On November 19, the UW Crops Team placed 8th out of 10 teams in the Chicago Collegiate Crops Judging Contest. The contest was held at the Loyola University downtown Chicago, IL campus and is sponsored by the CME Group, GROWMARK, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and the Society of Commercial Seed Technologists.
The Crops Team consists of undergraduates Katelyn Van Treeck, Rachel Perry, Clare Gietzel, and Jacqui Hilliard. The team was advised and coached by volunteers Dan Smith and Nate Drewitz.
The contest consisted of weed, disease, and crop identification, grain grading, and seed analysis. In the identification portion of the contestant they were given plant and seed samples and had to identify common crops, wheat varieties, common diseases of corn, soybean and small grains, and weeds. In the grain grading portion of the contest they were required to grade barley, corn, oats, rye, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat according to USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service standards. In the seed analysis portion they were required to identify seeds of common crops, weeds, restricted and noxious weeds.
The Crops Team is part of Badger Crops Club and travel to the contest was made possible through a generous grant from the Wisconsin Certified Crop Advisors.
Congratulations, Crop Team!
(story by Dan Smith)