The members of the Huntingdon High School Agriculture classes who participated in the Land Judging Competition in 4-H and FFA have had a successful season. The training began in August during class time where the students learned the rules of competition, basic soil physical conditions, and how those conditions affect the use of the soil for production agriculture or for homesties.

Features such as texture, slope, depth, erosion, percolation rates and the possibility of flooding hazards are recognized and the students evaluate and make recommendations on usage for each individual soil.

After all the rules and conditions have been discussed in the classroom, students must then learn to apply them in the field. This is accomplished by getting together after school and on weekends to prepare for competition. The 2009-2010 Huntingdon High School Land Judging Team worked well together and have had several practice sessions at various farms in the county.

The competitive events began with a "practice contest" conducted by another FFA Chapter in West Tennessee. From that session the teams were selected to represent the local schools. The teams then moved to the regional FFA/4-H contest in which the teams had to place either 1st or 2nd to move on to the state contest. The state contest moves from region to region so that the teams participating will not have a geographic advantage each year. This year West Tennessee was the host of the contest which was held in Jackson. Huntingdon High School Had one FFA team and one 4-H team place high enough to advance to the state contest.

Our teams have represented Huntingdon High School well this year. The 4-H team of Will Espey, Adam Price, Taylor Hilliard, and Austin Rivera (all Sophomores) finished 5th in the state contest during their first year of competition. The FFA team of Brett Cross, Robert Eskew, Jacob Allen, and Ryan Guinn placed first in the state with Ryan Guinn recording the high score for the contest.

The Tennessee State Champion FFA team will represent Tennessee in the National Land and Range Judging Contest next May in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Congratulations to Bobby Ward, FFA Advisor, and all the land judging team members!