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Last Wednesday's event, featuring free food and open to the public, was held in a tent between the middle school parking lot and the ag plots.

In addition to showcasing the ag plots and thanking both businesses (seeds and other equipment) and alumni (who did the field work, planting, and irrigating), the day was meant to give agriculture students a chance to network with agri-business representatives in the community, said PAHS ag teacher and FFA advisor Natalie Todnem.

While the ag plots have been back in operation for three years, this is the first year that it is a true test plot, with different seeds in the various rows and irrigation, said Todnem. A true test plot, she explained, provided an even better hands-on learning experience for her ag students, since they could compare and contrast the different stages of development in the various rows of corn and soybeans.

Roger Hemmesch talked with Ken Utsch during the FFA Test Plot Day last Wednesday, Sept. 13, at the secondary school while five-year-old Trevor Hemmesch checked out the corn in the ag plots.

The crops will be harvested in the next couple months and sold, with the proceeds split between the FFA alumni chapter and the PAHS alumni chapter, said Todnem.

Next year, she said, she would like to make the test plots into a contest between the various seeds by yield.