by G. Moritz, Editor
The CHS crew in Garretson has some State Champion Agronomists! This past week, Jan. 17-18 was the South Dakota Ag Expo, hosted by the South Dakota Agri-Business Association (SDABA) and held at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
During the Expo two contests are held, the Agronomy Olympics and Applicator Olympics.
“It’s an annual contest that they do, to put your knowledge of the industry to the test,” said Brad Farrell of CHS here in Garretson. “It’s put together by all the vendors who attend the Expo. The test is sixty multiple-choice questions and can involve really anything in the industry. I’ve participated in the Agronomy Olympics every year for
several years now, and I’ve always placed in the top five, but this year, this time we managed to snag first place. It’s all due to Michael. He’s the brains of the operation; I’m just the handsome one.”
“Not true,” said his partner in the contest Michael Burns. “This was my very first time competing and it was a lot of fun. It was tough, but I like to rise to meet a challenge. Brad knows his stuff, he’s placed very well in this contest before and he’s got a real head for trivia. I think it’s fair to say that we make a very good team.”
“Mike was there when I needed him, that’s for sure,” said Farrell. “It’s certainly the case that we were stronger together. We have skills and a knowledge base that complemented each other well and it was Michael that put us over the top. There were times when I wasn’t sure about an answer, but he had it right away. Definitely the hardest questions were the soil chemistry questions, ph-balance is hard to get just right, and those were questions that we had to stop, scratch our heads and put our thinking caps on for a minute.”
“In the end, we only got four questions wrong out of sixty and now we can legitimately say that our agronomy team is the best in the state!” Farrell said.
Aside from the glory and a commemorative plaque, these two Garretson agronomists will also split a cash prize of $1,000 cash.
“$500 bucks each is an awesome prize,” said Farrell. The two agreed that upgrades to their man caves or garage toolboxes were probably how they’d spend their prize money.
The Annual Ag Expo is sponsored by the SD Agri- Business Association and the SD Grain & Feed Association. The Expo brings together industry and retailers in agri-business and grain and feed businesses from all over South Dakota and beyond to one location and offers excellent strategic networking opportunities as well as a chance to see new technology, meet industry representatives, and get current on important issues affecting them.
Over 150 exhibitors displayed and demonstrated products and welcomed over 1,300 visitors from the agri-business and grain and feed industry.
Next year the Expo will be held on January 16-17, 2019 so we wish the best of luck to Brad and Mike, if they choose to compete again.
