By: Elizabeth Bok
The Ag 1 and 2 students spent weeks learning about soil properties and how to best use them, to prepare for the Urban and Rural Soil Judging Contest. The Ag 1 students learned about Urban Soils and Ag 2 students studied Rural Soils. The students learned about soil texture and structure, soil horizons, water tables, slope of the land, landforms, and other essential information to judge a soil pit. The students learned how to judge soil texture in the field by ribboning, and how to find slope with a slope card. During class the students started by learning about properties of the soil. They learned about the different soil structure and texture types. They determined what all of the different soils looked and felt like. Using their knowledge of the soil texture, they learned how to ribbon. Ribboning is used to easily find the soil texture when judging a soil pit. To ribbon, they took a handful of soil, and ran water over the soil to get a muddy ball. This allows them to see how the soil sticks together and breaks apart along with what the texture feels like. They also learned how to read a judging card for a soil pit.
Sixteen total students attended the soil contest.Monday September, 26, which was held at the Defiance County Extension Office. The contest consisted of a general soil knowledge test, a test on using a Soil Survery Book, and 3 soil pits to judge. The students did very well as the Urban team placed 7th out of 16 teams, and the Rural team placed 9th out of 23 teams.
