2025 Nationals: Contest Days + Results!

We had wrapped up our fourth day of practice, with some classic outwash plain soils

(great for potato farming) and some complicated pits in moraine landscapes, one in a

depression with a buried soil!

The team on flannel day! Back row, L to R: Cecily Greblo, Nate Lund (assistant coach),

Nic Jelinski (coach), Jake Olson, Finn Porter, Bailey Tangen (assistant coach).

Front row, L to R: Katrina Nelson (assistant coach), Dustin Brooks, Annika Selstad,

Jenna Christenson, Amital Shaver (captain), Anna Windels.

On Thursday, we were off to the races with the individual contest! It was a soggy day of

competition in the forest, but the team stayed strong and our bright spirits brought us

through the day. It's the Minnesota way!

Muddy conditions in the contest pits, but soil judgers are determined.

Soil judger Anna (right) getting in her time at the control face.

After getting warm and dry, the team rested up to prepare for team contest day on

Friday. Our school spirit was strong and the team pits were a highlight for everyone,

as usual! The weather held up a bit better, which was a relief. 

Pit crew deciding horizon depths.

All hands on deck to finish classification and interpretations on the back of the card.

The team was in high spirits after finishing the last pit of the contest. Go Gophs!

Grading wrapped up and we headed to the awards ceremony. We are excited to

announce that the University of Minnesota scored sixth overall and eighth in

group judging! This is the second best overall finish that the Gophers have earned

in a National Contest! The team is ecstatic. 

We are proud of all of the work and dedication that went into this contest–on the

part of the contest organizers, sponsors, our coaches, and our soil judgers. It has truly

been a fantastic contest, with a commitment to learning and team cohesion. We are so

grateful to all of the donors that made this experience possible. Gophers love soil, and

we are thankful for the opportunity to immerse ourselves in soil science with an

incredible group of people. Go Gophs!!!

2025 Nationals: Practice Days 2 + 3

 Day 2

Over the past couple of days, we have been digging into soils inside glacial margins and outside of them, in both the local drift and crystalline-drift provinces, as well as on the edge of larger outwash plains. We saw our first Spodosols of this contest!

Assessing an Endoaqoud.

The Endoaquod in question, formed on the edge of an outwash plain. Shoutout to the pit monitors who pumped out this pit all day!

Orstein – cemented spodic materials! The dark color is cemented humus, and the other cementing material is illuvial sesquioxides.

We headed to the edge of an older till regime and saw more soils, this time Albaqualfs, with glossic horizons. Some colorful soils! And some soggy pits.

An Albaqualf…this one was underlain by residuum parent materials! Check out those redox concentrations.

Assistant Coach Nate augering for some sixth horizon soil materials for the judgers, down below the current water table.

Day 3

We headed inside the glacial margin, and in an exciting turn, got our hands on some silt loams in an ice-walled lake plain. Feels like home!

A Hapludalf formed in glaciolacustrine sediments.

We get excited about silt loam!

We also headed to the Central Wisconsin Environmental Station to see some soils formed on kames in a pine plantation. These had some steep slopes and lots of coarse fragments!

In the evening, we had a whole lot of fun at a polka dance and brat fry organized by UWSP students. We did the hokey pokey, pet lots of dogs, and enjoyed a very Wisconsin evening.

Tomorrow, we wrap up our practice pits and prepare for our contest days at the end of the week–and rep the Minnesota flannels. Go Gophs!

2025 Nationals in Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Practice Day 1

The Gophers are off to a great start at the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest hosted by University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, in the land of sand and spodosols! We are excited to continue to dig into the glacial geology of the area and all the fascinating soils the contest hosts have selected.

For Day 1 of practice, we had a few sites on the edge of the western extent of the Green Bay glacial lobe. We saw soils formed on kames, outwash plains, and till plains.

A Dystrudept formed on a kame in a once-logged area. Umbric epipdeon!

Incredible stratification on an Endoaquept formed on an outwash plain.

The control face of the same soil. Check out that wavy boundary…cryoturbation from a time when this soil was experiencing permafrost conditions?

The Gophers on an outwash plain…some eolian sand parent materials on top here.

The proud Minnesota flag!

We ended the day with dinner and an area orientation talk by Bryant Scharenbroch of UWSP. We took lots of notes and asked many questions, as UMN is known for. A big thank you goes out to all of the donors who made our travel to this contest possible. We are grateful to the contest hosts for all their work and commitment. We are excited to dig deep! Go Gophs!

2025 NACTA Contest in Canyon, Texas: Off to a Great Start

This week, five soil judgers are in Canyon, Texas for the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) soil judging contest! We described four practice pits and spent the afternoon exploring Palo Duro State Park. 

Monday morning was spent in loess hills 15 minutes west of Palo Duro Canyon. The team observed the pedogenesis of calcium carbonate accumulation down a portion of a catena (and observed the rest on Tuesday). 

This profile was on the hillslope’s shoulder and besides having amazing colors (5YR 3/4 and 5YR 4/6s), we saw secondary calcium carbonate accumulation starting at 40cm.

We then went downslope to the backslope and found secondary carbonates starting at 22cm - closer to the surface due to a higher slope, which causes more runoff and less infiltration. These pits, and two others described on Tuesday, illustrate the effect of slope and water infiltration on depth to carbonates. In our part of Minnesota, we do not see carbonate accumulations like these, so we had a blast learning about these!

After lunch, we visited Palo Duro Canyon. This is the second largest canyon in the USA and has some fascinating geology. Our highlights were the “red beds” at the base of the canyon and gypsum bands. These Gophers look forward to learning more about the High Plains throughout the week. Stay tuned!

The 2025 NACTA Team in Palo Duro Canyon. Go Gophs!

The Road to Nationals: Spring Semester 2025 Kickoff

 It is cold out and the soil is frozen, but we’ve got a room full of smiling soil judgers for our weekly meeting. We’re back from winter break, and we are gearing up for Nationals in Stevens Point, WI in late April! At last week’s meeting, we set our agendas for the rest of our meetings leading up to the contest–with a lineup of texture practice, geologic history, and exploring the soil series of Stevens Point. We also welcomed some new soil judgers to the crew!

This week, we’re getting our social media and fundraising committees together to get the word out about soil judging and support our travels. And then playing Soil Jeopardy!

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