Pender High School takes first place at the Northeast Area FFA Land Judging Contest

The Northeast Area FFA Land Judging Contest was held Tuesday, October 2nd near Oakland.  462 students from 24 high schools registered that morning at the Burt County Fairgrounds in Oakland before traveling to the testing site at Summit Lake.

A team from Pender High School finished first with the top score of 789 points.  Team members are:  Kelcie Bartlett, Sarah Krueger, Liberty Baker, and Jessica Krueger.

Another team from Pender High School placed second with a score of 760.  Third place went to Norfolk High School with a score of 756 points.  Wisner-Pilger and West Point-Beemer came in 4th and 5th.  The top 6 teams that will participate in the state competition are from Pender, Norfolk, Wisner-Pilger, West Point-Beemer, North Bend, and Blair.  The State Land Judging competition will take place in the Wahoo area on Wednesday, October 17th.

The top individual award went to Charles Schmedding of Pender with a total score of 298.  Kaleb Hasenkamp of West Point was second, Kelcie Bartlett of Pender was third, Ryan Gaughen of North Bend was fourth, and Sarah Krueger of Pender came in fifth.

The site provided good diversity in soils and landscape positions for the students.  The contest helps the students make informed decisions regarding soil utilization in the future.  Scoring was completed the following day at the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District (LENRD) office in Norfolk.

The high schools participating were:  Arlington, Allen, Blair, Emerson-Hubbard, Howells-Dodge, Humphrey, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, Clarkson-Leigh, Logan View, Lyons-Decatur Northeast, Madison, Norfolk, North Bend, Oakland-Craig, Pender, Pierce, Randolph, Schuyler, Scribner-Snyder, Stanton, Tekamah-Herman, Wayne, West Point-Beemer, and Wisner-Pilger.

The LENRD, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Oakland High School, and the Nebraska FFA Land Judging Committee organized and sponsored the contest.