Tag: youth crops activities

Crops, Programming, Youth

Youth Crop Scouting Competition

Brandy VanDeWalle

IMG_3105Looking for a fun club project? Want to unite your club members? Running out of ideas for club meetings?  If you answered, “yes” to any of these questions, help is on the way!  Nebraska Extension is pleased to present the 5th annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth. Youth interested in crops have the opportunity to learn about crop growth & development and basic crop scouting principles.

Don’t know a lot about crops?  Ask a local agronomist to assist by providing a short lesson on crop production. You can have the agronomist meet with youth a little during each meeting or outside of the meeting. This is one way to engage those youth interested in crops.

This contest will be held at the ENREC near Mead, Nebraska on July 28, 2020, pending directive health measures at that time. If a live competition is unable to occur, a virtual option will be conducted.  Teams of middle school thru high school students (those completing 5-12th grades) from across Nebraska are invited to participate. This year, to comply with directive health measures, the event is limited to the first five teams who sign-up!

Clubs or other organizations may enter a team composed of three to five participants. An adult team leader must accompany each team of students. Team leaders could be FFA advisors, crop consultants, extension staff, coop employees, etc.

Top-scoring teams win prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second, $100 for third place. Unfortunately, there will not be a regional competition this year.

Teams will be expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; etc. Other topics many include but are not limited to, pesticide safety, nutrient disorders, and herbicide injury.

More information about the crop scouting competition and instructions on how to register a team are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth. Register at: https://go.unl.edu/cropscoutingreg.

Teams must be registered by July 15. This program is sponsored by Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association and Nebraska Extension.

Crops, Irrigation, Programming, Youth

Youth Learn Crop Scouting Skills

Brandy VanDeWalle

group 0On July 23, 2019, the sixth annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth was held in which seven teams from across Nebraska competed. It was held at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center near Mead, Nebraska on July 23, 2019. Teams of students (those completing 5-12th grades) participated by completing a written knowledge test and seven 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 2019 competition were as follows:

First place- Colfax County 4-H (R. J. Bayer, Jestin Bayer, Austin Steffensmeier, Logan Nelson, and Brad Kratochvil)

Second place – Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club #1 (Payton & Levi Schiller, Matthew Rolf, and Kaleb Hasenkamp)

Third place – Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club #2 (Landon Hasenkamp, Ethan Kreikmeier, James Rolf, and Ian Schiller)

Also participating was

Humphrey FFA with Bryce Classen, Jacob Brandl, and Mikayla Martensen

Twin River FFA with Keaton Zarek, Kyle Kemper, Jacob Czarnick, and Landon Cuba

Auburn FFA with Kellen Moody, Austin Youngquit, Braden Gerdes, and Riley Stukenholtz

Wayne FFA with Justus Greves, Noah Lutt, Tyler Reinhardt, Elle Barnes, and Alyssa Carlson

Top-scoring teams won prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second, $100 for third place. The top two teams will represent Nebraska at the regional competition held in Iowa on August 26, 2019.

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.

corn growth staging, maturity, development 2
Kornhusker Kids team determine the corn growth during the program.

More information about the crop scouting competition are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth. Click on the link that says, “Crop Scouting Competition”.

This program was sponsored by DuPont Pioneer, the Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association and Farm Credit Services of America in collaboration with Nebraska Extension. If you know of a company or you would are interested in sponsoring the 2020 program, please contact me at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Programming, Youth

Youth Crop Scouting Competition

Brandy VanDeWalle

Connecting Youth with Crops

Looking for a fun club project? Want to unite your club members? Running out of ideas for club meetings?  If you answered, “yes” to any of these questions, help is on the way!  Nebraska Extension is pleased to present the 6th annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth. Youth interested in crops have the opportunity to learn about crop growth & development and basic crop scouting principles.Crop Scout Design (1)

Don’t know a lot about crops?  Ask a local agronomist to assist by providing a short lesson on crop production. You can have the agronomist meet with youth a little during each meeting or outside of the meeting. This is one way to engage those youth interested in crops.

