HOWARD — The East Knox FFA Agricultural Soils Career Development Event team placed 12th in the state event on Oct. 12 in Union County north of Plain City on the Dave Gruenbaum Farm.
The team members were Blake Elliott, Braylon Evans, Isabelle Bostic, and Weston Bostic.
Evans finished as the 39th highest individual in the state with Isabelle Bostic finishing 46th, Elliott placing 52nd, and Weston Bostic placing 91st out of 181 competitors from across Ohio.
East Knox earned a berth in the state agricultural contest after placing third out of 19 teams in the District 7 contest conducted earlier in Ross County near Londonderry.
Braylon Evans was the sixth placing individual in the district with Blake Elliott placing seventh, Isabelle Bostic finishing 9th, Weston Bostic placing 17th, and Rylan Winkler finishing 18th out of 89 individuals.
The state is divided into ten FFA districts, and the top five teams in each district advance to the state-level competition making a field of 50 teams.
The 50 teams at the state contest came from nearly 200 teams that entered district-level competition from across Ohio. District 7 is a six-county area consisting of Knox, Licking, Franklin, Fairfield, Pickaway, and Ross counties with 30 schools that have FFA.
Prior to the district contest East Knox FFA placed first in the county event held at Fowler Farm south of Amity and sponsored by the Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District.
In the agricultural land evaluation event members determine soil slope, landform, surface soil texture, subsoil texture, structure in the topsoil, depth of topsoil, drainage class, depth to restrictive features, compaction, infiltration and number of living organisms in the soil.
This information is used to make recommendations for soil degradation based on soil erosion, soil compaction, water quality, and overall soil health. Best management practices are selected for each of these soil degradation problems.
A soil fertility portion of the competition is also completed. Teams also take a written test over soils and find soil information from the web soil survey.
Although they narrowly missed the State top-ten this year, East Knox FFA has had a soil team place in the top 10 in the state 38 out of the past 42 years.