Ouachita FFA places 2nd in nation
The Ouachita High School FFA’S Land Judging team recently won second place in the entire country at the 69th National Land & Range Judging Contest that took place May 2-5 at the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribal Headquarters near Oklahoma City. The contest returned this month after a two-year hiatus caused by COVID.
“Land judging” is the competitive practice of using observable soil and landscape characteristics like texture, slope, and permeability to determine the best use for a specific plot of land—whether it would be more suitable for growing crops, for use as a home site, or some other purpose.
“It’s like surveying,” Ouachita’s agriculture teacher, Heath Lee, said. “Telling if it’s pasture land or timber land, telling if you could build a subdivision on it.”
“It’s something that’s a skill, and something that takes practice,” he said, adding that the Ouachita team earned second place out of the 101 teams from 34 states who competed at the event.
Lee said the second-place win is the best an Arkansas team has ever done at the national level, and he should know—not only has he led the FFA program at Ouachita for over 25 years, he has been attending FFA events since he was little with his father and brothers, who are also FFA teachers.
“My dad was an Ag teacher for 30 years, and my brothers, both my brothers,” Lee said. “I’ve been going out there since I was a little kid on my teams my dad had, and myself, when I was in there.”
Lee is proud of his students and happy for their success, especially his son Rhett, who is one of the members of the Ouachita team. But the team’s second-place win means just as much, if not more, to Lee personally than it does to the participants, themselves.
“The top 10 teams were always the teams to get to go onstage, and that’s always been a lifelong goal of mine, to get on the stage,” Lee said. Another Ouachita team placed 12th in the nation a few years ago, but this is the first time students from Ouachita have gotten to grace the stage.
The Ouachita team, consisting of students Rhett Lee, Mallory Morrison, Christian Kratz, and Braxton Mcghee, accepted their award onstage May 5 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Mcghee also won individual recognition by placing third overall out of approximately 400 competitors.
The Ouachita team competed in a statewide competition that took place in Fayetteville on April 8 and placed first overall among 24 teams to secure their spot in the national contest. Rhett Lee won first place overall in the state, and Kratz won the third-highest individual award at the state level.
Photos from the event, as well as video of the May 5 award ceremony, can be found on the National Land and Range Judging Contest Facebook page @nationallandrangejc.