Video: The University of Minnesota's Soil Judging Team Moves on to the National Competition

The University of Minnesota Soil Judging Team has recently been featured in a video made by UMN Strategic Communications student Harriet Bennett! The piece highlights how the team has been preparing for the national contest in April 2025 after qualifying at the regional contest this fall. Check out the video above for insights on the road to Nationals - including an in-depth look at one of our meetings and insights from our team members. Thank you, Harriet, for highlighting the team! Please feel free to share the video using this link.

Give to the Max Day 2024: Support Transformative Soil Experiences

This fall, the UMN Soil Judging Team placed in the top 3 at the Region V Soil

Judging Contest–and qualified for the National Contest! This spring, the team will

travel to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to compete at the national level and expand

knowledge and love of soils. We need your help getting there!

Travel to soil judging contests is funded exclusively by donations. National and

regional contests are some of the most impactful experiences that soil judgers have

the opportunity to participate in. Judgers spend a week immersed in the soil of the

contest area, completing 4-5 practice pits per day. They learn about the geologic

history of the area, observe how land use impacts soils, and ask many good

questions (a UMN trademark). Competition day provides the opportunity to

interact with students from universities across the country and cultivate strong

team spirit and cohesion.

This year, the soil judging team has almost doubled in size–a testament to the fierce

passion, infectious enthusiasm, and commitment of the students. We’re asking for

your donations this Give to the Max Day to support transformative field experiences

for these soil judgers. You can make your contribution at this link:

https://makingagift.umn.edu/give/fund.html?id=8850.

Soil judging, and your gift, helps to nourish the next generation of soil,

agricultural, and environmental science professionals. Thank you so much

for your support on the road to Nationals!

With all our gratitude,

Amital Shaver, Co-Captain

2024 Region V Soil Judging: On to Nationals From Great Bend, Kansas!

We are excited to be back here on the soil judging blog – and to share the team’s experiences from this year’s regional contest at the end of September, hosted by Kansas State University in Great Bend, Kansas.

This year’s team of 8 students earned second place in team judging and third place overall to qualify for this spring’s National Contest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin! We had a judger place in the top ten. Go Gophers! We will be joined by fellow Region V teams Kansas State University (1st place) and Iowa State University (2nd place) in April in Wisconsin. 

This year’s regionals team. L to R: Ava McCune (co-captain), Brynn Miller, Annika Selstad, Tara Bluni, Anna Windels, Amital Shaver (co-captain), Finn Porter, Nic Jelinski (coach), Jenna Christenson. 

Located at a bend in the Arkansas River (which we learned from locals is pronounced ar-KAN-sas, like the state we were in), Great Bend sits between a large sand sheet and the Cheyenne Bottoms, a 64-square-mile wetland complex and an important stopover site for migratory birds. From dunes to floodplains, the team was able to dig into some diverse soils. In this year’s contest, the judgers were asked to assess pits for Hydric Soil Indicators. Our eyes were peeled for redoximorphic features!

A hydric soil in an interdune. Classification was tricky and debated with these! Check out those concentrations in the fourth horizon.

The dunes, covered in prickly vegetation, were often the land of Ustipsamments, and the team worked on honing clay percentages in sandy soils.

An Ustipsamment formed on a dune with 19% slope. With lamellae…!

Lamellae!

Eolian sand over alluvium parent materials.

We headed out to the Cheyenne Bottoms and got our hands on some much darker and clayier soils. The Gophers were excited to see some natric horizons, as well as beautiful gypsum rosettes. The presence of salts led to some alphabet soup horizons – Btsskyzg, for example.

Checking out structure in a floodplain soil.

Preparing samples for texturing.

Very different structure than in dunal soils.

The team loved group judging of complex pits, engaging in discussion and sharing interpretations. We loved getting into the nitty gritty during daily team meetings, learning more and more about area geology, and becoming one with our texture triangles.

One of the team’s first group pits. Coming to a consensus.

Color and texture team getting ‘er done.

We extend a huge thank-you for the generosity of donors, without which the incredible and formative experiences of soil judging would not be possible. The opportunity to travel, see soils nationwide, and connect with fellow students passionate about soil scientists helps cultivate the next generation of bridge-builders and soil, agricultural, and environmental science professionals. Thank you so much.

Practicing assessing slope with a clinometer.

Captains with our award wearing, of course, the classic Minnesota flannels.

2021 Region V Soil Judging: First days in Crookston, MN

We are thrilled to have a team of 12 students competing in this year's Region V Soil Judging competition hosted by the the University of Minnesota in Crookston, MN.  

The 2021 Region V team before leaving campus on Sunday morning.

This will be the first competition experience for most of the team, and they couldn't be more excited!  Huge thanks to our donors and supporters for making this learning experience possible.

Our spirits are high and our hands are dirty after 2 days of practice across the striking landscapes and soils formed by Glacial Lake Agassiz in the Red River Valley in NW Minnesota.  As we have traversed one of the flattest landscapes in the world, students have built new skills identifying subtle landforms and slopes on the lake plain.

