Four undergraduate and two graduate teams from the Ontario Agricultural College competed at the National Weed Science Contest earlier this month at the Ohio State University Research Farm. More than 200 students from 25 schools participated.

Competing in the northeast conference, OAC undergraduate teams placed first (Alex Vanhie, Jacob Nederend, Stephen Boersma and Joshua Burrows) and second (Dylan Magnus, Justin McNally, Johanna Burrows and Lauren Benoit), and a graduate team placed third (Chris Budd, Jordan Eyamie, Allison Taziar and Mike Schryver). The same undergraduate teams placed second and third, respectively, in the national awards.

Top overall individual undergraduate performance awards were given to Stephen Boersma, Lauren Benoit and Johanna Burrows who placed first, second and third, respectively. Boersma also captured second place in the national awards for outstanding individual undergraduate performance.

The contest tested students’ applied agronomic skills in the disciplines of crop protection and agronomy, including weed identification, herbicide identification, sprayer calibration and problem solving.

Profs. Clarence Swanton and Darren Robinson, Plant Agriculture, coached the Guelph teams.