Our Agriculture Business class visited the Bayer Crop Science Monmouth Learning Center yesterday. Students had a variety of experiences: learned about the history of the corn plant, viewed corn plants from around the world, calculated potential yields and visited their Fantasy Farming Challenge plot. This past spring the Ag Business class chose to participate in the Fantasy Farming Challenge. Bayer Crop Science sponsors this challenge among area high school FFA Chapters.
This is an excellent opportunity to expose students to some real-life agronomy principles and crop production decision making. Students have to decide their corn seed hybrid, when the crop will be planted, the row spacing and plant population in addition to fertilizer and crop protection inputs.
Prizes are awarded to the school with the:
- Highest Yield
- Most Profit
The prize last year was $1000 for each winner. The 2018 winning schools were Wethersfield (Most Profitable Plot) and Mercer County (Highest Yielding Plot). Past winners have included ROWVA, United, Rockridge, VIT, Monmouth Roseville, Farmington, and Geneseo.
WHAT IS REQUIRED OF PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS?
- In February, a representative of Bayer Crop Science came to our ag class and gave a presentation on basic crop production management and described the contest to our students. Then, we had until March 1st to select our management options and submit our proposed plot decisions.
- Each participating school must commit to make a minimum of one field trip to visit the Learning Center in Monmouth to see your plot.
