SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Once a year, high school students travel to Oklahoma to look at dirt. It's part of the National Land and Range Judging Contest. The students are sharpening their eyes for land suitable for crops, grazing and home building. This year, about 750 students, members of 4-H and FFA, the Future Farmers of America, showed up for the contest. Harvest Public Media's Anna Pope was there, too, and has this report.
ANNA POPE, BYLINE: In a windy field about 30 minutes west of Oklahoma City, teenagers are climbing into deep pits in the ground to take a look at the dirt.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
CLAY CASH: You can see where it changes on you.
POPE: High school freshman Clay Cash (ph) has been judging soil since he was in the fourth grade.
CLAY: I've always been interested in this. I live on a farm, so kind of seeing how fertile the soil is and everything really plays a big part in my family's life.
POPE: Oklahoma's red clay soil is different from the ground in eastern Kentucky, where Cash is from. Last year, Cash's team won the 4-H Kentucky State Championship. That qualified them to be part of the National Land and Range Judging Contest. He and his team drove 15 hours to join the competition.
CLAY: It's a very big deal for me. My sister's both done it (ph). And she's in college now, but she got really close to making it here. But I'm glad I could kind of fulfill that dream for us.
POPE: Knowing how to assess soil is key for growing crops, raising animals and choosing where to build a house or other structures, says DeAnn Presley. She's a soil management specialist at Kansas State University and says that's why it's important to understand and study soils.
DEANN PRESLEY: So that then, later on, when somebody says, well, why are we digging this hole, or what can the soil be used for, or could I put a railroad track here, you'd have something intelligent to say about that.
POPE: The National Land and Range Judging Contest has been around for nearly 75 years. Coordinator Larry Wright has been involved since 1978. He says understanding soil is crucial for a lot of industries, including environmental sciences, agriculture and civil engineering. He adds the students will take what they've learned far into the future.
LARRY WRIGHT: These individuals, like any contest, whether - you can go from sports to this event, is to recognize that they have a skill that is valuable.
POPE: On soil judging day, students pack into cars, vans, trucks and buses to travel to an undisclosed location for the contest. When they arrive, an enthusiastic announcer gets them ready.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: We did it, everybody. You're here. Get in the zone. It's time to compete. Follow your group leaders. We're going to head off.
POPE: Students are given the rules - no phones and no talking. They'll have four fields to judge and 25 minutes for each.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
POPE: The contestants look at soil quality, the slope of the land and risk of erosion. They get low to the ground. They scrape and measure and squirt water on handfuls of dirt to test for permeability or how fast water will run through it. Experts have already judged these sites. The students who win come closest to those professional observations. After the judging ends, the teenagers get together to compare notes.
MADDIE WILLIS: I love being able to do this and just to be able to say that I play in dirt.
POPE: Maddie Willis (ph) is a junior with a high school FFA chapter from Indiana.
MADDIE: It's amazing to be able to meet all these people from around the world and make new friends and build the bonds I already have with my team and get a chance to just get out and learn more about agriculture.
POPE: A contest she says that really does go far beyond just looking at dirt. For NPR News, I'm Anna Pope in El Reno, Oklahoma.
(SOUNDBITE OF POST MALONE SONG, "CHEMICAL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
