MV Soil Judging Qualifies For Nationals

By IAIN MCMURRAY

The Progress

Last Tuesday, September 27, The Moapa Valley FFA Soils team competed in the Nevada State FFA Soil Judging competition against chapters from all across the state. The competition was held in Genoa, Nevada, a small town near Carson City.

The State Soil Judging competition actually consists of two competitions.

The first of these is the soils evaluation contest. Here the competitors must calculate the slope of the land, evaluate the texture of the soil, determine potential surface runoff, and assess erosion over time. This must be done with no other tool than a clipboard.

Contestants must then use this information to assign the field a land class and recommend to the farmer possible uses for the land and necessary mechanical and vegetative treatments needed to optimize the land for growing.

In this contest, there are four sites for the competitors to judge, with a maximum possible score of 75 at each.

The second contest is in Homesite Judging. Students use the information they gathered on the field to judge the land for the placement of a house, building foundation, septic system, and a lawn.

The Homesite Judging competition consists of just two pits, with a maximum possible score of 97 at each. Each competitor only gets 30 minutes at each pit, so they have to be fast.

In the Soils competition, a member of the Wells FFA Chapter took first with his score of 230.
He was followed by Teagen Jensen of Moapa Valley in 3rd with a score of 160. Iain McMurray placed eighth with a score of 134, tailed by Isaac Linford in ninth with 130 points. Close behind were Gracie and McKenna Melvin, in 17th with 104 points and 38th with 70 points, respectively.

Combined, these individual scores placed the Moapa Valley team in second for the state, qualifying for the National FFA Soils contest later in the school year.

Soils wasn’t the only contest, however, as the team dominated in the Homesite competition as well. Iain McMurray led the state with his score of 158, closely followed by Teagen Jensen and Isaac Linford, who tied for third place with their score of 143. Not far behind were Gracie Melvin in 14th with 78 points and McKenna Melvin in 16th with a score of 70.

That was enough to place the Moapa team in first, qualifying yet again for the National FFA Soils contest.

Team member Isaac Linford was happy with the team’s performance. “I’m really proud of our team,” Linford said. “We pulled together and got some solid scores, even qualifying for nationals. Overall, a great experience.”

On the team’s performance, Moapa Valley FFA Advisor Lacey Tom said, “Our kids did excellent and have been working so hard on this contest. I’m sad to think that some of them will be graduating this year. But they have trained up younger members to continue the legacy. I’m so proud of our team and am excited to see where we go from here!”