Skip to Main Content

Competition gives high school students insights into challenges facing agronomists

When farmers try to calculate the outcome of another growing season, they must add a host of unknowns into the equation - from weather conditions to pest infestations. As dozens of high school students recently discovered, agronomists play a critical role in lowering those risks.

As part of an annual event, Purdue University recently hosted crop state and regional scouting competitions at its Crop Diagnostic Training and Research Center (DTC).

The hands-on crop scouting event pitted teams of students against each other as they moved from station to station around the farm, taking on various challenges like identifying signs of disease in various plants. A Purdue Extension agronomy specialist and/or graduate students manned each station, answering questions and guiding the exercises.

“The students have to work together, helping each other identify disease, insect damage or a nutrient deficiency with a plant,” said Braden Carpenter, assistant director of the DTC at Purdue. “Together, they try to solve those problems.”

“The different scenarios are designed to reflect the common issues that farmers in this part of the world would run into in their fields,” he said. “We mimic some random issues they may experience.”

In other stations, students may encounter challenges experienced by farmers because of faulty practices, such as forgetting to fully clean out a spray boom, which is essential farm equipment used for crop management. In that situation, there could be residual damage on crops at the end of the field, Carpenter said.

Students from 10 Indiana high schools competed at the state level, with South Central High School FFA of Union Mills earning first place and South Newton FFA placing second. These teams went on to compete in the regional competition against the top two teams from both Nebraska and Iowa.

In the regional round, which was also hosted at the Purdue DTC, Clayton County in Iowa took first place honors. Kuhlmann Seed in Iowa and Kornhusker Kids in Nebraska, rounded out the top three spots, respectively.

State competition sponsors included Ceres Solutions, DuPont Pioneer, Bayer’s Crop Science Division, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Dow AgroSciences, Beck’s Hybrids and Purdue Extension. Sponsors for the regional competition included Purdue Extension, Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council.

Based on feedback, Carpenter said, the event was successful in helping students explore various career possibilities in the field of agronomy. In their feedback to the event, many students replied that it was helpful to talk to specialists afterwards to learn what they got right and wrong.

“The students were able to pick the specialists’ brains,” Carpenter said. “They were able to see and experience the components of integrated pest management that ultimately become the building blocks needed as a well-rounded agronomist. The experience enlightened them to different professions; you can never start thinking about it too early.”

High school students from Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa recently learned about plant disease and other challenges farmers face during a crop scouting competition at Purdue University.  High school students from Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa recently learned about plant disease and other challenges farmers face during a crop scouting competition at Purdue University.

Featured Stories

Students gather at Purdue Summer Science Program on campus at Purdue
Donation takes Summer Science Program to the next level

If you’re on Purdue’s campus in the summer, you may notice a group of students...

Read More
Mary Strickland
Mary Strickland - Graduate Ag Research Spotlight

Mary Strickland is a lifelong animal lover — so much so that she admits to occasionally...

Read More
Julia Peterson in the mesas of Arizona.
Finding beauty in the mess—the perspective of a botany and art double major

A low, whirring hum fills your ears as you step into the building. As your eyes adjust to the...

Read More
Ismail Olaniyi flies a UAV up above the trees.
The crossroads between lemon trees and technology

In warmer southern and western states, citrus orchards are important for feeding and bringing...

Read More
Piglets
Combined microbiome datasets yield accurate prediction of animal ages

An analysis combining the results of 14 studies from around the globe has uncovered some common...

Read More
A hand holding two eggs
Rehabilitation through agricultural skills with Purdue Farmer-to-Farmer Trinidad and Tobago

Gardening and poultry care are sometimes seen as trendy hobbies in the U.S., but in Trinidad and...

Read More
To Top