‘You’re in the dirt’: UK soil judging team gains valuable experience, celebrates national success
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 19, 2026) — As the University of Kentucky soil judging team waited to hear the results of the 2026 National Collegiate Soils Contest, participant Jose Villanos wasn’t expecting good news.
“We didn’t think we did well at all, and especially I didn’t think I was going to do well,” said Villanos, a rising senior studying agricultural and medical biotechnology at the UK UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE), who also competed individually.
Twenty-eight collegiate teams and 112 individuals competed in the contest, which was hosted March 22-27 near Raleigh, North Carolina.
The results came in: UK placed seventh as a team. Villanos placed fifth.
“It was a great day,” Villanos said.
'The best experience’
Led by Chris Shepard, Ph.D., associate professor of pedology in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, UK’s soil judging team consists of students who first take the Soil Judging course. In that course, students learn soil resource evaluation that prepares them for the Southeast Regional Collegiate Soils Contest. If the team qualifies for the national level, students who will continue competing take an advanced soil judging course.
“Soil judging is teaching students how to describe soils,” Shepard said. “The goal is to provide them with enough information and knowledge that they’re able to go and independently do this during the competition — and, obviously, hopefully after the competition as well — and that they can do it at the same general level as somebody who’s an expert.”
Students analyze the soil’s physical properties, such as its layers, called horizons; composition, including textures of sand, silt and clay; and colors. Students also make soil-use interpretations, such as thinking about construction or streets in the area, and determine how the soil relates to the broader environmental context. Shepard said he never participated in soil judging as a student and has been grateful to learn from his graduate students as well as other universities’ coaches since he started coaching UK’s team in 2018.
Grace Bodine is currently the assistant coach and a doctoral student in Integrated Plant and Soil Sciences in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. After becoming “obsessed” with soil, Bodine studied soil science as an undergraduate at Texas A&M, but the university didn’t have an active soil judging team at the time. While getting her master’s degree at the University of Maryland, Bodine worked with one of the soil judging coaches. Knowing she could continue that during her doctorate was “one of the things that made me excited about coming here to UK.”
Bodine said it’s an unmatched learning opportunity for undergraduate students.
“It's the best experience you can get to learn about soils,” she said. “You’re in the dirt, you’re in the pit.”
'You all are very good at this'
The Southeast region, which Bodine described as “very competitive,” includes universities from Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The 2025 regional competition was also hosted by North Carolina State, near Raleigh.
UK placed sixth at regionals, claiming the last qualifying spot for nationals.
“We all freaked out,” Bodine said. “That helped boost the confidence of the students from that point on.”
Other than those who graduated, the team continued to prepare for the national competition. The following students competed:
- Michaela Cobb, agricultural ecosystem sciences
- Grant Feese, agricultural education and advocacy
- Aydin Khosrowshahi, natural resources and environmental science
- Allie Reagan, agricultural education and advocacy
- Avery Ritchey, agricultural and medical biotechnology
- Ella Shields, horticultural science
- Jose Villanos, agricultural and medical biotechnology
The national competition lasts two days, but teams arrive early to spend about four days studying pits and soil descriptions provided by the host.
“Sometimes these are things that are really important for the competition, but other times they’re just cool features of the soil in the particular area,” Shepard said. “It’s a nice way to teach students.”
On the first competition day, four students from each team judge three pits individually, which determines the individual ranking and contributes to the team scores. On the second day, the entire team judges two pits as a group — with only an hour per pit.
“They do all their interpretations, any sort of calculations that are required, any of the taxonomy — they do all that within an hour,” Shepard said. “And then they move on and do another one.”
Shepard said he is continually impressed by the students because the competition is very intense. He said he always tells his students, “You all are very good at this.”
Villanos appreciates the intensity — he found soil judging because he was looking for agriculture-related competitions.
During the competition, Villanos was waiting for more results. He was in the running for a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship that awards up to $7,500 per year to students planning to pursue research careers in mathematics, engineering or natural science.
As Villanos and his teammates were in a pit, judging the soil, the 2026 Goldwater awardees were announced. Once he finished competing, Villanos learned he was one of them.
Soon after, he learned about his and his team’s success at the National Collegiate Soils Contest. Though he isn’t able to travel to China for the international competition this summer, Villanos is still excited to have qualified.
It was a day, he said, that will be “stuck in my head forever.”
Because soil judging offers such valuable experiential learning, Shepard said, enrollment in the courses has been growing. And it’s not just the undergraduate students who benefit, Bodine said — she and Shepard continue to learn, too.
“Every time a new soil pit is open,” she said, “you have something you can learn from the soil.”
Learn more about the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at UK Martin-Gatton CAFE.
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