Campus hosts seeds of cotton's next generation
Joseph Vasquez
/ The Collegian
Valley high school students
judge cotton bolls for quality Saturday at Fresno State. Bolls and
other specimens, like lint, plants and seeds, were ranked in order
of superiority. |
By Donna Taketa
The Collegian
To the untrained eye, cotton
is cotton. It’s white, it’s fluffy, it’s the stuff jeans
are made of.
However, judging cotton is a skill, one Future Farmers of America students
exercised with solemn deliberation during Saturday’s 48th annual
California FFA state finals cotton judging contest at Fresno State.
“I’m always impressed with the level of preparation and the
students’ knowledge of cotton,” said Bruce Roberts, Fresno
State professor and chair of the event. The plant science department sponsored
the field day and provided the cotton samples to be judged.
About 200 FFA high school students from Fresno-area schools competed in
either the advanced or beginners’ contests.
Students were awarded points for how well they scored on a 50-question
exam and how well they performed in a practical application where students
judged the quality of cotton samples.
There were four sections to judge including cotton bolls, lint, plants
and seeds. In each section four specimens were given and students ranked
them in order of quality. They then orally presented their conclusion
to judges who were cotton industry professionals.
Students ranked the samples based on “unity of the sample, size
and hue of the cotton,” student James Johnson said of the boll section
he oversaw. “The whitest, brightest cotton is the best.”
The best cotton boll would be whiter than the other three, more uniform
and devoid of debris. Students were given 12 minutes for each category
and were not allowed to talk or touch the specimens.
“We do this to help students prepare for the industry and generate
an interest in cotton,” said Megan Jacobsen, the public relations
chair of the event. “The interest needs to develop early on, or
it never will. We want to hook them in now. That’s what FFA does,
it creates interest in agriculture.”
First place team honors for the advanced contest were awarded to Riverdale
High School. It defeated Corcoran High by just one point.
“I’m so excited and happy,” Julie Barnes of Visalia
said after winning the top individual honor in the advanced contest. “Agriculture
is always something I’ve been passionate about.”
Her third year at the contest, Barnes now has the distinction of being
the state champion for cotton judging.
“We pride ourselves on maintaining this contest,” Roberts
said. He said it is also a recruiting opportunity and a “chance
for high schoolers to visit our campus and work with the upperclassmen.”
Fresno State sponsors two other FFA field days: vine pruning and citrus
in mid-winter and a large-scale state finals in April.
The cotton judging contest mainly attracts FFA students in the Central
Valley due to the nature of the crop, Jacobsen said.
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