We hope to use this page to recognize any past and current Alpha Gamma Rho men on an SDSU team
For the offical Crops Judging team website click here
Crops Judging
South Dakota State University has a nationally recognized crops judging program. The team competes at the regional contest in the fall and at two national contests in November of each year. One contest is held in Kansas City and is primarily sponsored by the GIPSA-USDA-FGIS and the American Royal, and the other one is held in Chicago and is primarily sponsored by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (formerly the Chicago Board of Trade). SDSU has a long history as it has participated in the national collegiate crops contests for 50+ years, and has consistently placed in the top 5 in the past decade.
The contests each consist of three parts; grain grading, seed and plant identification, and seed analysis.
- Grain Grading – this is the ability to recognize crop products for their market worth and involves knowing defects that reduce quality. Grading provides a basis for marketing and provides quality control over grain products, this determining their ultimate use. Students have to pick 8 samples and using both given and picked information and the FGIS Standards for Grading Grain, determine the grade and factors.
- Seed and Plant Identification – this training enables one to identify crops and weeds from around the country that are either grown for production, or are a weed that negatively impacts agriculture somewhere in the country. Students must identify 200 seed and plant samples in the contests.
- Seed Analysis – crops grown from pure seed maintain genetic purity and good quality. It is a means of determining the value of seed for planting and for market, thus providing a guide for all using seed. Students have to analyze 10 samples for contaminants and correctly identify and classify each contaminant as either other crop seed, prohibited noxious, restricted noxious or common weed seed.
There are tours in Kansas City, Chicago and along the way that students take part in. Typically the teams tour the Kansas City FGIS Board of Appeals and Technical Center, Kansas City Board of Trade, Chicago Board of Trade plus many other ag-related industries. The SDSU Crops Judging Team is coached by Brent Turnipseed, Professor/Manager, SDSU Seed Testing Lab in the Plant Science Department at SDSU.
This list will obviously be missing many at first if you could help us by letting us know if you or any other brother was on a team that would be great.
Send any info to agralphaphialumni@gmail.com