ELKTON – The Days Creek FFA program attended its first competition of the 2024-25 school year, participating in in the district soils competition Oct. 1 at a farm near Elkton.
Students were evaluating soil based on a number of properties like color, texture and particle size, FFA advisor Jonathan Lopez said. Then they determined what the soil was best used for. Lopez said students balled up soil in their hand, get it wet and then determine the amount of sand, silt and clay.
“Soils is a very tricky and subjective competition,” Lopez said. “It takes an expert in soil and all the ag teaching in the district to come to a unanimous decision on one soil pit.”
Days Creek brought nearly all of its freshman class, four seventh graders and two sophomores. Nine schools from the district were in attendance with a total of 200 students.
“Every student we brought was new to the competition,” Lopez said. “But I was happy to have so many kids there.”
Lopez said results have not come back, but that “we did our best,” he said.
Days Creek will be hosting the district food science competition on Nov. 8. The chapter is in need of volunteers to help run the event, which will take place at multiple buildings on campus.