This contest will be held at the ARDC near Mead, Nebraska on July 23, 2019. The event will include both indoor and outdoor events. Teams of junior high and high school students (those completing 5-12th grades) from across Nebraska are invited to participate. This event is limited to the first ten teams who sign-up!

Clubs or other organizations may enter a team composed of three to five participants. An adult team leader must accompany each team of students. Team leaders could be FFA advisors, crop consultants, extension staff, coop employees, etc.

Top-scoring teams win prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second, $100 for third place. Top two teams will be eligible for regional competition in August at Iowa this year.

Teams will be expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; etc. Other topics many include but are not limited to, pesticide safety, nutrient disorders, and herbicide injury.

More information about the crop scouting competition and instructions on how to register a team are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth. Register at: https://go.unl.edu/cropscoutingreg

Teams must be registered by July 18. This program is sponsored by Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association, DuPont Pioneer, Farm Credit Services of America and Nebraska Extension.

Crops, Programming, Youth

Future Agronomists at Work

Brandy VanDeWalle

IMG_3598Three states competed at the 3rd Annual Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition on August 27, 2018 at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center near Mead, Nebras­­ka. Teams of youth participated by completing six crop scouting exercises in field plots.  This educational, hands-on program provided students an opportunity to learn crop scouting and principles of integrated pest management (IPM) for corn and soybeans, obtain knowledge and skills that will be helpful in future careers and to demonstrate newer crop scouting technologies.

IMG_3546.jpg
Youth worked in teams of 4-5 to create a solution or answer to the crop scouting exercise. 

The top two teams from Nebraska, Iowa and Indiana qualified for the competition. Extension faculty from Nebraska served as judges for the program and tested the teams’ knowledge on 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.
Results from the 2018 competition were as follows:

  • First place- Nebraska Team, Colfax County 4-H (Logan Nelson, Brad Kratochvil, Austin Steffensmeier & Korbin Kudera)

    IMG_3573
    Colfax County 4-H received top honors as the 2018 Regional Crop Scouting Competition Champion.
  • Second place – Indiana Team, Heritage Hills FFA (Sydney Hassfurther, Bryce Peter, Gabe Gogel, Alex Gehlhausen and Luke Rahman
  • Third place (Tie) – Nebraska Team of Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club of Cuming County (Payton & Levi Schiller, Matthew & James Rolf and Kaleb Hasenkamp) and Iowa Team from Clayton County (Team #1) consisting of Andre Shirbroun, Max Gibson, Matt Whittle, Cassidy Penrod and Cole Deitchier.

Also participating was Indiana Team, Eastern Hancock FFA with Jackson Beaudry, Ryan Kohlstrum, Loren Matlock, Zach Sickle and Brent Sorrell and Iowa Team from Clayton County (Team #2) which consisted of Mia Gibson, Jon Whittle, Tom Whittle, Laci Orr and Macy Weigand.

IMG_3569.jpg

More information about the crop scouting competition are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth.

This program was sponsored by DuPont Pioneer, the Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association and Farm Credit Services of America in collaboration with Nebraska Extension. If you know of a company or you would are interested in sponsoring the 2019 program, please contact me at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Programming, Youth

7th Annual Innovative Youth Corn Challenge

Brandy VanDeWalle

iycc-coverAttention 4-H and FFA Youth! Do you enjoy being outside? Learning new things about crops? Considering a career involving crops, insects, diseases, soils, water or more? Do you want to help figure out how to feed our world’s growing population in a sustainable way?

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are in high demand and will continue to be in future years. To engage youth in crop science based education, the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge (IYCC) was created as a partnership between the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Extension.  Since the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge program’s inception in 2012, 35 teams have participated in the program with 20 teams successfully harvesting and analyzing their plot data. A total of 105 youth have participated. This contest, open to 4-H members or FFA members, guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

IMG_1313.jpg
2017 participants attended the banquet in January to receive recognition for their hard work. 

Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Corn Board are offering the seventh Innovative Youth Corn Challenge contest. This contest, open to 4-H members (age 10 & older as of Jan. 1st) or FFA members (in-school members), guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

As a team (2 or more participants), youth will be challenged to implement a production practice different than normal to determine if they increased their yield. Economics and sustainability of the practice will also be considered. Yields, cropping history, and production information will be collected in the Corn Yield Challenge management summary.

Cash prizes and plaques are given. First place receives $1,000, second place receives $500, and third place receives $250.  Sustainability, crop scouting and “extra mile” awards are also given as cash awards.

To participate in 2018, youth must complete and return an entry form by March 15th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Forms can be downloaded after January 1st at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth/activities. For more information, contact Brandy VanDeWalle at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Youth

Making One Agronomist at a Time

Brandy VanDeWalle
IMG_9476
Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club of Cuming County and Colfax County 4-H represented Nebraska in the regional youth crop scouting competition on August 28, 2017.

IMG_9468.jpg

In late August, seven Nebraska youth traveled to Indiana to participate in the 2nd Annual Regional Youth Crop Scouting Competition held at Purdue University’s Beck Ag Center near West Lafayette, Indiana.  These youths scouted six fields for diseases, insects, abiotic/biotic disorders, weed identification and crop growth stage and development. Teams from Iowa and Indiana also competed. Nebraska teams ranked 3rd and 6th respectably. Between all three state competitions, 195 youth competed from Nebraska, Iowa and Indiana. Top two teams from each state competed at the regional competition. Congrats to all of the youth who not only networked with agronomic professionals, but also gained the most by improving life skills related to a potential career path. Next year’s regional competition will be hosted by Nebraska Extension.

While this is one program, which impacts a very small percentage of youth, it is very important to start training the next generation of ag leaders to feed our growing population. In fact, globally there is an effort to encourage youth in agricultural positions. According to the U.N. International Labor Organization (a specialized agency of the United Nations), globally there will be about 74.2 million unemployed young people (ages 15-24) in 2017 which is an increase of 3.8 million since 2007. While it is troublesome that those graduating high school and/or college are unemployed, this could present an opportunity for those in the agricultural industry. If we can create programs which spark an interest in agriculture, there is potential to attract youth to the agricultural industry.

Getting over the stigma that agriculture is a back-breaking with little room for advancement, while in fact it is quite the opposite. As educators, we should be promoting agricultural careers as “intellectually stimulating and economically sustainable” according to foodtank.com. Programs designed to encourage young people into agriculture are in numerous countries across the world including the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project in the U.S., a variety of USDA initiatives and programs like Farm Africa for youth in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda or the International Fund for Agricultural Development Rural Youth Talents Program in South America. If you know of a young person undecided in his/her career path or a youth who is passionate about agriculture, let them know of the bright future and opportunities available in agriculture.

For more information on how to engage youth in crops, visit our UNL CropWatch site at http://cropwatch.unl.edu/cropwatch-youth.

Crops, Programming, Youth

Youth Crop Scouting Competition

Brandy VanDeWalle

One of the statewide programs I coordinate is the Youth Crop Scouting Competition which engages youth in the crop sciences. It provides youth with real-world scenarios in crop production as they diagnose plant diseases, crop disorders, identify insects and weeds and other challenges producers currently face.IMG_6054.jpg

Registration is now open for the 2017 Youth Crop Scouting Competition to be held this August in eastern Nebraska. The contest is open to FFA and 4-H club members and will help those interested in crops test their skills and those new to crops better understand crop production.

To prepare for the contest youth are encouraged to learn about crop growth and development and basic crop scouting principles. If a group doesn’t know a lot about crops, they’re encouraged to ask a local agronomist to assist by providing a short lesson on crop production at regular meetings or outside of the meeting.

The crop scouting contest will be held at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center (ENREC, formerly ARDC) near Mead on Aug. 1. The event will include both indoor and outdoor events. Teams of three to five junior high or high school students (those completing 7-12th grades) from across Nebraska are invited to participate.

