Nebraska Extension is pleased to announce eight teams from across Nebraska competed in the second annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth. It was held in at the ARDC near Mead, Nebraska on August 4, 2015. Teams of students (those completing 7-12th grades) participated by completing a written knowledge test and eight crop scouting exercises in field plots.
The purpose of the competition was to provide students an opportunity to learn crop scouting and principles of integrated pest management (IPM) for corn and soybeans in Nebraska, to obtain knowledge and skills that will be helpful in future careers and to demonstrate newer crop scouting technologies.
Results from the 2015 competition were as follows:
First place- Colfax County 4-H
Second place – Humphrey FFA 
Third place – Amherst FFA
Also participating were
- Ashland-Greenwood FFA
- Sumner/Eddyville/Miller FFA with two teams
- Pawnee City FFA with two teams
Top-scoring teams won prizes: $500 for first, $300 for second, $100 for third place.
Teams were expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This included crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; etc.
More information about the crop scouting competition are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth. Click on the link that says, “Crop Scouting Competition”. Next year’s competition will be held August 2nd, 2015 at UNL’s ARDC again.
This program was sponsored by DuPont Pioneer, the Nebraska Soybean Board, in collaboration with Nebraska Extension.
Views from VanDeWalle 