Our first day of practice was focused on soils that have developed on the former beach ridges and beach complexes deposited by the the shifting margins of the lake.  For our second day of practice, we saw beautiful examples of soils formed in glaciolacustrine parent material on the flat lake plain.  

We are excited for one more day of practice before the competition!

 

A Calciudoll formed on a beach ridge complex

Practice using a clinometer to measure slope

A Calciudoll formed in the lake plain, notable for varves visible at the bottom of the profile.

These thin layers are varves - thin annual layers of sediment

2020 Region V Soil Judging: University of Minnesota Wins Remote Region V Soil Judging Contest

Region V was the only region in the country to hold a Soil Judging contest during Fall semester 2020. The University of Missouri and Missouri USDA-NRCS hosted the contest and coordinated the logistics of a remote contest (necessary due to Covid-19 protocols) by acquiring and delivering intact soil cores from practice and contest sites from across the State of Missouri. A huge thanks to Dr. Kerry Clark (University of Missouri) and Mark Abney (Missouri State Soil Scientist) for planning and organizing the contest in an extremely challenging year!

The students described each of 5 practice and 5 contest cores over the course of one week, from September 30th to October 10th, 2020. These cores showed the students a wide range of soils formed in different parent materials and under different drainage conditions:

Practice cores delivered by the University of Missouri

The students wore masks and followed-covid-19 protocols while working to complete their descriptions of the practice and contest sites. Although the team was not able to travel this year, we worked hard to learn about Missouri soils and landscapes during the contest week. The team took first place overall, first place in the group contest, and congratulations to Geneva Nunes (1), Abbie Clapp (2), Hannah Anderson (3), and Anjel Chavez (4), who placed in the top 10 individuals!

Congratulations to our students for persevering in a difficult year. A huge thank you to our donors and supporters who make everything possible! We could not do this without you!

Hannah Anderson, Zack Pederson, Anjel Chavez, and Abbie Clapp completing a group core

Chris Macke completing an individual core

2020 UMN Soil Judging Team

2019 Region V Soil Judging: Contest Day and Results: Minnesota Takes 3rd Place Overall - Qualifies for 2020 Nationals!

Contest day opened with a beautiful sunrise and a crisp early October morning. The team completed two pits as individuals in the morning before moving to a second site in the afternoon to complete three pits as a team. Contest days are typically long, and this one is no exception. The students were in the field from 8:00AM to 7:30PM, but with cooperative weather and some amazing soils, nobody was complaining!

Contest ready just after sunrise!

Gabe Benitez (Captain) determining soil matrix color while completing his first individual pit

Abbie Clapp (3rd from right) and Matt Lundberg (right) evaluating soil morphology in their first pit as individuals

Minnesota works as a team to complete their first group card in the early afternoon

On Friday morning, the contest results were announced at an awards breakfast by host (from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln) Dr. Becky Young and NRCS Soil Scientist Becca Hodges. After much anticipation, there was a lot to celebrate. The University of Minnesota placed 7 individuals in the top 20, 4 individuals in the top 10, and took 3rd place overall in the contest, qualifying for the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest which will be hosted by Ohio State University in April of 2020! Congratulations also to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1st place) and the University of Missouri (2nd place), who will be joining us at the National contest in the spring.

The 2019 University of Minnesota Region V Soil Judging Team. Front row (L-R): Abbie Clapp, Gabe Benitez (Captain - holding 3rd Place Overall Award), Rowan Doyle (6th Place Individual), Morgan Fabian (8th Place Individual). Back Row (L-R): Nic Jelinski (Coach), Harley Braun (2nd Place Individual), Geneva Nunes, Hannah Anderson (4th Place Individual), Matt Lundberg, Will Effertz, Devon Brodie (Assistant Coach).

A huge thank you to all of the contest hosts, donors, and supporters who made this amazing experience possible!

2019 Region V Soil Judging: Practice Days in and Around Grand Island, NE

The team has been having a fantastic week, completing 11 practice pits around Grand Island, NE. A huge thank you to our contest hosts and our donors, who have made this amazing educational experience possible. We have seen soils on 3 major landscape components in this portion of Nebraska - Loess Uplands, Dunes, and Floodplains. One practice day has been dedicated to each of these landscape components, as the students have been learning about soil formation, land use, and hydrology!

After all of these amazing soils and landscapes, the Gophers are pumped up and fired up for contest day Thursday morning! We are at one with our soil texture triangles.

A beautiful landscape of dunes (left) and stream terraces (center and right) along the Platte River

An Ustipsamment on a natural levee on a stream terrace near the Platte River

A Haplustept formed in eolian sand on the backslope of  a dune

A floodplain sunset landscape

An Ustipsamment formed in alluvium on a floodplain

An upland depression in the Rainwater Basins near Clay Center, NE

A smectitic Argiustoll formed in loess in an plan depression in the Rainwater Basins

Wednesday Flannel Day for UMN Soil Judging!