma, has been part of the contest since 1978. He said the students are building valuable skills.
“Whether they go back to the farm raising crops or animals and forages to feed those animals, soil is going to be very important,” Wright said. “If they don't do that and they take some other career path, and they want to buy a house – the more they know about the soil, where their house is or where they're going to build a house is going to be very important.”
More than meets the eye
On the morning of the contest, students pack in about 200 cars, vans, trucks and buses to travel to an undisclosed location. It’s kept a secret so no one can get a head start.
Once there, students split into groups and review the rules: no phones and no talking. They’ll judge four fields and have 25 minutes for each.
There are three events: land, homesite and range.
In the land event, students assess the soil for crops or forestry, and how it should be conserved. In homesite, students gauge if the landscape would be a good place to build a home. And the range event involves identifying plants, their growth habits and their value to livestock, along with how to manage and preserve the land.
At the sound of an air horn, the students begin. Some start in the pits, pulling out pocket knives or screwdrivers to scrape and then measure soil. Others grab handfuls of soil or wander out into the field to identify plants. More contestants kneel, crouch, sit, extend their arms, hold up a clipboard — anything to get a better view of the land.
Soil health experts from Oklahoma State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service judged the sites before the day began. The competitors whose reports come closest to the professional observations will win the contest.
It’s high school junior Madison Mead’s first time competing in the land event with her New Mexico FFA chapter.
Competing in these events have led Mead to consider a future as an agriculture teacher.
“Just being able to experience what they do and the dedication the ag teachers give to the students, and just overall experiencing the different types of contests,” Mead said. “So maybe, in the future I could teach it myself and whatnot.”
Maddy Willis traveled with her teammates from her north-central Indiana FFA chapter. She was happy with how things went.
“I love being able to do this. And just to be able to say that I play in dirt,” Willis said. “But it's amazing to be able to meet all these people from around the world and make new friends and build the bonds I already have with my team and get a chance to just get out and learn more about agriculture.”
This year, 4-H students from South Dakota and Indiana won their categories. And FFA students from Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia claimed the top spots in their events. Audie Usener’s team from central Texas took home fourth place.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