FFA Chapters or 4-H Clubs may enter a team composed of three or four participants. An adult team leader must accompany each team of students. Team leaders could be FFA advisors, crop consultants, extension staff, coop employees, etc.IMG_6093.jpg

Top-scoring teams win prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second, $100 for third place. The top two teams will be eligible for regional competition in August at Indiana.

Teams will be expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; etc. Other topics may include but are not limited to pesticide safety, nutrient disorders, and herbicide injury.

More information about the crop scouting competition and instructions on how to register a team are available online in the Youth section of CropWatch under “Crop Scouting Competition” and in the contest flyer. The program is limited to 10 teams so be sure to register soon! Teams must be registered by July 20.

This program is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer, the Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association, and Nebraska Extension.

 

Crops, Uncategorized, Youth

Innovative Youth Corn Challenge

Brandy VanDeWalle

iycc-17-promoAttention 4-H and FFA members! Do you enjoy being outside? Learning new things about crops? Considering a career involving crops, insects, diseases, soils, water or more? Do you want to help figure out how to feed our world’s growing population in a sustainable way?

Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Corn Board are offering the sixth Innovative Youth Corn Challenge contest. This contest, open to 4-H members (age 10 & older as of Jan. 1st) or FFA members (in-school members), guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

As a team (2 or more participants), youth will be challenged to implement a production practice different than normal to determine if they increased their yield. Economics and sustainability of the practice will also be considered. Yields, cropping history, and production information will be collected in the Corn Yield Challenge management summary.

Each year youth are surveyed and an overwhelming majority indicate an improvement in knowledge in the areas of: economic thresholds to treat pests, crop scouting procedures, financial record keeping, determining if practices on a field are profitable and how to evaluate new products/practices on a field. One youth stated, “I learned about how much time and hard work is needed to care for corn.” Several other youth enjoyed meeting new people (as a result of the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge). Another participant said, “I realize what I do today matters for tomorrow.”iycc-cover

Cash prizes and plaques will be given to the first, second, and third place teams. First place will receive $1,000, second place will receive $500, and third place will receive $250. Sustainability, crop scouting and “extra mile” awards will also be given, each worth $200. A webpage and FaceBook page are available with resources to help participants complete their project that can be found at cropwatch.unl.edu webpage under “related topics” titled “youth and youth activities”.

To participate in 2017, youth must complete an online entry form by March 15th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Hard copy forms can also be downloaded. For more information, contact me at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Programming, Uncategorized, Youth

Youth Crop Scouting Competition

Brandy VanDeWalle

Connecting Youth with Crops…

Looking for a fun club project? Want to unite your club members? Running out of ideas for club meetings? If you answered, “yes” to any of these questions, help is on the way! Nebraska Extension is pleased to present the 3rd annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth. Youth interested in crops have the opportunity to learn about crop growth & development and basic crobrandy vandewalle slide on crop scout clinicp scouting principles.

Don’t know a lot about crops? Ask a local agronomist to assist by providing a short lesson on crop production. You can have the agronomist meet with youth a little during each meeting or outside of the meeting. This is one way to engage those youth interested in crops.

This contest will be held at the ARDC near Mead, Nebraska on August 2, 2016. The event will include both indoor and outdoor events. Teams of junior high and high school students (those completing 7-12th grades) from across Nebraska are invited to participate.

Clubs or other organizations may enter a team composed of three or four participants. An adult team leader must accompany each team of students. Team leaders could be FFA advisors, crop consultants, extension staff, coop employees, etc.

Top-scoring teams win prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second, $100 for third place.

Teams will be expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; etc. Other topics many include but are not limited to, pesticide safety, nutrient disorders, and herbicide injury.

More information about the crop scouting competition and instructions on how to register a team are available online at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth.  Top two teams will be eligible for regional competition in late August at Iowa.

Teams must be registered by July 18. Registration is $50/team; the fee will be refunded when the team attends the competition. Payment by check is due along with the registration form by July 18. This program is sponsored by DuPont Pioneer, the Nebraska Soybean Board, Nebraska Independent Crop Consultant Association and Nebraska Extension.

