Looking for a fun club project? Want to unite your club members? Running out of ideas for club meetings? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, help is on the way.

Nebraska Extension is pleased to present the 8th annual Crop Scouting Competition for Nebraska youth. Young people interested in crops can learn about crop growth and development and basic crop scouting principles. 

Don’t know a lot about crops? Ask a local agronomist to assist by providing a short lesson on crop production. You can have the agronomist meet with youth a little during each meeting or outside of the meeting. This is one way to engage those who are interested in crops. 

This contest will be Aug. 3 at the Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center near Mead. The event will include both indoor and outdoor events. Teams of junior high and high school students (those completing fifth through 12th grades) from across Nebraska are invited to participate. This event is limited to the first 10 teams who sign up. 

Clubs or other organizations may enter a team composed of three to five participants. An adult team leader must accompany each team of students. Team leaders could be FFA advisors, crop consultants, Extension staff or co-op employees.

Top-scoring teams win prizes: $500 for first, $250 for second and $100 for third place. The top two teams will be eligible for a regional competition held virtually this year.

Teams will be expected to know the basics of scouting corn and soybean fields. This includes crop staging; looking for patterns of crop injury; disease, insect and weed seedling identification; and other crop basics. Other topics may include pesticide safety, nutrient disorders and herbicide injury. 

Learn more about registration and contest details at cropwatch.unl.edu.

VanDeWalle is a Nebraska Extension educator.

Source: UNL CropWatch, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.