COVE – Members from several local FFA

Chapters participated in the Eastern Oregon District’s ag soils and

crops and weeds career development events and field day held Oct. 10 in

Cove.

Cove High School ag teacher Toby Koehn

coordinated the activities, the Cove Ascension Camp allowed the use of

its facilities and the Cove FFA Booster Club supplied lunch for

everyone.

Teams competing from this area in the district included La

Grande, Union, North Powder, Cove, Imbler, Elgin, Joseph, Enterprise,

Baker City and Pine Eagle.

Career development events provide FFA members with the

opportunity to use the knowledge and skills acquired in agricultural

science and technology classes at their local high schools, putting

them to the test in a hands-on environment.

During the soils event, students made scientific and

subjective measurements in pre-dug soil pits. Then they used that data

to make the best management decisions for any determined soil problems,

the most effective agricultural use for the soil, erosion control,

septic tank limitations and what crops could be grown at that site.

The top five teams were first-place winners Joseph, then Union

at second-place, Enterprise at third, Cove took fourth and Imbler

placed fifth.

Overall top individuals included first- and second-place

winners Megan Yost and Justin Waters, both from Joseph. Jadon Herron,

Union, and Colby Patton and Chris Harshman from Joseph tied scores for

third, fourth and fifth places.

Several examination pits were dug on the Sonny Johnson farm

east of Cove prior to the activity. Crop and soil sciences professor

Gary Kiemnec from Oregon State University’s agriculture program at

Eastern Oregon University examined the pits first to provided the

official interpretations and results.

For the crops and weeds career development event, students

were asked to identify 85 different weeds, crops and seeds during the

competition. This year, the crops contest was hosted by Darrin Walenta,

OSU Extension Agronomist for Union County. Walenta put together a great

set of live and preserved samples that really challenged the students’

ability to identify and classify local noxious weeds.

“It was great, to have actual samples and not just a power

point slide show,” said one Union FFA member. “It made it a lot more

practical than identifying slides.”

As an FFA district, chapter members had worried about bringing

weed sample to various locations from the tri-county area because of

the possibility of spreading some of the weed seeds. Walenta’s

direction and expertise helped overcome that obstacle and made the more

“hands on” experience realistic.

The top five teams were first-place winners Pine Eagle, then

Union at second-place, Cove at third, Baker City took fourth and La

Grande placed fifth.