A rural soil judging team of Megan Drake, Taylor Morse, and Cody Businger placed third in the Hancock County Soil Judging Contest. While another Liberty-Benton rural soil judging team consisting of Jordan Pahl, John Balicki, and Taylor Benjamin placed fourth. Megan Drake placed ninth individual in Hancock County Rural Soil Judging.

Liberty-Benton students judging rural soils in the county competition were Steve Parmelee, Corey Stolzer, Lauren Burner, and Jenny Gross.

An urban soil judging team of Cory Burnett, Amber Overmyer, and Zoe DeMarco placed fifth. While another Liberty-Benton urban soil judging team consisting of Brianna Lee, Amanda Cogley, and Tyler Greer placed sixth. Cory Burnett placed ninth individual in Hancock County Urban Soil Judging.

Liberty-Benton students judging urban soils in the county competition were Ashley Currie, Trent Taylor, Jared Wittenmyer, and Jin Srihakhot.

The Liberty-Benton FFA placed fourth overall for the rotating county soil judging trophy. These competitions were held near Kenton on Sept. 24 in conjunction with the Hardin Northern Soils Invitational.

Soil judging involves two types of land evaluation -- rural and urban.

When competing with a rural judging team, students are asked to do such things as determine the slope of the land, erosion of the surface soil, texture of the surface soil, depth of the soil, and natural drainage of the soil. In addition, they must determine the land class, land use, and recommended conservation practices in order to keep the land in good shape. This type of soil judging is designed to evaluate the land for uses in agriculture.

In the urban judging contest, students are asked to do such things as determine the slope of the land, texture of the soil, the depth to seasonal high water table, depth to bedrock, then give proper management practices to ensure the soil is used correctly. This type of soil judging is designed to evaluate the land for urban uses such as buildings, roads, landscaping, and septic systems.