PSM Soil team kicks up the dust at the recent ASA Region 3 Soils Contest

Patty Bonito<bonitopa@msu.edu> - November 03, 2023

Along with Coach Wessel, the team includes Bernie Frantz and Chris Baish as assistant coaches, and the Soil Judgers who competed were Isabella Rabac, Ben Bridge, Grace Beem, and Andrew Wade.

Dr. Barret Wessel with a group of students in the MSU Soil Team in a field. — Dr Barret Wessel (far right) lead MSU Soil team to the Regional Soil Competition,and beat the OSU at their own game.

“We had a blast!” Coach Barret Wessel said of the recent journey to the ASA Region 3 Soils Contest at Purdue University in mid October.

Group judging - Soil temp members participate — MSU Soil team members participate in group judging, where they determine the morphological features found throughout the soil profile

Wessel’s team placed 8^th of 9 in “overall by school,” beating the Ohio State “which has entered a team every year for decades!,” Wessel said. As well, the team placed 6^th out of 9 in “Group judging,” in which the team describes soils together.

“Not bad for the first MSU team in something like 50 years!,” Wessel said. We didn’t qualify for the national competition next semester, but I will teach the class again this spring as CSS 491 Special Topics in Soil Morphology of West Michigan. And we plan to return in the fall 2024 semester for the next regional competition.”

Soil team member participaiting in texturing. — Soil team member participates in soil texturing to determine the relative proportion of clay, sand and silt that comprise the soil.

MSU CSS Agronomy Club Scores in Tri-Soc Poster Competition

Kate Voisinet, Trey Ellens and Emma Woller presented the MSU Agronomy Club's "Pre-Career Fair Mixer" poster.

MSU started the Tri-Societies SSSA meeting on the right foot—They scored second place in the SASES Tri Societies Undergraduate program in the national competition.

College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences