Aggies win national quiz bowl title

April 7, 2017

By NCTA News

Manhattan, Kansas – Agricultural know-how for five students at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture won a national title Friday.

The NCTA Aggies advanced through three rounds of “Knowledge Bowl” competition on Thursday to reach their fourth and the championship round Friday evening at the North American Colleges of Teachers in Agriculture (NACTA) conference in Manhattan, Kansas.

NCTA is a two-year college located at Curtis, Nebraska, and competed with seven other two-year colleges in the double elimination tourney. They prevailed over Hutchinson Community College of Kansas on Thursday and again Friday. The contest includes questions on topics of livestock, agronomy, business management, animal health, horticulture and agricultural issues.

Team members are all Nebraskans:  Andrea Burkhardt, Winnetoon, horticulture and agribusiness; Wade Vallery, Plattsmouth, livestock management and agribusiness; Braden Wilke, Columbus, diversified agriculture; John Paul Cain, McCook, agronomy; and Katharine Schudel, North Loup, animal science.

Various academic majors comprise the team members who are taught in classroom and laboratory settings by campus instructors including Dr. Brad Ramsdale, agronomy professor, and Jeremy Sievers, agribusiness management professor, NACTA sponsors.

NCTA took 21 students to the NACTA competition which started Thursday and concludes Saturday.

Students are competing in agribusiness management, ag sales, ag computers, horticulture, dairy judging, equine judging, livestock judging, and crops judging where the agronomy students are defending a national title.