“Everyone on the team contributes,” says Rylan Nelson about his Nebraska Youth Crop Scouting team. “Some are better at certain categories, like identifying weeds. And everyone shows up for practice with a good attitude.”

Nelson, a senior at Howells-Dodge High School, helped his Colfax County team earn a ticket to the Regional Youth Scouting Competition, held Sept. 18 in his home state of Nebraska.

Of the eight competing teams at the 10th annual Nebraska Youth Scouting Competition, two Colfax County teams landed first and second place, securing their opportunity to represent Nebraska at the regional competition, held this year at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center near Mead. Other states participating included Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.

Basic scouting skills

For the competition, teams are expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging, looking for patterns of crop injury because of disease and insects, and weed seedling identification. Other topics include pesticide safety, nutrient disorders and herbicide injury.

The Colfax teams are coached by Steve Nelson, an ag business owner and crop consultant based near Schuyler, Neb., and Rylan’s dad. “We start our practices in late May and try to hold a practice once a week,” Steve Nelson says. “Mostly, we just walk into nearby corn and soybean fields, take stand counts, check growth stages, look for insects, look for diseases and anything else that we can help the kids learn.

“I became involved in the youth scouting program when Aaron Nygren, our local Nebraska Extension educator, asked my son Logan to be on the team,” Nelson adds. “From there, Aaron asked me to join him to help with coaching the kids. Aaron deserves all the credit for getting the ball rolling and developing a routine and getting kids involved.”

When Nygren took a different role within Extension, he no longer could lead the team and asked Nelson to take over.

“I wouldn’t have done so if I didn’t have the help of two other coaches from the area — Justin Zoucha and Korbin Kudera,” Nelson says. “Both of these guys are original members of the youth scouting team and were members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln scouting team. These guys know their stuff.”

In the field

Cody Jedlicka is a freshman at Leigh High School and a member of the state championship team.

“Studying books for the competition helped me prepare. We meet on Sundays, get together to study, and then head out in the field,” Jedlicka says. “I was surprised how many different types of grasses and weeds there are — and all the memorizing.

“The competition includes some writing and sometimes when a judge shows you a crop or weed, you need to identify it right there and come up with an answer. When we’re in the field, we do crop staging, row spacing, diseases, bugs and weeds. It's a lot to learn.”

All the studying paid off for Jedlicka and his Nebraska teammates at the Regional Youth Crop Scouting competition. Out of 10 teams represented, Colfax County Team No. 2 won second place. That team included Daphne Jedlicka, Cody Jedlicka, Justin Eisenmann and Callen Jedlicka. Colfax County Team No. 1 — consisting of Josh Eisenmann, Rylan Nelson and Hayden Bailey — tied for fourth place.

Future agronomists

“By getting involved with this competition, youth get firsthand knowledge on how to be an agronomist,” Steve Nelson says. “Usually, they have to wait until they are old enough to get a job or internship to gain this opportunity. This skill that they learn will make them be at the top of the list when they are trying to find a job later in life.”

Some of the students get asked to be on the college scouting teams and participate in national contests taking them all over the U.S. The contest this spring was held in Northern California.

“This experience makes these kids sought after by all the businesses within the agricultural industry,” Nelson adds.

The Nebraska Youth Crop Scouting Competition is hosted by Nebraska Extension. Participants must be in grades 5-12. For more information on youth crop projects, visit cropwatch.unl.edu.