Grasses greener in Cape for national farm contest

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By Heather Kronmueller ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- Sarah Norton, of Memphis, Mo., pointed to a small plant on Butch Meyer's farm in Jackson Wednesday and asked a friend, "What's that one?"

When her friend replied "Persimmon," Norton jumped up and down, put her hands over her face and yelled, "Dang! I had it right and I changed it!"

Norton and her friend were completing the last round of the third annual Mid-America Grassland Evaluation Contest, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation, University of Missouri Extension Center and National Resources Conservation Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The contest is held at a different farm in Cape Girardeau County each year and is open to high school students who are part of teams that place among the top-three finishers in state-level 4-H and Future Farmers of America contests.

The Mid-America contest started in 1991 as a state contest called the Grassland Evaluation Contest. That year there were 10 teams, but it grew to more than 80 over the next nine years. In 2000, after states surrounding Missouri expressed an interest in creating a national contest, the Grassland Evaluation Contest was re-named to the Mid-American Grassland Evaluation Test and opened up to all 50 states.

Eastern attraction

The contest was located in Cape Girardeau County for a couple of reasons, said Mel Marshall, coordinator for the Mid-America contest. Agriculture professor Dr. William Ellis of Southeast Missouri State University has maintained good relations with the National Resources Conservation Service. The other factor is local grasses. They are more similar to varieties in states east of Missouri, which are targeted for participation in the contest, Marshall said.

"We mostly try to attract states to the east of here that have similar grasses and soils to Missouri's," Marshall said. "This year we've got 48 students from Missouri, Arkansas and West Virginia competing."

The closest team to Cape Girardeau was the Blazing Saddles 4-H team from Ste. Genevieve.

The whole competition takes less than two hours to complete, but that doesn't mean it's easy, Marshall said.

During the competition, students visit four stations for 25 minutes each and then answer questions based on their findings. The stations are plant identification, soil interpretation, grassland conditions and wildlife habitat.

At the plant identification station students have to name 20 types of plants and tell whether they are annual, biennial or perennial plants.

Chance Coulter, from Stockton, Mo., in the southwest corner of the state, said plant identification was the hardest station.

"I didn't know what some of them were," he said, chewing on a piece of wet grass. "But it was fun. This is the just kind of thing I like to do."

At the soil interpretation station a 50-foot section of soil and grass was roped off. Students sat around the perimeter examining aerial maps of the farm to try to figure out where the roped-off soil was taken from. They also had to determine its texture, slope and its drainage class.

At the wildlife habitat station students appraised the existing conditions of a piece of land to determine if it had enough cover to support quail by looking at the amount shrubs and other vegetation, percent of ground covered by shade and the plant composition.

Calf scenario

At the grassland condition station, which Marshall said was the hardest, students were given a scenario about a farmer who bought 60 calves weighing 450 pounds at the beginning of the fall, and then let them graze on a pasture through the end of the spring. At the end of spring the animals were sold at an average weight of 850 pounds with an average daily gain of 1.5 pounds per day.

After the students read about the land and harvest they answered questions about the existing conditions, calculated the amount of food the herd needed to consume per day during each season and answered questions about how to improve the pasture.

Kellen McNutt traveled from Roane County, W. Va., to participate in the competition.

"The grassland condition was the hardest because there were so many calculations," she said. "I liked the plant identification the best because the plants and grass in West Virginia are similar so I recognized most of them."

The Mid-America contest requires hours of practice so students will be able to recognize numerous kinds of plants, grasses and soils at a glance. Each team has a coach that helps the students identify items during practice.

"We just go out in a field and start looking at things," said Sarah Galeski, a member of the Blazing Saddles 4-H team from Ste. Genevieve, Mo.

Galeski's coach said the team practiced once a week for the past six weeks in fields when the weather was sunny and worked on calculations inside when it rained.

Jennifer McPhail, a sophomore on the team, said all of the practice was worth it.

"I think it went well," she said. "You learn to cheat a little by learning smells and textures when you're practicing. It's not too hard though, a lot of it is just common sense."

Marshall said the competition will be held at a different farm in Cape Girardeau County next year. This year's winning 4-H team was from Searcy, Ark., and the winning FFA team was from Roane County, W. Va.

Marshall said those two teams will not be able to attend the Mid-America competition again until 2004.

"We just don't want to discourage the other teams if one keeps coming back and winning over and over," Marshall said. "They can come back the next year."

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128