Regional Soils Judging Contest

Over fall break I traveled with the soils judging team to Carbondale, Illinois for the regional contest! Soils judging has become one of my favorite activities in college, but I had no idea what it was before meeting with my agronomy advisor for the first time. She recommended it to me, and I signed up thinking I’d just give it a try. I have learned more than I thought possible over the last year and grown to completely love it. 

During contests, the team travels as a group and stays in a hotel near the university that’s hosting. We have a couple of days where we judge practice pits, and then one day for the individual competition, and another for the group competition. In between all of the judging we have a team dinner, a geology talk with a professor from the university, and time to hang out and explore the area. 

The coolest thing about traveling with the team is seeing soils that have characteristics different from the ones that we see in Indiana. The most unique aspect of Illinoian soils were properties of fragipans, a feature that most members of the team hadn’t seen before. My favorite part about going to a contest or even just practice is the discussion about a profile – there are so many different ways that people interpret the same pit. I love that there isn’t always a right answer and that there’s always something more to learn or discuss on the topic.