(KLZA)--A total of 332 students and adults participated in the 2024 Southeast Area Land Judging competition last week held in Johnson County, Nebraska. The farm of Arlen & Andy Grotrian of Johnson hosted the event.

Participants from a record eighteen schools were brought together to test their skills in soil and land evaluation. The competition, designed to promote sustainable agriculture and expose youth to potential career opportunities, continues to grow in size and importance.

The land judging competition challenges students to gain a better understanding of soil structure and land evaluation. Students learn to recognize physical features of soil, determine land capability for crop production, and evaluate management practices needed for proper stewardship.

The event was a collaborative effort between the USDA NRCS, Nemaha NRD, and Nebraska- Association of Resources Districts.

State qualifying teams include:

1. Lewiston - Brody Wright, Cooper Swendener, Axel Seeman, Ashlynn Anderson

   2. Pawnee City - Dylan Layne, Tyler Tegtmeier, Madolyn Gottula, Taelyn Blecha

   3. Johnson County Central - Kayden Badertscher, Molly Weber, Riley Wellensiek, Stefani Peters

   4. Johnson-Brock - Ellanor Gerdes, Andrew Hodges, Taryn Ottemann, Austin Meyer

   5. Falls City - Bowdy Jones, Dayton Snethen, Malori Kuker, Taiylah Moore

In addition to the top qualifying teams, the top ten individuals will also advance to the state competition.

Individual state qualifiers are Bowdy Jones (1), of Falls City; Dylan Layne (2), of Pawnee City; Axel Seeman (3), of Lewiston; Ashlynn Anderson (4), Lewiston; Kayden Badertscher (5), of Johnson County Central. Samuel Thomas (6), of Meridian; Tyler Tegtmeier (7), from Pawnee City; Joely Weers, (8, from Diller-Odell; Madolyn Gottula (9), from Pawnee City and Taelyn Blecha (10) of Pawnee City.

With a record eighteen schools participating, we were able to qualify an additional school for the State competition on October 16, 2024.

During the contest, participants had 20 minutes to judge each of the four distinct locations