Gloves Off: MSU Soil Judging Team heads for national competition in North Carolina
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EmailThis week, Dr. Barret Wessel and the MSU Soil Judging Team will venture to NCSU to make history.
Undergraduate students Abbie Guza, Grace Beem and Arianna Reid all placed high in the recent regional competition, which qualified the MSU team for the national competition, happening this week at NC State University.
The team has been training as much as possible in the wild Michigan spring weather.
“It’s a challenge to work against teams who reside in southern climes and have been out training in the field for months,” Barret said. “While teams training in northern states face frozen earth, gale winds and 7 types of precipitation coming from all angles. It’s cold out and you really have to touch the soil to do pedology—and that means gloves off!”
The Soil Judging Team practiced recently in the MSU Plant Pathology Farm
Barret says he scrambles to assemble funding from a wide variety of sources to help students attend soil judging contests, where they learn how their skills analyzing soils can translate into a future for themselves and for Michigan agriculture.
"I use a combination of funding to help undergraduate students attend competitions,” Barret said. “Some start-up funding to cover the initial costs of travel and conferences, and then the students earn money with fundraisers —and as prizes when they win competitions."
Attendance at the 2026 National Collegiate Soils Contest hosted by NC State University signals success for all the effort: 16 students will attend this year. “Soil judging is one of the most efficient and effective ways to teach students about soils,” coach and graduate student Mason Rutgers said.
Good luck MSU Soil Judging Team at the National Collegiate Soils Contest 2026!!!
