Barbour County 4-H Soils Judging Are National Champions Once Again.

On April 25, four Barbour County 4-H members embarked on an 11-day trip to Oklahoma to compete in the 73rd Annual National Land and Range Contest. Barbour County 4-H has history with this contest. The first Barbour team sent was in 1963! Since then, 25 teams have been sent to represent the county and state at the national level. Out of those 25 teams, a total of 20 national titles and 8 national reserve titles have been earned.

County 4-Hers compete in two contests while out west, Land Judging and Homesite Evaluation. The land judging contest is more agriculture focus, evaluating the site for soil depth, soil texture, percent slope, permeability and making recommendations on the best use of the land. Homesite takes into consideration all those soil properties and infers a degree of limitation for homesites with basements, lawns, and septic systems.

The 2024 team was comprised of Hunter Townsend, Griffin Hart, Hailey Findley, and Hannah Nutter. The team won both the Land and Homesite contests, making numbers 19 and 20 for Barbour 4-H. In the Homesite contest Hunter earned the title of High Individual, Hailey was 8th, Griffin finished 9th and Hannah earned 13th place. The fact that all four kids were among the top in the nation is amazing.

In Land, Griffin earned the High Individual title, Hunter was the Reserve Champion, and Hailey and Hannah finished in the top 50. The team is coached by WVU Extension Agent, Jody Carpenter. Carpenter said that the team has logged well over 450 hours of practice preparing for the contest.

“”We are blessed in Barbour County to have a successful program, and that program is well supported by the community. Not only through the donation of money to help fund the trip, but we have folks that will make us supper/snacks, wash the rags we use to texture soil, and let us use their land to practice on,” said Carpenter.

The next cycle of land judging kids are already practicing for the state contest this July, so if you know a youth that would be interested have them call the office at 304-457-3254 to sign them up!