Agronomy
Purpose
Oklahoma FFA Agronomy CDE promotes interest and understanding of agronomy through the demonstration of skills and proficiencies.
Objectives
By participating in this contest, students will:
- Demonstrate basic knowledge of agronomic principles and practices
- Learn to identify agronomically important crops and weeds and measure grain quality using standard grain grading practices
- Practice applying science and mathematics to solve real-world agricultural problems
- Explore career opportunities, skills, and proficiencies in the agronomic industry
- Experience challenges and find success.
Event Rules
These rules and regulations are official for the 2024 State FFA Interscholastic Career Development Event in Agronomy. They may be supplemented as necessary after consultation with Agricultural Education officials. Changes will be communicated via this webpage.
- Coordinators of district and invitational contests throughout the state are encouraged to follow these rules for their contests, but they are not required to do so. The sponsoring institutions are fully responsible for contest set-up, operation and supervision; interpretation of rules; scoring, tabulation, and awards; and announcing the location and time of district and invitational contests. The OSU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences will prepare contest materials for purchase by district contest sponsors only if requested by February 15, 2024. An order form is included in these rules as Appendix A. A digital order form can also be found at the following website: http://pss.okstate.edu/crops-judging-kits/ok-ffa-cde-materials.
- Students attending any Oklahoma high school approved for competition by the Agriculture Division, Oklahoma State Department of Vocational/Technical Education may enter the contest. Any student entering the contest must be a regularly enrolled agricultural education student and eligible for competition under Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association rules.
- All participants will be assigned a contestant number. This number must be written on all answer sheets.
- Participants will be divided into three groups. Each participant must stay with their assigned group until they are told otherwise by the contest supervisor.
- The contest will be scored as follows:
- Identification - 60 samples (5 pts each) = 300 points
- Grain grading - 6 samples (50 pts each) = 300 points
- Agronomic Knowledge Exam - 50 questions (6 pts each) = 300 points
- Total points = 900 points
- Detailed instructions for identification and grain grading are found in Appendixes B and C, respectively.
- The coaches will have the privilege of checking all materials used in the contest. A coach shall not object to anything being included in the contest because it was not secured for study.
- The contestants will not communicate with anyone except contest officials while the contest is in progress. This includes verbal communication as well as telephone calls and text messages.
- Legible writing and proper spelling are required and will be considered in scoring. Points will be deducted for misspelling.
- In view of fairness to all schools, no team will be permitted to practice in the OSU crops teaching laboratory, except during supervised training workshops conducted prior to the contest. A list of resources is provided in Appendix E.
Format
The event consists of three sections:
- Identification (30 Minutes)
- Grain Grading (30 Minutes)
- Agronomic Knowledge Exam (30 Minutes)
Event Format
Team Makeup
- A team will consist of three or four members. The top three scores will be counted for the team total. If an entire team is not entered, one or two individuals from a school may compete for individual honors.
- If more than four students from a given school wish to participate, the additional students may compete and be scored as individuals but these scores will not count for the team scores even if their totals are higher than the assigned team members’.
Equipment
- A contestant may take the following into the contest:
- magnifying lens, forceps, clipboard, pencil or pen, calculator, and watch
- No outside grain grading sheets will be allowed in contest rooms as well as calculators
that are capable of storing equations unless the home screen has been cleared and
checked by proctors. Also, no watches that sync with cell phones or cell phones will
be allowed in the testing areas. If superintendents or proctors discover students using any prohibited material in
testing areas, they are permitted to take up answer materials and disqualify the student’s
scores.
All other needed materials, including answer sheets and grain grading worksheets, will be provided by the contest superintendent.
Event Schedule
Each contestant shall complete the event in the time allotted.
Identification of Plant Materials (300 points)
- The contestant will identify a total of 60 plants, seeds, damages, insects, diseases, disorders, and machinery in 30 minutes. It is possible that the same species may occur more than one time in the contest. Each sample will be given a value of 5 points, for a total of 300 points. Students will be provided an official sheet of numbered ID specimens to help fill in the corresponding number with the sample on their scan sheet.
- Plants will generally be shown in the reproductive stage (flower bud through seed maturity). Samples may be presented as preserved mounts, dried bundles or specimens, fresh cuttings, live specimens, photographs, or replicas. A magnifying lens is suggested to aid in identification.
- A numbered list of the names of all samples on the official identification list arranged in alphabetical order (Appendix B) will be included with the official answer form used by the contestant. The contestant will identify each sample, select the appropriate number from the answer list, and record that number in a scan sheet provided. Both pages of the form must be turned in when the contestant is finished with the identification section.
Grain Grading (300 points)
- Six samples of grain will be graded according to the Federal Grain Inspection Standards. This section is worth 300 points, with each sample worth 50 points; 30 points for recording the correct grade designation plus 20 points for recording the factors determining the grade (see the description of grain grading in Appendix C for additional scoring information).
- The samples will be from the following classes: hard red winter wheat, hard white winter wheat, Durum wheat, mixed wheat; sorghum, white sorghum, tannin sorghum, mixed sorghum, yellow corn, white corn, mixed corn, yellow soybeans, and mixed soybeans.
- Samples will consist of cards with seeds glued to various areas representing a commercial grading sample which has already been separated. Each card will include a base sample of the grain to be graded, the necessary card factors, and up to six visual factors. The base sample must be examined to determine the predominating market class of the crop. Given factors are those which cannot be determined by the student, and for which values must be provided. These include test weight per bushel, odors, percent of material sieved from the sample, certain sample grade factors, and all factors determining the special grades. The visual factors are small quantities of materials which may affect the commercial quality of the grain. These are shown on the card with the percentage of the sample they comprise. Students must determine the effect of each factor on the grade of the sample. Other market classes that might cause the grain to be graded as class "mixed" may also be shown as visual factors. The contestant must consider all of the evidence accompanying each sample, and record the market grade designation, together with the factors which determine the designation on the scoring sheet as shown in the explanation and examples given in Appendix C.
- Each contestant will be provided with a summary sheet containing the grade requirement table and for special grades, market classes, and grading factors as shown on the following pages. (These summary sheets are abbreviated and may sometimes differ from the actual Federal Grain Inspection Standards. For the Oklahoma event, the guidelines for grade and class determination on the provided summary sheets will apply.) Contestants will also be provided with a worksheet to use when determining the grade. Both handouts are available in Appendix C.
Agronomic Knowledge Exam (300 points)
- The general agronomic examination will be comprised of 50 questions; multiple choice questions will be utilized for this year’s event. Calculations will still be worked out but answer choices will be multiple choice. Answer choices will be filled out on the official scan sheet.
- Questions will be of general agronomic nature based on crops produced in Oklahoma, including but not limited to winter wheat, winter canola, alfalfa, cotton, peanut, soybean, sorghum. Topics will include but are not limited to crop biology and adaptation, planting, nutrient and water requirements, common pests, harvesting and storage.
- Sample questions for study purposes are available as Appendix D.
Scoring
Plant Identification - 300 points
Grain Grading - 300 points
Knowledge Exam - 300 points
Total Points
Individual - 900 points
Team - 2700 points
Tiebreakers
Ties will be broken based upon scores in identification. If the tie remains unbroken, grain grading then general agronomic knowledge exam will be used to break the tie.
Awards
Trophies and certificates for winners are presented by the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The Department of Plant and Soil Sciences offers a scholarship to the high individual in the state contest if he or she attends Oklahoma State University and majors in Plant and Soil Sciences.