Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The Banner County senior team finished seventh in the area range judging competition held last week in Cheyenne County south of Potter.
Banner had six students in the competition. There were 127 students from 22 schools that competed.
For Banner County in the senior division, Savannah Jordan placed ninth overall, Jacque Stauffer finished 32nd, Tallion McGowan took 33rd place and Cole Blanke finished 42nd.
In the junior division, Sierra Flores finished 20th overall and Bailee Underhill finished 27th.
Entering its 61st year, on average over 1,000 students take part in six area range judging contests across the state.
Range management is an important way of life in Nebraska. While crops are easy to pick out with their perfect rows of corn and wheat, range land is not as easy to define and covers a little over 50 percent of the state. During range judging students have the opportunity to identify up to 24 different plants and determine several characteristics of each plant such as origin (native or introduced), and life span (annual, biennial, perennial). Over the course of eight judging stations, four of which are plant stations, students also judged three range sites and a range map.