MO Teams Take Top Honors at Grassland Contest
By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation
06-26-2009The Columbia FFA team and the Boone County 4-H team took top honors at the 10th Annual Mid-America Grassland Evaluation Contest held in Springfield June 9-10. Twenty-four teams with 96 students from throughout Missouri, West Virginia, Arkansas and Ohio participated in the national competition. The contest was the final level after the students qualified in district and then state competitions. Missouri FFA teams from Columbia and Aurora had an initial tie for top honors. Columbia won the tiebreaker by having a higher score in the Plant Identification portion of the competition with Aurora taking second place. The Clay County FFA and Ravenswood FFA teams, both of West Virginia, took third and fourth place honors respectively.
Missouri 4-H teams swept the top three spots with Boone County taking first place followed by Aurora and Peck Holler of Plato.
Top-scoring FFA individuals were:
First: Jonathan Rhodes of Ravenswood
Second: Mitch Kay of Aurora
Third: Jacob Hafer of Ravenswood
Fourth: Brady Chasteen of Columbia
Fifth: Logan Ramsey of Clay County
Top-scoring 4-H individuals were:
First: Becca Hass of Aurora
Second: Rachael Cavener of Aurora
Third: Kody Henneke of Columbia
Fourth: Maylia Burgess of Peck Holler
Fifth: Josh Remus of Columbia
Started in 1991, the contest is a cooperative effort of the Missouri Forage and Grassland Council, Missouri Department of Conservation, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, University of Missouri Extension and local Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The objective of the contest is to train future farmers in more sustainable ways of managing grasslands for the benefit of both livestock and wildlife.
“Good wildlife management can be a product of good farming,” said Matt Curry, a private land conservationist for the Missouri Department of Conservation and one of the annual coordinators of the competition. “Good grassland managers also have good wildlife representation on their properties.
The competition consists of four segments: grassland condition, wildlife habitat, soil interpretation and plant identification. Each team may have a maximum of four competing members. Contestants have 25 minutes to judge each of the four segments based on numerous factors such as: amount of grazing pressure, plant composition, vegetation growth cycle and seasonal nutritional needs of livestock, distance of plot vegetation from other wildlife habitat, surface texture, soil permeability and best types of management practices.
The Columbia FFA team took first place at the 10th Annual Mid-America Grassland Evaluation Contest held in Springfield June 9-10. Pictured from left are team members Brady Chasteen, Will Garrett and Russ Chambers with advisor Larry Henneke.
The Boone County 4-H team took first place at the 10th Annual Mid-America Grassland Evaluation Contest held in Springfield June 9-10. Pictured from left are team members Kody Henneke, Josh Remus and Grant Schooley with advisor Larry Henneke. (Missouri Department of Conservation photos)