Crops, Uncategorized, Youth

Innovative Youth Corn Challenge Results

Brandy VanDeWalle

One of the statewide projects I coordinate engages youth in crop production so I decided to share the results of this program. Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Corn Board teamed up to offer the fourth Innovative Youth Corn Challenge contest. This contest, open to 4-H members or FFA members, guided participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.IMG_4693 - Version 2.JPG

The 2015 winning team was Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club from Cuming County. The team with the highest percent yield increase over their local county average is the winner. In earning the $1,000 first-place award, Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club decided to test the effect of Procidic with two different application timings to see the effect against Goss’s Wilt and if there were additional plant health benefits. The three treatments were: control, Procidic applied in furrow at planting at 2 oz/ac and Procidic applied in furrow at planting followed by another 2 oz applied post prior to tasseling. Also, important to note is that this team had randomized and replicated plots which is important in figuring out the statistical significance. Their check yielded the highest at 226.7 bushels/acre with the challenge plots yielding 225.4 & 223.7 bushels/acre.

Second-place team overall was the Palmyra FFA Chapter, earning $500 for their efforts. Team members tested the impact of corn sweetener being applied to the corn plant between the V-6 and V-12 stage of development. They sprayed a foliar application of corn sweetener on the growing corn plant with the challenge plot yielding 214.2 bu/acre and check plot yielding 205.3 bu/acre.

Third place went to the Fillmore Central FFA Chapter. They tested nitrogen application rates and tried to push for a higher yield in order to reach the highest potential of their corn variety. They learned that 29.8 pounds of more nitrogen resulted in 14 more bushels per acre with 207.3 pounds of N on their challenge plot yielding 278.2 bu/acre and the check plot with 177 pounds of N yielding 264.2 bu/acre.

Other teams who completed their plots were:

Norfolk FFA did a two pass system, the first pass putting on 65 pounds of nitrogen and the second pass putting on 75 pounds of N and a nitrogen stabilizer to minimize nitrogen loss due to leaching in sandy soils. The main innovation testing was comparing early season fungicide application to no fungicide application. Their challenge plot yielded 191.5 bushel/acre and check at 183.3 bu/acre.

Osceola FFA tested nitrogen application with the check plot of 210 lbs of N at planting and the challenge plot of 210 lbs/acre in addition to 45 pounds of N applied at pre-tassel. Their check plot was 243.5 bushels/acre and challenge was 244.7 bu/acre.

The Stuart FFA Chapter’s goal was to improve the yield of corn by adding the AEGIS ESR plant growth stimulator. The product was applied to corn at V-6. They also measured the amount of water in the cornfield using watermark sensors. They determined that the growth stimulator did increase yield as anticipated, as the challenge plot with AEGIS yielded 5 bushels higher at 230 bu/acre compared to 225 for the check plot.

As a team, youth worked with an adult mentor throughout the process. Mentors can be extension faculty, ag teachers, or other qualified agronomy professionals. Other awards handed out during the banquet held on UNL’s East Campus included:

  • The Extra Mile Award, worth $200, went to the Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club.
  • The Innovation Award, worth $200, was presented to the Palmyra FFA Chapter.
  • The Sustainability Award went to both Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club and Fillmore Central FFA Chapter, which will split the $200 award.

The Sustainability award which uses Field to Market’s Field print Calculator was added this year, led by Randy Pryor, Extension Educator in Saline County. Field to Market, the alliance for sustainable agriculture has grown to 87 members. This group contains multiple fortune 500 companies involved in the nation’s food chain, national farm groups, conservation groups and Nebraska Extension is a new affiliate member. The diverse group is all about defining, measuring and advancing sustainability in the food sector from the farm field to the retail level. The current version of the Fieldprint Calculator is free to use, and these youth were the first 4-H and FFA students in Nebraska to ever use the Fieldprint Calculator for sustainability measures.

The metrics used were:

  • Land use efficiency
  • Soil conservation
  • Soil carbon
  • Irrigation Water Use Efficiency
  • Water Quality Index
  • Energy Use Efficiency
  • And Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

To participate in 2016, youth must complete and return an entry form by March 15th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Forms can be downloaded .