Lincoln, Neb. —Nearly 50 students from eight Nebraska schools participated in the first annual Haskell Agronomy Career Development Invite on Jan. 31. The Agronomy CDE event, hosted as a collaboration between the Haskell Ag Lab and the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, aimed to prepare students for upcoming district and state-level agronomy competitions.
The event also was geared to help them understand opportunities within the agronomy field and explore agricultural-related careers throughout Nebraska and especially in northeast Nebraska.
Pleasant temperatures and sunshine made travel easy for schools as far away as Ord and Boyd County, Nebraska, to attend.
The Agronomy CDE is designed to challenge students with plant, seed, insect, machinery and equipment identification as well disease/disorder determination, soils knowledge and soil map interpretation. In addition, a team problem-solving component involved production yield, break-even yield, fertilizer management, population counts and irrigation management.
The goal was to have an engaging, hands-on, problem-solving contest designed to gauge student interest in agronomy as well as determine their skill level in several different soil and crop production categories.
The top team was Ord FFA, second place was Boyd County FFA, and the third-place team was Winside FFA.
The top five individuals were: First place, Adam Knapp, Ord; second place, Will Skibinski, Ord; third place, Ethan Wadas, Ord; fourth place, Jamison Meyer, Wayne; and fifth place, Deegan Johnson, Boyd County.
The team at HAL and the UNL ALEC Department are looking forward to more collaboration and competitions with area schools to capitalize on UNL faculty and facilities to plan for future events and contests.
If you are a business or individual who would like to sponsor awards or prizes for contests such as this in the future, contact Monty Larsen at monty.larsen@unl.edu or by texting 402-340-1967.