PICTURED ARE the SC/W FFA members who participated in the Land and Range Contest.

The Sanborn Central/Woonsocket FFA participated in the Central Region Land and Range Contest in Wessington Springs recently.
The event was hosted by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and SDSU Extension Service.  This served as the state level event for schools in central South Dakota, with the first place teams advancing to nationals.
The SC/W FFA land judging team placed third out of 16 teams. The individual results were: fourth (gold) Madi Moody; eighth (gold) Wesley Linke; 28th (silver) Katie Schmit; 32nd (silver) Karly Krueger; 36th (bronze) Carter Linke; 48th (bronze) Austin Schmit.
The land event had 161 individuals participating. The SC/W FFA range evaluation team placed third out of eight teams. The individuals placing were: first (gold) Aaron Linke; fifth (gold) Nathan Linke. The range event had 61 individuals participating.
For placing first in the Range Evaluation Event, Aaron will receive a $100 scholarship from the South Dakota FFA Foundation. The scholarship is made possible by the support of LeRoy and Cathie Draine of Black Hawk.
The SD FFA Land Judging contest is designed to emphasize the importance of soils and their limitations. Students evaluate soil texture, depth, past erosion, slope and stoniness, estimate permeability and surface runoff, list the limiting properties and determine the land capability class. They interpret their measurements to make intelligent land management practices, for both agricultural and urban uses.
The Range Evaluation Competition provides students insight into the basic tools used in land stewardship, which is the application of ecological principles and historically significant disturbance, such as grazing.  Contest objectives are to teach participants some of the principles of ecology, including soil/plant relationships, plant/animal relationships, and plant succession, as applied to management of the land resource.