ULNRD Hosted North Central Land Judging Contest

Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts provide many educational activities for students across the state every year. One of these activities for high school students is area Land Judging contests. This year, the Upper Loup Natural Resource District held the North Central Land Judging contest in Logan County.

On a chilly October morning, over 150 students in the North Central region of the state gathered at the Arnold Community Center to compete for a chance to make it to the state contest. High school students from Arcadia, Broken Bow, Callaway, Fullerton, Loup City, Ord, Palmer, St. Edward, Twin River and Verdigre schools put their skills to the test on October 6th.

Land Judging challenges students to gain a better understanding of soil structure and land evaluation. Land judging enables each participant to learn how to recognize the physical features of the soil, determine land capability for crop production, and evaluate management practices needed for proper stewardship. Soil, land and home-site evaluation provide a setting for students to investigate the soils in their region, the environment that surrounds them and their effect on their daily lives.

The top four schools were invited to compete in the state competition on October 26^th in Pleasanton, Nebraska. From the North Central contest, Fullerton placed first, Palmer finished in second place, third place went to Verdigre, and finishing in fourth place was Ord.

The final results from the North Central contest, as well as the Nebraska Land Judging state contest can be found at www.nrdnet.org/nebraska-land-judging-soil-evaluation

Many months of planning and organizing are put into preparing for these contests that involve hundreds of students. Larry Schultz from the Lower Loup NRD, and Chuck Markley from the North Platte NRCS brought their years of expertise to help the Upper Loup NRD run this contest. Staff members from the Upper Loup NRD, NRCS in Thedford, NRCS in Broken Bow, NRCS in North Platte, and other volunteers happily took time out of their day to help transfer students between stations, read instructions, score the students’ cards and other activities. Overall, the contest was a success and finished just in time before the rain and sleet began to fall.