The 2011 State Land Judging Contest for Washington was hosted by the Lincoln County Conservation District on November 2 at the Keith and LeAnna Schafer farm on Highway 28 five miles west of Odessa.  Attending the contest were 135 students from the FFA chapters of 18 eastern and central Washington high schools.  Schools sending one or two FFA land judging teams to the contest included Almira-Coulee-Hartline, Cheney, Davenport, Freeman, Garfield-Palouse, Harrington, Lacrosse, Lind, Moses Lake, Odessa, Pomeroy, Prosser, Ritzville, Rosalia, Springdale, Tekoa, Washtucna, and Wilson Creek.

Clark Kagele dug the backhoe pits for the contest.  Chandra Neils, East Area Resource Soil Scientist with NRCS in Spokane, served as judge for the contest. Gene Mann, Brad Greenwalt, and Jon Fink, FFA Ag Advisory Board Members, and FFA chapter members from Harrington and Odessa served a barbecue lunch for the contestants, advisors and contest personnel.  Financial sponsors that helped supply the lunch were Odessa Trading Company, Walter Implement, Odessa Grange Supply, Odessa Union Warehouse, LL Customs by Landon Lobe, and Alan Schlimmer with JR Newhouse CPA’s.

Plaques were presented by State FFA Secretary, Kyle Largent, and State FFA Reporter, Eliana Bolt, to the top 10 individuals and the top 8 teams.  Dean White with the Washington Society of Professional Soil Scientists presented a Certificate of Excellence and a check for $300 to the winning team, Prosser FFA Team 1, to help cover the costs of attending the National Land Judging Contest in Oklahoma City in May 2012.

The top 8 teams in order of placing were:  1^st place, Prosser Team 1; 2^nd place, Lacrosse Team 1; 3^rd place, Davenport Team 1; 4^th place, Tekoa Team 1; 5^th place, Garfield-Palouse Team1; 6^th place, Prosser Team 2; 7^th place, Davenport Team 2; 8^th place, Ritzville Team 1.

The top 10 contestants in order of placing were:  1^st place, Christopher Wiley - Prosser; 2^nd place, Kyleigh Hamilton - Prosser; 3^rd place, Laura Pearson - Prosser; 4^th place, Caleb Hannas - Lacrosse; 5^th place, Nolan Saam - Prosser; 6^th place, Madison Moore - Prosser; 7^th place, Lane Hannas - Lacrosse; 8^th place, Chandler Pfaff – Garfield-Palouse; 9^th place, Corydon Funk - Prosser; 10^th place, Gabe Cocking - Garfield-Palouse.

Land judging contestants evaluated soil and site characteristics at two cropland sites, one rangeland site and one home site.  Backhoe pits up to 60+ inches deep were excavated at each of the four sites to expose the soil profiles.  Four different soils (Esquatzel, Skaha, Shano, and Roloff) that formed in different parent materials on different landscape positions were judged for the contest.

Soil characteristics including topsoil texture, subsoil texture, soil depth, and permeability were evaluated.  Site characteristics including percent slope, erosion class, flooding hazard, and land capability class were also evaluated.  Contestants were also required to choose the appropriate vegetative (crop management) treatments, mechanical (erosion control) treatments, and fertilizer and soil amendments based on the soil and site characteristics.  For the home site, contestants evaluated the suitability of the site for a home based on the degree of limitations for building and installing houses, lawns, septic tanks, and roads.