2011 State Land Judging Contest held near Odessa

The 2011 State Land Judging Contest was hosted by the Lincoln County Conservation District on November 2 at the Keith and LeAnna Schafer farm on Highway 28 five miles west of Odessa. Attending the contest were 135 students from the FFA chapters of 18 eastern and central Washington high schools. Schools sending one or two FFA land judging teams to the contest included Almira-Coulee-Hartline, Cheney, Davenport, Freeman, Garfield-Palouse, Harrington, Lacrosse, Lind, Moses Lake, Odessa, Pomeroy, Prosser, Ritzville, Rosalia, Springdale, Tekoa, Washtucna and Wilson Creek.

Clark Kagele dug the backhoe pits for the contest. Chandra Neils, East Area Resource Soil Scientist with NRCS in Spokane, served as judge for the contest. Gene Mann, Brad Greenwalt, and Jon Fink, FFA Ag Advisory Board Members, and FFA chapter members from Harrington and Odessa served a barbecue lunch for the contestants, advisors and contest personnel. Financial sponsors that helped supply the lunch were Odessa Trading Company, Walter Implement, Odessa Grange Supply, Odessa Union Warehouse, LL Customs by Landon Lobe, and Alan Schlimmer with the accounting firm JR Newhouse.

Plaques were presented by State FFA Secretary, Kyle Largent, and State FFA Reporter, Eliana Bolt, to the top 10 individuals and the top 8 teams. Dean White with the Washington Society of Professional Soil Scientists presented a Certificate of Excellence and a check for $300 to the winning team, Prosser FFA Team 1, to help cover the costs of attending the National Land Judging Contest in Oklahoma City in May 2012.

The top eight teams in order of placing were: first place, Prosser Team 1; second place, Lacrosse Team 1; third place, Davenport Team 1; fourth place, Tekoa Team 1; fifth place, Garfield-Palouse Team1; sixth place, Prosser Team 2; seventh place, Davenport Team 2; eighth place, Ritzville Team 1.