NDSU Department of Plant Sciences graduate students took part in the North American Weed Science Contest at the BASF Midwest Research Farm near Seymour, Illinois, on July 25.
Master’s degree student Aaron Froemke placed first in the Graduate Student Problem Solving and Recommendation portion of the competition, where contestants evaluate a crop production problem in a “role-playing” situation of assisting a farmer with a simulated real-life crop production problem and providing recommendations to solve the problem.
Besides Froemke, three other members of the NDSU weed science graduate team participated in the contest, including Nathan Haugrud, Joseph Mettler and Kelly Satrom.
Close to 250 students from 29 universities participated in the contest, which is often called the “Weed Olympics.” The competition gives students opportunities to test their weed science knowledge and skills as they interact and learn from other students and researchers from universities and industry.
The contest is a joint activity planned by the Northeastern, North Central, Southern and Western Weed Science Societies and is hosted by Bayer, BASF, Valent and Corteva Agriscience companies.
Joe Ikely, assistant professor and Extension weed specialist, and team adviser Kirk Howatt, associate professor and crop and weed sciences undergraduate program coordinator, also attended.
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