Fifth graders know their agriculture

    For a third straight year, young students at Chase County Schools have made their artistic abilities known in Nebraska’s Ag Week poster contest.
    This year marks the third straight contest in which a CCS student won the Governor’s Choice selection for his or her age group.
    In addition, another fifth grader took first place in the grade 5-6 division this year.
    The 2022 Governor’s Choice honor among the grade 5-6 entries went to Hayden Worth with his colorful depiction of a cow peaking over a fence with Chimney Rock in the background.
    First place in the 5-6 division was won by Vanessa Alarcon-Ortega, whose poster features a John Deere combine ready to pick a field of corn.
    Both posters incorporated the 2022 theme, “Nebraska Agriculture Makes the Good Life Great.”
    The annual poster contest selects winners in three age groups: grades 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6.
    It’s just one of the many Nebraska Department of Agriculture activities during National Ag Week, celebrated March 20-26.
    More than 1,400 students in grades 1-6 from across the state entered the contest, now in its 19th year.
    Hayden, who’s also won poster contests on radon awareness, said he tried to use the theme in his entry, along with other items that remind him of Nebraska.
    He wrote the theme on a sign on his poster to look like the Welcome to Nebraska signs at the state’s borders. A windmill was important to include, as was Chimney Rock, he said.
    His drawing also shows a colorful sunset, he said, “because we have some really nice sunsets.”
    Young Vanessa said her poster idea was easy because she lives in the country close to a cornfield.
    She said she sees combines every year at harvest time and  remembers “every single detail of them.”
    It was important to her, too, to have a “pretty blue sky.”
    NDA Director Steve Wellman said this year’s entries represented all areas of agriculture and livestock from production and conservation to transportation and food on the table.
    “It highlights just how important the ag industry is to Nebraska,” he said.
    In the previous two years, CCS has also had Governor’s Choice winners for their grade level in the contest.
    Last year, Peyton Banks was the Governor’s pick in grades 1-2 and Ashlynn Pursley was a Governor’s Choice winner in grades 1-2 in 2020.