MSU Soil Judging Team Returns from Strong Showing at National Contest
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EmailThe MSU Soil Judging Team had a strong showing at the largest soil judging contest in history.
The Michigan State University Soil Judging Team returned to campus this week after raining for and competing in the 2026 National Collegiate Soils Contest, organized and hosted in the Raleigh area by North Carolina State University. The MSU Soil Judging Team placed 12th out of 29 qualifying teams this year, a strong showing in a highly competitive event that attracted hundreds of individual participants from across the country. This was the largest soil judging contest in history, and MSU sent its largest participating team in decades, with 14 undergraduate students coached by Dr. Barret Wessel and graduate student Mason Rutgers.
Though the MSU team practiced here at home, the first 4 days of the contest were given to visiting teams to view and describe soil profiles (that is, the different soil layers and their properties) in 17 practice sites that were prepared for teaching. The MSU team had to watch out for fire ants as they dug and described some of the reddest and most clay-rich soils of their lives, representing the Piedmont region (mountainous soils with shallow rock) and the Coastal Plain on the southern East Coast. The contest was held over two days following the practice days, with four unseen soil pits for individual contestants to describe and be scored on and two group contest pits that teams work together to describe and receive scores on. The hard work and dedication paid off—everyone showed considerable improvement while learning about new soils and networking with soil and agricultural students and professionals from across the country.
